Experience

Lead Product Designer & Creative Director

Over the past two decades I’ve worked across product design, UX, branding, marketing, and creative leadership — leading projects end-to-end, from strategy and discovery to execution and growth.

My experience includes

  • Product Strategy
  • Product Discovery
  • UX Research
  • Information Architecture
  • User Experience Design
  • User Interface Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Design Systems
  • Visual Design
  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Identity
  • Marketing Design
  • Creative Direction
  • Team Leadership
  • Cross-functional Collaboration
  • Prototyping
  • Design Operations
  • AI-assisted Product Development

Scope of work

End-to-end product lifecycle design and delivery: product discovery, market research, product strategy, branding, UX research, information architecture, interaction design, UI design, design systems, prototyping, testing, product launch, analytics and continuous iteration.

Most of my work sits where business intent turns into a shippable product. I join early — before the solution is fixed — to frame the problem, size the market, choose a direction and make the trade-offs explicit. Then I stay through delivery, because strategy that never meets an interface is just a document.

I move between two modes. Inside product teams I work as an embedded lead: direction, design system, critique, and the day-to-day decisions that keep a roadmap coherent. As a consultant: discovery, product framing, design audits, brand and UI systems, etc..

That has meant regulated enterprise platforms and quiet internal tools as much as consumer apps and my own products. Different constraints, same craft: understand the domain, respect the people using it, and ship something that creates value after launch.

Contexts

  • Enterprise & B2B

    Complex, high-stakes platforms for professionals — banking tooling, ad-tech, data products. Long workflows, real permissions, regulatory constraints and design systems built to survive team handover.

    • Thoughtworks
    • Codecrafters by BT
    • Connatix
    • TruvalueLabs
    • Ryalto

  • Consumer & B2C

    Products where the first thirty seconds decide everything: onboarding, clarity, motion and brand working together. Mobile-first thinking, prototype-led validation and measurable funnels.

    • British Airways
    • bwin
    • Mimechat
    • Legatus

  • Consultancy & advisory

    Time-boxed engagements: discovery and inception workshops, product framing, design audits, design-system definition and coaching client designers into senior roles.

    • Thoughtworks engagements
    • Calybrum Studio
    • Smartup

  • Founder & 0→1

    My own products, taken from a market hypothesis to a live, paying-ready surface — strategy, brand, UX, UI and AI-assisted implementation, with nobody else to hand the hard parts to.

    • Klearyon
    • Symboolean
    • Legatus

  • Brand & creative direction

    Identity systems, art direction and the visual language that sits above the product — defined once, then governed so it survives contact with marketing, sales and a growing team.

    • Connatix
    • Calybrum Studio
    • Symboolean

  • Design systems & platform

    Tokens, components, documentation and governance. The unglamorous layer that decides whether a product team ships consistently at speed or renegotiates the same button twice a quarter.

    • Thoughtworks
    • Codecrafters by BT
    • Connatix
  1. Oct 2024 — PresentThoughtworksLead DesignerOpen

    Modernising complex legacy B2C enterprise project: discovery, design systems, stakeholder management, prototyping, user testing, delivery handoff and suport.

    Responsibilities

    • Owned multiple squad design responsabilities across multi-team enterprise programmes
    • Run discovery, framing and inception workshops with client leadership
    • Proposal and transformation of a multi brand design system into an atomic approach.

    Impact

    • Reduced discovery-to-delivery handover loss by making strategy artefacts part of the backlog
    • Introduced design system practices adopted across multiple client product teams

    Tools and practice

    • Figma
    • Design systems
    • Service blueprinting
    • Workshop facilitation
  2. Mar 2024 — Jul 2024 · 4 mosCodecrafters by BTProduct DesignerOpen

    UI design, UX and design system work for banking products, plus design system and design principles education for the design team.

    Responsibilities

    • UI design and UX across banking platform products
    • Design system contribution and maintenance
    • Design system and design principles education for the design team

    Impact

    • Raised design system literacy across the internal design team
    • Standardised patterns across previously inconsistent internal tools

    Tools and practice

    • Figma
    • Design systems
    • Design tokens
    • Accessibility (WCAG)
  3. Apr 2018 — Feb 2024 · 6 yrs 10 mosConnatixCreative Director (promoted from Senior UI/UX Designer)Open

    Responsible for pushing innovation and designing market-leading video and advertising solutions for publishers, and for leading the visual direction of the products (video players, customer-facing consoles, video templates for the video marketplace), the company's visual identity and marketing materials (company website, internal branding).

    Responsibilities

    • Lead the visual direction of video players, publisher consoles and marketplace video templates
    • Own the company visual identity and marketing materials, including the company website and internal branding
    • Work closely with product and development teams, maintaining communication between design, product and development
    • Build and lead the design team; establish critique and review practice

    Impact

    • First designer at Connatix, with significant impact on the company's success
    • Grew the design team to 6 designers

    Tools and practice

    • Figma
    • Sketch
    • Motion
    • Brand systems
  4. Feb 2014 — Apr 2018 · 4 yrs 3 mosHalcyon MobileSenior UI Designer (Mobile and Web)Open

    Mobile app design, web design, branding, identity and illustrations for startup-related clients.

    Responsibilities

    • iOS and Android product design from concept to handover
    • Web design, branding and identity work
    • Illustration and client-facing design presentation

    Impact

    • Shipped multiple client applications to global app stores
    • Introduced prototype-led validation before development commitments

    Tools and practice

    • Sketch
    • Principle
    • iOS HIG
    • Material Design
  5. Feb 2013 — Jan 2014 · 1 yrMarcielo GmbHDigital Product Concept DesignerOpen

    Lead designer on innovative models and project prototypes for the gaming and fashion industry, across web and mobile platforms.

    Responsibilities

    • Concept design for web and mobile platforms
    • Prototypes for gaming and fashion industry products

    Impact

    • Established the first consistent UI conventions for the product portfolio

    Tools and practice

    • Photoshop
    • HTML
    • CSS
  6. Jan 2012 — Feb 2014 · 2 yrs 2 mosCalybrum StudioCEO & FounderOpen

    Calybrum Studio was my own freelance illustration, graphic design, identity and animation factory.

    Responsibilities

    • Freelance illustration and graphic design
    • Brand identity systems
    • Animation work for client projects

    Impact

    • Long-running client relationships across Europe and the US

    Tools and practice

    • Illustration
    • Brand
    • Animation
    • Print
  7. Feb 2012 — Jan 2013 · 1 yrCid DesignGame DesignerOpen

    Working on projects like board games for kids: game concept, illustration and packaging, including testing and press preparation.

    Responsibilities

    • Game concept design for children's board games
    • Illustration and packaging design
    • Play testing and press preparation

    Impact

    • Shipped physical board game titles from concept to print

    Tools and practice

    • Illustration
    • Packaging
    • Print production
  8. Feb 2011 — Jan 2012 · 1 yrChrisopeeaBrand DesignerOpen

    Working on branding, rebranding, facelift and packaging projects for local Romanian food, drink and digital brands.

    Responsibilities

    • Branding and rebranding projects
    • Brand facelifts for existing identities
    • Packaging design for food and drink brands

    Impact

    • Delivered identity and packaging systems for local Romanian brands

    Tools and practice

    • Brand
    • Packaging
    • Print production