Renata Duarte

Renata Duarte is a design researcher and brand strategist with broad experience across many industries. As a Design Researcher at IDEO, Rey blends an expertise on innovative research methods with branding and storytelling to inform design strategies, with a passion for understanding people’s actual feelings, thoughts and their implicit needs. She’s inspired by the intersection of consumer behavior, cultural context, and brand and finding ways to enhance it. Over the last 18 years, Rey’s taken on many roles—she has had the opportunity to experience, and fall in love with all sides of brand and business. She’s taken key roles in strategic planning, communication, branding, research and innovation projects at creative and full-service agencies, brand experience and consultancy shops and has worked with many of the most important brands in Brazil as well as multinationals based in the US and Europe. Throughout all of her work, Rey maintains a focus on designing to build strong relationships between consumers and brands. Favorite projects have ranged from understanding the needs of women entrepreneurs, to helping translate Brazilian culture to the rest of the world, from elucidating the key elements that make a compelling cross-channel media narrative, to designing ways to inspire tweens to move more and eat healthier. Before joining IDEO, Rey led the strategy team for Itaú at DM9DDB – one of the most valuable, respected, and beloved banking brands in Brazil.