Madalena Figueiredo was born in Lisbon in 1944. She attended the Artistic Training Course at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes. She later graduated in Design from the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Novara, Italy, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, an experience that proved decisive in shaping her exposure to international design contexts.
Upon returning to Portugal, she began her professional activity with an internship under Daciano da Costa at the Hélio shoe factory, also collaborating on product design projects with Manuel Tainha and Sena da Silva. In the following years, she developed work in graphic and institutional design, notably through her collaboration with the Directorate-General for Tourism, ICEP, and later AICEP, where she remained until 2008.
In 1976, she was a founding member of the Portuguese Designers Association (APD), serving on its governing bodies for around three decades. Within this context, she played a significant role in establishing design in Portugal, contributing to the recognition of the profession, its regulation, and the promotion of national and international initiatives.
As a curator, she was responsible for several exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, including «Design & Circunstância» (Lisbon, 1982), «El Disseny Português en Moviment» (Barcelona, 1995), and «Design aus Portugal – eine Anthologie» (Frankfurt, 1997), which contributed to the international dissemination of Portuguese design.
Between 1986 and 2000, she coordinated the «Concurso Jovem Designer», promoted by ICEP in collaboration with higher education institutions and vocational schools. This initiative aimed to support the integration of young designers into the job market and strengthen the relationship between design and industry, including exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, as well as the establishment of institutional partnerships, namely with the Portuguese Society of Authors, in defense of designers’ copyright.
Throughout her career, Madalena Figueiredo established herself as a central figure in the promotion and dissemination of Portuguese design, both nationally and internationally. Her practice is distinguished by a strong commitment to the recognition of the profession, the support of new generations of designers, and the building of connections between education, culture, and industry, leaving a significant contribution to the development and recognition of design in Portugal.