Dorotea Panzarella

Hello! Let me introduce myself: I’m an industrial designer specializing in toy design, based in Treviso.

EDUCATION
Born in Palermo and raised in Cefalù, I earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design at Università degli Studi di Palermo (2008) and a master degree in Industrial Product Design at Università IUAV di Venezia (2011).
I participated in the Socrates/Erasmus program (2006-2007), spending a semester at FHNW – HGK in Aarau, Switzerland. This allowed me to improve my skills, particularly in sketching and model making.
Always attentive to the world of childhood, sensitive to issues of education and inclusivity, and fascinated by new technologies, my Master’s thesis project materialized in “Emmo – An Interactive Toy for Visually Impaired Children.”

EARLY CAREER
My first work experience at Alessandro Paulis’ studio (2012-2013) allowed me to learn more about the world of industrial production. I interacted with product managers and foreign suppliers, contributing to the design of consumer electronics product lines.

CLEMENTONI
My passion for the world of educational toys and games led me to work at Clementoni (2013-2014) for a year, within the infant product development team. This allowed me to follow every phase of product development, from ideation to design support during engineering, providing me with a solid foundation for my subsequent freelance career. The strong professional relationship I built with Clementoni during this time has allowed me to continue collaborating with them on a freelance basis for many years, contributing to a wide range of projects.

FURNITURE DESIGN
A significant experience was with the Driusso Associati studio in Mestre (2016-2021). In this studio, I mainly collaborated on furniture design, acquiring excellent skills in technical drawing of furniture elements.

RESEARCH PROJECT
Following my passion for interactive products, I participated in a research project at Università IUAV di Venezia in collaboration with Geomagword SA (2018-2019). As part of this research, we not only designed a range of interactive toys but also produced functional prototypes which we subsequently tested in a real kindergarten environment.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
My participation in the “LUDI Training School – Play and Toys for All” at the University of Heerlen in the Netherlands (2017) allowed me to connect with researchers from across Europe. This network led to an invitation to be a keynote speaker at the Speechie Project Dissemination Event “Technology for Bilingual Children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD): Where do we stand?” held at the Esplora Interactive Science Centre, Malta, in July 2019. The title of my keynote speech was “Designing Successful Educational Toys”.

RECENT PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS
Since 2021, I have mainly worked in the toy and board game sector. In particular, in 2023, the game “Mission Ocean” designed for Adventerra Games ranked first among the finalists of the prestigious “Play for Change Award” in the sustainability category.
Recently, as part of a team led by Giovanni Fumagalli of the CC91 studio, I contributed to the redesign of the i-Theatre, an interesting and innovative interactive educational table produced by the Italian company Edutech.

DIGITAL EDUCATION
Alongside my design work, I have often engaged in educational programs/activities in the field of digital education. I have worked as an educator in workshops for children and young people with FabLab CFV within the Make and Play workshops (2016-2017) and with H-Farm Education (2016-2017) in the Digital Summer Camps. For the past two years, and currently, I have worked as a “coach maker” within the “Girls Code It Better” and “Stem Your Brain” projects of Officina Futuro – Fondazione W-Group ETS, introducing children and young people to the use of digital technology and guiding them in the development of creative projects.

TOWARDS NEW CHALLENGES
I am constantly seeking new challenges and opportunities to grow as a designer and contribute to the world of play and education.