A studio in
Zona Tortona,
Milan.
Three designers. All work in-house. Research before design. Structure before visual design. Founded in Milan in 2018.
Umma Designs was started in Milan in 2018 by Valentina Russo and Davide Moretti. The two had worked together at a product company in Milan's technology sector for four years and shared a specific frustration: the design practice at most product companies was disconnected from the research that should have been informing it.
Most digital products at Italian companies in 2018 were being designed on gut feel, trend references, and competitor copying. Research was treated as something that happened after launch, in the form of user complaints. Discovery was skipped because it felt like a delay. Wireframes were treated as optional because visual design was more impressive in a presentation.
The studio was built around the opposite set of principles. Research happens before design. Structure happens before visual design. Revision rounds happen at defined points, not continuously. Deliverables are comprehensive enough that a developer can build from them without design interpretation.
Five years later, the practice has worked with product companies, financial services firms, real estate platforms, logistics software businesses, and luxury brands across Lombardy and Northern Italy. The approach has not changed. The team is three people, by deliberate choice. Umma does not plan to grow into a large agency.
The studio is based in Via Tortona, in the Zona Tortona creative district — the same part of Milan where most of the city's independent design practices concentrate. The address is not an accident.
We take on a limited number of projects at any given time. This is structural, not a positioning statement.
Umma Designs S.r.l. — VAT IT07823450150 — Via Tortona, 25, 20144 Milano MI, Italy
Three designers.
All the work done in-house.
Valentina has been designing digital products in Milan since 2011. She leads all client engagements and the interface design practice. Before starting Umma, she was Head of Product Design at a Northern Italian SaaS company for five years.
Davide runs the Experience Architecture and Design Sprint practice. He has facilitated over 60 design sprints across Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. His background is in cognitive science and interaction design.
Marta specialises in interface design and design system construction. She joined Umma in 2021 from a brand agency in Milan and brings a rigorous approach to visual consistency across complex product surfaces.
Work with
Umma.
We are currently accepting new project enquiries. Describe your product and main problem. We respond within one business day.