My Leadership style.

I believe the best design organizations are built on mentorship, not management. My job as a leader is to elevate the people around me, to turn production artists into product designers, junior ICs into confident decision-makers, and cross-functional teams into genuine collaborators.

My approach: Give people the tools, context, and trust to do their best work, stay close, but get out of their way. Read about how I’m defining a new way to work, where AI ships but designers direct.

But before the magic, there's the framework.

What I Bring to a Team.

  • Most designer leaders are still figuring out where AI fits. I've already rebuilt my process around it. Taste and design instinct mean I know when to push the tools and when to pull back. I know which shortcuts actually work, resulting in faster delivery, tighter iteration, and work that doesn't look like a machine made it. Read about how I’m defining how AI ships but designers direct.

  • In the AI era, crossing the aisle isn't optional. I work directly with engineers to translate prototypes into production and with executives to align design decisions with business outcomes.

  • At Humble Bundle, I transformed a team of production artists into product designers. At Casetext, I built the design function from scratch alongside the CEO. At Gridspace, I established design practices for a company that had never had a design process.

  • Two acquisitions. Multiple restructures. Building in uncertain markets. I know how to keep a team focused and productive when the ground is shifting.

  • Leaders who stop making lose touch with what makes design hard. I'm a player-coach. I lead strategy and ship pixels. I share a language with my engineers, and I think that combination makes us both better.

What others have said about working with me.

  • 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. LinkedIn

  • Bernardo is a truly exceptional designer. He was consistently able to take high-level discussions about the idiosyncratic world of legal research and turn them into beautiful and functional design. Lawyers are generally not an effusive bunch, but time and time again, our users told us how much they loved the design of our platform. Bernardo took on the big challenges while always attending to the small details that separate great design from good design. - LinkedIn

  • 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. - LinkedIn

  • 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. - LinkedIn

  • 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. - LinkedIn

  • 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. LinkedIn

  • 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. - LinkedIn