Alda Rosa

Alda Rosa (1936 –2025) was a Portuguese graphic designer, considered to be a pioneer of graphic design by women in that country, known for her modernist and minimalist style. She was one of the founders of the Associação Nacional de Designers (National Association of Designers of Portugal – APD).

Early life Rosa was born in Braga in northern Portugal in 1936 into a wealthy family. She spent her early years in a large house in Viana do Castelo. From her childhood she suffered from asthma and she led a fairly sheltered early life. As a member of Catholic University Youth, she was persuaded by her mother at the age of 22 to go to Vienna to participate in the World Congress of Catholic Students and Intellectuals, presided over by Maria de Lourdes Pintassilgo who would go on to become the first and, to date, only female prime minister of Portugal. She graduated in painting from the Lisbon School of Fine Arts in 1959. She worked in Lisbon until 1967 when, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, she moved to London to study at the Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, staying there until 1970 and becoming one of the first Portuguese to graduate in graphic design.

Career In 1963, Rosa worked as a costume designer for the Portuguese film Os Verdes Anos (The Green Years), directed by Paulo Rocha. She also briefly worked with an architectural firm as an interior designer before, in 1965, she began working at the Industrial Art and Architecture Centre (NAAI) of INII (National Institute of Industrial Research). There, among other responsibilities, she was part of the organizing committee for the Portuguese Design Exhibitions of 1971 and 1973, designing the catalogue covers and graphic materials in collaboration with others.