André Correia

André Correia

also known as MAC/C · m4csee · VJMACC

André Correia is a Portuguese multidisciplinary creative based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Professionally he works as a UX Designer and AI Specialist at Booking.com, and has previously worked at the European Commission, Trend Micro, and Smartly.[13] Outside of UX work he illustrates as MAC/C, produces electronic music and audiovisual work as VJMACC,[12] and builds independent web app projects.

Education

André earned a High School Diploma in Graphic Design at EAPA (Escola Artística e Profissional Árvore) in Porto (1999–2002), a curriculum covering serigraphy, offset printing, print design, and black-and-white photography — for which he received accolades during his time there.[13]

He went on to a Bachelor's degree in Communication Design at ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design, 2002–2006) — spending the first year on industrial design, multimedia, and communication design before specializing in UX/UI design, web, multimedia, and graphic design[13] — where his professors included Joana Rego, José Saraiva, João Martino, Rui Mendonça, and Luís Mendonça. Joana Rego, his drawing professor, was struck by the quality of his work.

He then completed a Master's in Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia at FBAUP (Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, 2006–2008), exploring transmedia storytelling, UX design, interactive media, game design, virtual and augmented reality, and mobile and ubiquitous computing;[13] Heitor Alvelos supervised his thesis. He speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, and some Chinese.[13]

André was also a student of Luís Mendonça — better known by his pseudonym Gémeo Luís, a designer, illustrator, and researcher at FBAUP born in Maputo in 1965[9] — at ESAD. Impressed by André's work, the two collaborated on the book Álvaro Cunhal — Ao Canto do Espelho (2006), for which André photographed the featured objects in black and white and handled the page layout.[13] Mendonça later hired him as a Web and Graphic Designer at his publisher, Edições Eterogémeas (Jan 2008 – Jun 2009), André's first job, where he worked alongside Vítor Carneiro.[13]

There he designed and developed a presentation website for the architecture practice Nuno Valentim Architects, a portfolio website for Eterogémeas itself with cross-linked publications, writers, and illustrators, and a portfolio website for Gémeo Luís built in Flash, ActionScript 2.0, and XML — the first version of gemeoluis.com — and the first version of the Eterogémeas website itself.[8][13]

Mendonça is also art director of José Gourmet, responsible "from scratch for all the company's design and art direction."[10][11] While working with Mendonça at his studio, André also designed the first version of the José Gourmet website.[7][13]

Print, web & album design

André worked at the Direção Regional de Cultura do Centro (DRCC), part of Portugal's Ministério da Cultura, in Coimbra (2009–2011), as UX/UI Designer, Front-End Developer, and Graphic Designer, building BV:DRCC, a bibliographic archive website cataloguing DRCC-subsidised publications; the website for Fragmentos, a lecture series on immaterial culture, museum curation, and architectural heritage; and Publicart, a Google Maps API and Fusion Tables project mapping public art across the country.[13] He also served as art director for print design produced for cultural institutions — including Fragmentos, brochures and a booklet for the same lecture series (covering sessions such as the Ethnographic Film Sessions[3] and the APOM Museum Awards[4]), and Memórias, a catalog[5] and flyer[6] for a contemporary art exhibition.

Between 2011 and 2012, André ran his own design consultancy, IND (Instant Design), in Porto.[13]

UX design career

After IND, André worked in-house as a Senior UX Designer for the Porto conglomerate Ideias Dinâmicas SGPS (2012–2014), creating the group's original corporate image and logo and providing art direction for its subsidiaries Pryog Technologies and Trainingest.[13]

He then moved to Brussels to join the European Commission (2014–2016), first as Senior UX Designer and then as Lead UX Designer / Design Manager on its Digital Transformation Team, working on the Better Regulation Portal ("Have Your Say") and the migration of Commission websites from Documentum to Drupal.[13]

From there he moved to Taipei as Principal UX Designer at Trend Micro (2016–2018), working on the Deep Security cybersecurity platform, and then to Helsinki as Principal Product Designer at Smartly.io (2018–2019), designing the Unified Feed Management system for an ad automation platform serving 600+ brands.[13] Across this period he lived and worked in Portugal, Belgium, Taiwan, Finland, and the Netherlands.[12]

Since December 2019, André has worked at Booking.com in Amsterdam — first on the Restaurants & In-Stay Services team building food.booking.com's restaurant discovery platform, then on Design Ops launching the UX Directory and UX Design Library, on Pricing designing the Targeted Rates and Promotions partner journeys, on Partner Success improving the Home partner registration flow, and currently as AI Specialist & UX Designer on the Partner Registration team, designing an AI-powered assistant to help partners list and manage their properties.[13] Full case studies are published on his UX portfolio: Booking.com, the European Commission, Trend Micro, Smartly, and Compensate.[14]

Side projects

André builds and maintains independent web apps outside of his day job, including GunplaCorps, a community platform for Gunpla (Gundam plastic model kit) enthusiasts, and L5RDB, a card database for the Legend of the Five Rings trading card game.

Illustration

André illustrates as MAC/C — atmospheric work inspired by architecture, cinema, and fleeting moments, exploring imagined interiors, urban landscapes, and solitary figures suspended between memory and dream.[12] His practice also spans digital art, painting, and writing.[12] Featured series include Frozen in Time, Industrialized, Parallaxes, and Private Spaces.[12] His work was featured in a gallery article by Revista Minerva, a Portuguese university publication of "essays, critiques, and chronicles by students, researchers, and professors," published 16 July 2026.[12]

Electronic music

André produces electronic music and audiovisual work as VJMACC.[12] Releases and mixes are published on SoundCloud and YouTube.

See also

Professors: Joana Rego · José Saraiva · João Martino · Rui Mendonça · Luís Mendonça · Heitor Alvelos

Co-workers: Vítor Carneiro · Mafalda Ventura · Nicolas Schepers · Ali Atef · Mathieu Bernimont · Filipe Pires · João Pires · Filipa Costa · Paul van Oijen · Delyana Dimova · Luís Ramalho · Ricardo Mendes · Rui Oliveira

Education: EAPA · ESAD · FBAUP

Companies: Edições Eterogémeas · DRCC · IND · Dotlink · Emerge · Premag · RJDesign · Koser International · Ideias Dinâmicas SGPS · Ideias Dinâmicas · Pryog · Trainingest · European Commission · Trend Micro · Smartly.io · Booking.com

Projects: BV:DRCC · Fragmentos — Website · Publicart · Fragmentos · Memórias · José Gourmet — Website · Eterogémeas — Website · Gémeo Luís — Website · Nuno Valentim Architects — Website · Arte na Linha — Website · Álvaro Cunhal — Ao Canto do Espelho · N*Style · GunplaCorps · L5RDB

Links

References

  1. André Correia (MACCoutinho) — Behance profile
  2. Fragmentos — Art Direction (Behance)
  3. Fragmentos — Brochure, Ethnographic Film Sessions (Behance)
  4. Fragmentos — Brochure, Museum Awards APOM (Behance)
  5. Memórias — Contemporary Art Catalog (Behance)
  6. Memórias — Foldable Flyer (Behance)
  7. José Gourmet — Website (Behance)
  8. Eterogémeas — Website (Behance)
  9. Gémeo Luís — José Gourmet illustrator profile
  10. "Graphic Design: Jose Gourmet make sardines and squid look magnificent," It's Nice That
  11. "Jose Gourmet: We preserve challenges and imagination," CannedFish
  12. "Galeria: obras de André M. C. Correia," Revista Minerva, 16 July 2026
  13. André Correia — LinkedIn profile
  14. André Correia — UX portfolio