Bernardo and I overlapped at Gridspace, and while we weren't on the same team, I got to see how he showed up for the company beyond his design work. When we were figuring out how to reopen the office after Covid, Bernardo volunteered for the return-to-office committee and basically became its engine. He wasn't just attending meetings and offering opinions. He was doing the actual work: organizing the space, cleaning things up, making sure people would feel comfortable coming back. Most people wait for someone else to handle that stuff. Bernardo just handled it. That willingness to roll up his sleeves and do the unglamorous work, combined with his ability to bring people together and facilitate real conversations about how we wanted to move forward, told me everything I needed to know about what kind of colleague he is. He makes the people and places around him better, and he doesn't need a title or a mandate to do it.

Bernardo is an incredibly talented designer whose work is always beautiful. I was impressed by him time and time again, whether he was improving old UI or creating something entirely new. He's able to effectively collaborate with engineering to come up with designs that not only look great, but also make implementation quick and easy. Any organization would benefit from Bernardo's help.

Bernardo is a pleasure to work with. A superb designer who understands technical resource constraints, can work around them, and can prototype directly with engineers to bring his vision to life. On top of this, he also built processes for the design department and transitioned his reports from Graphic Design roles into Product Designers under his mentorship. A rare combination of talented individual contributor and adept manager.

Bernardo was my manager at Humble Bundle and played a key role in helping me navigate the company’s evolving approach to design. I started on the marketing team, creating artwork and promotional campaigns. Bernardo saw potential in me and introduced me to product thinking, user research, and prototyping by having me solve real design problems. It was a creative, exploratory environment that encouraged collaboration. I went from producing marketing assets to designing products that helped shape Humble’s future. This experience greatly expanded my skill set and opened many doors for me in my career. Even years later, we still keep in touch. As a fellow creative in tech, he’s remained a trusted friend and mentor.

I worked with Bernardo at Humble Bundle and saw firsthand how he transformed the role of design within the company. When he arrived, the team was largely focused on production work such as executing assets and promotions. Bernardo recognized a bigger opportunity and used design to streamline and automate how we created and promoted products, dramatically increasing the speed and scale at which we could operate.

What stood out most was how he developed his team. Production artists began thinking like product designers—a shift that happened because Bernardo intentionally mentored them while raising the bar for the work. He didn’t just improve a department; he elevated the people in it.

Bernardo is hands down one of the best designers / creative directors I've worked with. He's relentless in making sure that creative vision comes through on every project and merciless about quality. He's an artist in a pragmatic world of techies and puts a much-needed polish on any project.