Designer | Educator | Researcher
I’m a Colombian designer, educator, and researcher.
Social responsibility is a priority in my work as a designer. I seek to create projects that positively impact individuals and the communities they belong to. I see the result of design projects not as something fixed, but as flexible platforms that allow people to create, have critical reflections, and have conversations with others. I have experience teaching and conducting research, and I complement my work through the use of collages. I have had clients and worked with communities in Colombia, the Netherlands, the United States, and Kenya.
selected collages
I complement my design practice with collage. This selection includes commissioned pieces for book and journal covers, editorial content, presentations, and museum exhibits.
publications & conferences
publications
Book Chapter
Gonzales, L., Sierra-Niño, V., & Lewy, R. (2025). Resisting the Datafication of Injustice Through Collaborative Design and Translation in a Local Museum Exhibit. Designing for Social Justice: Community-Engaged Approaches in Technical and Professional Communication, 57.
Articles
Sierra-Niño, Valentina, “Co-creating Collages to Visualize Interpretations about Language Access in North Central Florida” in Technical Communication and Social Justice, 2(1), 44–63.
Sierra-Niño, Valentina, and Laura Gonzales. "Visual Translation, Design, and Language Justice: a Case Study from North Central Florida." Technical Communication 70, no. 1 (2023): 6-21.
Gonzalez Viveros, Juan Manuel, Valentina Sierra, and Camilo Rodríguez. “Nurturing Creative Confidence through Narrative Conversations.” The International Journal of Design Education 14, no. 4 (2020): 79–91. https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-128x/cgp/v14i04/79-91.
Conference proceedings
Sierra Nino, Valentina, and Laura Gonzales. “Expanding Agency and Participation Through Multilingual Storytelling, Rhetoric, and Design.” Proceedings of the 2022 UCDA Design Education Summit. (2022).
Sierra Niño, V. (2022). Design and meaning making through collages and language diversity in North Central Florida[Poster presentation abstract]. In Include 2020: Unheard Voices. 11th Inclusive Design Conference (p. 212). Royal College of Art, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. ISSN 2753-5878.
Rivera, N. K., Del Hierro, V., Nino, V. S., Green, M., Paulsen, R., Leger, S., & Gonzales, L. (2022, July). Intercultural Professional Communication in Community. In ProComm (pp. 281-283).
conference presentations
Divididos: Diseño, polarización y conversaciones (Divided: Design, Polarization, and Conversations). Valentina Sierra Niño. 10mo Encuentro EAUD 2025. Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.
Design and Meaning Making Through Collages and Language Diversity in North Central Florida. Valentina Sierra Nino. Inclusive Design Conference 2022, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom.
Intercultural Professional Communication in Community. Nora Rivera, Shewonda Leger, Mckinley Green, Valentina Sierra Nino, Victor Del Hierro, Laura Gonzales and Raquelle Paulsen. International Professional Communication Conference 2022. Limerick, Ireland.
Expanding Agency and Participation Through Multilingual Storytelling, Rhetoric, and Design. Valentina Sierra Nino and Laura Gonzales. UCDA Design Education Summit 2022. Jhonson City, Tennessee
Visual Translation and Language Access Research in North Central Florida. Laura Gonzales and Valentina Sierra Nino.10th International Conference on Technical Communication: Time and Space. 2022 Université de Paris, France.
Hablemos de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica (Let’s Talk about Research, Innovation and Technological Innovation). Guest speaker. Scientific Colombian Program 2021. (Online event).
I am currently a Design professor at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. I also take on select consultancy and freelance projects.
If you have an idea, challenge, or collaboration in mind, let’s talk!