Carra Santos
Designer, Applied Researcher & Learning Advisor
When the next step isn't clear or a project isn't unfolding as expected, I help teams explore what's happening upstream - particularly where different sectors, disciplines and perspectives meet.
I investigate what's shaping a project, bringing together design research, systems thinking, behavioural insight, stakeholder perspectives and creative practice to understand what needs attention and design a response.Sometimes that's research, sometimes it's a workshop, learning programme, framework, coaching or a change of direction - the intervention depends on the diagnosis.
Selected projects
Different challenges, different responses, but usually the same need: look for the missing piece.
Working across public, private, academic and social innovation contexts on very different projects, I’m often looking for the same thing: what hasn't yet been seen, understood or connected.My experience includes the World Health Organization, Design Council, University of Bath, local authorities, mission-driven architecture and design practices, social enterprises and community-led initiatives.Here are several examples:
A climate solution was being developed without local lived realities fully in view.
A municipal council team had developed a proposed design intervention for its Net Zero strategy, but the project hadn't yet tested some of the assumptions behind it. Introducing design research and needs analysis brought local perspectives and unmet needs into view, revealing a significant misalignment and allowing the team to reshape its approach before committing further time and resources.Student questions were signalling a change in the industry, but the implications for the curriculum weren't yet clear.
An interior design school was receiving growing enquiries from prospective students about sustainability. Rather than simply adding sustainability content, I researched what circular and regenerative approaches might mean for the future of luxury interiors - the school's graduate market - and mapped emerging industry directions against its existing strengths. This helped leadership explore new course formats, teaching approaches and future business development.The council knew what it wanted young people to engage with, but not why it would matter to them.
The climate action communication was through an environmental and Net Zero lens, bypassing adjacent frames that may have elicited more enthusiasm from young people. I introduced a replicable participatory research approach and co-facilitated a workshop in which 15-18-year-olds shared future-shaping themes that inspired them, uncovering research strands to connect back to climate and contribute directly to climate strategy and communication.A social enterprise proposition meant different things to the different people it needed to convince.
Supporting the founders to develop a discovery and stakeholder research plan, I helped them surface tensions within the model and the different audiences they needed to get on board with the proposition, introducing an enterprise design approach to strengthen its viability and develop adaptive communication.
The design practice was looking at sustainability as something it needed to add on, rather than something already inherent in its capabilities.
An international design practice recognised that client expectations around sustainability were changing but was unsure what those changes meant for its business. Working with leadership and the wider team, I explored how sustainability connected with capabilities they already possessed across design, materials, communication, place and social value. The work shifted the conversation from an operational sustainability agenda towards new creative and commercial opportunities.Communication was focused on what smoking does to health, but not on what smoking means to people.
A global institution wanted to explore whether its existing communication could be expanded in response to reduced engagement. I introduced an interdisciplinary lens to the data analysis, bringing in behavioural insight and design research to identify themes missing from existing resources and open up new directions for place- and culture-based research.Different stakeholders were approaching the same economic framework from fundamentally different starting points.
Early attempts to engage around a Doughnut Economics-inspired plan had surfaced tensions between groups. I designed and facilitated a two-year community learning programme that created opportunities to develop shared understanding, hear different perspectives and identify more meaningful ways for universities, local government and civil society to engage.
Previously
Independent innovation and design practice
2009-2021
Founded and led an innovation and design practice spanning interiors, furniture and spatial design, including circular furniture design and enterprise innovation, a 15-room forest property renovation connecting local ecology and skills, and three research-led London Design Festival installations exploring emerging technologies and the future of design and making.
What collaborators say
“Carra is a driven, intelligent and curious colleague - when working with us at the Design Council, she helped to deliver a complex project with a range of stakeholders. She pushed participants to think deeper about the work they were aiming to deliver, and ultimately created a more meaningful process. This, in turn, led to longer-lasting outcomes.“
— Emily Whyman, Senior Programme Manager, Design Council
“I would describe Carra as rigorously creative, in that she combines systems thinking and critical thinking with the spontaneity needed for new ideas. Not many people can do this. She questions everything and because she's also a terrific person, connects with people on many levels. It's an impressive combination of skills for change-making. Working with Carra definitely made me a better designer.”
— Darren Evans, Strategic Designer and Design Council Expert
“Carra brought insight, thoughtfulness, and a deep sense of curiosity to the work we did together at the WHO on tobacco control. She approaches complex challenges with care and intellectual rigor, always seeking to understand the deeper dynamics at play. At the same time, she brings real joy and warmth to a team - Carra made a lasting impact on the work and on me personally.“
— Dr Hebe Gouda, Project Officer, World Health Organization
Independent research & writing projects
Bridge to Belonging
An interdisciplinary research framework synthesising hyperlocal social, environmental and economic priorities to inform sustainable urban development.
Pre-Collaborative City
Research and writing exploring what needs to be understood across people, place and systems before meaningful collaboration can begin.
Civic Sketchbook
A creative ethnography method using walking, observation and photography to explore the character, continuity and lived experience of place.
Selected talks & publications
Research Contributor, 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, WHO, 2025
“A Different Way”, online talk, RSA South West Coffeehouse, 2024
“Design, differently with Communities”, visioning script and presentation, Design for Planet, 2023
“Doughnut Economics: Can Bath Thrive like Amsterdam?”, live-streamed public lecture, Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, 2023
Lead Author & Book Launch Presenter, “Crafting Connections with Clothing: Values, Influence and Relationships”, Chapter 17 in Accelerating Sustainability in Fashion, Clothing and Textiles, Routledge, 2023
Researcher, Author & Presenter, All Sewn Up: Dismantling Fast Fashion Consumption as a Social Practice, conference paper, Sustainable Innovation Conference, UCA Centre for Sustainable Design, 2021
About
Designer and applied researcher with 15+ years of cross-sector experience spanning design, research, learning and social innovation.
I began my career in innovation and design, founding and leading an independent practice working across interiors, furniture and spatial design. The practice explored emerging technologies, new approaches to making and circular design through products, spaces and research-led installations. I became increasingly interested in understanding the evidence and wider systems behind the ideas I was developing, so I pursued an MSc in Sustainable Development in Practice, graduating with distinction in 2021.Since then, my work has increasingly focused on not only design, but understanding the relationships between people, places and systems that are necessary to inform, facilitate and shape it - and translating that understanding into strategies, learning, frameworks and practical interventions.
Contact
I work with design, innovation and multidisciplinary teams who want to open up new possibilities through a better understanding of context, people and place.Email me or message me on LinkedIn, and I'll be in touch to arrange a call.