About
TL;DR
I am a Bulgarian designer who went to study in Sweden, met a Canarian, came to Tenerife for a while, and never left.
15+ years later I specialise in B2B and technical products, the kind built by engineers who never thought about brand. I make them look like someone cared.
I am a contractor. I work async, independently, and across time zones without anyone needing to check in on me.
The longer version
I started with industrial design. I wanted to be an architect. I ended up somewhere more interesting.
My first job was at a research institute in Tenerife where I did a bit of everything: branding, web, print, photography, conference materials. Some of those projects are still live. That taught me that design is not a discipline, it is a habit of thinking.
A Master's degree introduced me to UX, responsive web design, and the idea that digital products are never finished, only improved. That clicked. I have been chasing that ever since.
I was the first designer hired at System73, a pure engineering company. They ignored me for a while. Eventually we figured out how to work together. Three years, 20+ features, one designer. The product got pivoted out of existence but the foundations survived.
After that, IMT. Then Acrolon Technologies, where I currently hold full design ownership of TankNET: brand, website, platform redesign, tradeshow assets, LinkedIn. The whole thing.
Outside work
Making things is just how I think. Not a hobby, more of a default mode.
A few years back I designed and sewed my own wedding dress. Then I designed a full kitchen reform from scratch. Five years later it still looks exactly how I intended. Currently exploring 3D printed jewellery, which keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue but will happen.
I work out, I care about what I eat, and I am a mother. I use whatever tool makes sense: MacBook, Windows desktop, iPad, Android. Not out of brand loyalty, just function.
How I work
Async by default. Direct in communication. Thick-skinned about feedback.
I work best when the brief is hard, the timeline is real, and nobody needs to schedule a meeting to tell me how I am doing.
Bulgarian. Based in Tenerife. Working everywhere.
Career timeline
- Information Visualization, Issued by Interaction Design Foundation - Certificate
- Data-Driven Design: Quantitative Research for UX, Issued by Interaction Design Foundation - Certificate
- Journey Mapping, Issued by Interaction Design Foundation - Certificate
- Get Your Product Used: Adoption and Appropriation, Issued by Interaction Design Foundation - Certificate
- Design System Migration from Sketch to Figma
- Complete Platform Design Migration
Skills
- Agile framework
- Adobe Xd
- (Material for) Mkdocs
- Design Systems
- Remote work
Courses:
- Understanding User Needs, Issued by University of Michigan on Coursera - Certificate
- Introduction to User Experience Principles and Processes, Issued by University of Michigan on Coursera - Certificate
- Business Writing - Issued by University of Colorado, Boulder on Coursera - Certificate
- Graduated Master's Degree in University of La Laguna, Spain.
Innovation in Design for the Touristic Sector with Specialization in User Interfaces and Digital Experience - Learned SASS, Wordpress, HTML5, and Responsive Web Design Principles while working on the Tenerife Local Project at ITER S.A.
- Generalist Designer Internship in ITER S.A.
- Espacio Acustico Virtual, University of La Laguna - Hearing aid hat - Design Prototype
- Graduated Industrial Design Bachelor's Degree
- LLP Erasmus Intensive Program "Ecology and Safety as a Driving Force in the development of Vehicles", Polytechnic University of Radom, Poland