Design Leader. Builder.
I grew up in Portugal, studied visual communication, and moved to London in 2009. My first job here was waiting tables at the Hard Rock Café. Since then I've been designing digital tools that turn complexity into clarity.
The first design job was at Luckies of London, where I designed the Scratch Map Deluxe: the kind of thing you scrape with a coin to reveal the countries you've visited. It taught me that the design problem is never the object. It's the moment someone uses it, and what they feel when they do.
That instinct followed me through everything that came after. XR creation platforms. Accessible technology now on over 5 billion products globally. Production software used at some of the world's largest live events. Spatial interfaces for headsets most people haven't seen yet.
The medium changes. The question doesn't.
How I Work
I spend longer in the problem space than most people are comfortable with. When a brief arrives with a solution baked in, my first move is to question the framing. At Disguise, a brief for a core platform feature assumed users wanted a specific interaction pattern. Sitting with it longer surfaced the real constraint: they weren't confused about the interaction, they were confused about the model underneath it. The solution changed completely.
I've managed teams, run hiring, shaped design culture, and owned direction on platforms used at scale. None of that means I stopped doing the craft work. The two reinforce each other. And the most useful thing I've learned to do in any room is name the problem nobody has said out loud yet, early enough that it saves work rather than creates it.
Design has to pull its weight commercially. The work I'm most proud of didn't just solve user problems. It opened new markets, enabled better pricing strategies, or removed constraints that were limiting what the business could do. That's the version of design leadership I'm interested in.
Domain
XR and spatial computing. Enterprise SaaS. AR and creative tooling. Real-time production software for large-scale live events.
Most designers I meet have gone deep in one area. The range isn't accidental. It reflects the kind of problem I find interesting: technically complex, used professionally, with real stakes attached to getting it right.
Versions of Me
Career
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Luckies of LondonProduct + Graphic Designer
Where it started. I joined as an intern and stayed for nearly six years, designing physical consumer products from concept to shelf. The Scratch Map Deluxe, the Smartphone Projector, the packaging, the branding. I learned to prototype fast, test with real people, and hold the whole thing: idea through to the thing in your hand.
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General AssemblyUX Design + Product Management (student)
After five years designing physical products, I wanted to understand digital. Studied UX Design and Product Management at General Assembly. Worked on real briefs: an AR experience for the Design Museum, a subscription finance app. The pivot was deliberate.
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QuidcoUX Designer
First UX role in industry. Quidco is a cashback and rewards platform used by millions. I designed for engagement problems: ad blindness, drop-off, trust, in a commercial environment with real stakes and real users. Fast, focused, direct.
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ZapparProduct Designer → Lead Designer
Joined as first UX hire. Left five years later having built the design function across five brands. ZapWorks: 370,000+ accounts, 730,000+ projects, used by creators in 187 countries. Zapvision, the accessible AR feature I led, is now printed on over 5 billion products globally. The hardest part was never the craft. It was building the conditions where good craft was possible.
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DisguiseProduct Experience Lead
Disguise powers 80% of the world's Tier 1 live tours: U2, Adele, and the interior of the Las Vegas Sphere. 116 countries. 402 virtual production studios globally. Following a series of acquisitions, the ecosystem was fragmented. I led the UX strategy to fix it: Disguise Space, the BrandOS design system, and cross-team alignment across product, engineering, and marketing.
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SessionLabSenior Product Designer (contract)
A five-month engagement to redesign SessionLab's public library. The core feature used by facilitators worldwide. Audited the UX, refined information architecture, improved the design system. Short, precise, shipped.
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Nexus StudiosSpatial UX Designer
An immersive streaming app for the launch of a next-generation XR headset by a major global tech company (NDA). Designing interfaces that exist in physical space, for users whose hands are the input device, in environments that don't yet exist. Led UX across several features and the supporting CMS.
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MemlaneNowFounder
I founded Memlane to combine AI, design, and immersive technology with something personal: memory. It restores historical photographs, animates them into living video moments, and is building toward immersive digital reminiscence experiences. The work I keep coming back to outside of everything else.