What does a typical morning look like for you?
Since Covid became an obviously imperative matter, I had to shift my sleeping patterns because I was working in a few timezones globally. So, as weird as it seems, I have maintained that pattern and I sleep diurnally — just like people did before the electric light was invented. I’ve spoken to a lot have people who have adopted similar patterns.
But you know, I kiss my wife, I walk my dog, and try hard not to doom scroll. I do not always succeed at that, but I try.
Then it’s into the Zoom-room, where I am currently writing this.
What has been your design journey?
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Welcome to May’s Beyond the PX! This month we have Remus Baltariu, who works for ASSIST Software out of Suceava, Romania!
Enjoy.
Who are ASSIST Software?
ASSIST Software is a software development company with a history of almost 30 years. It was founded by two engineers with backgrounds in nuclear physics and currently, we’re working with clients all over the world, ranging a wide variety of industries, from education to fashion, and sports… just to name a few. In the last two years, we’ve grown from around 100 people to 200+ now.
What has been your design journey up until now?
My background is in Computer Science (both Bachelor and Masters), but I…
This week marks my official 10th year as a professional designer, from my humble beginnings as an intern at an ecommerce company through to my position as a designer advocate at Figma.
I’ve learned a few things along the way, and here’s a snappy 10 point list of some key findings.
Before we do go into it though, I thought I’d ease you in with a funny anecdote.
Whilst interviewing at a charity for a junior front end developer job in 2013, my to-be boss and now good friend asked me to write code on paper.
You read that right…
Welcome to May’s Beyond the PX! This month we have Nadia Sotnikova, who works remotely for Gitlab from sunny Thailand!
Enjoy.
Who are Gitlab?
GitLab is a team of incredibly intelligent and kind human beings. Together we’re creating the ultimate developer tool, an end-to-end platform for teams that build software.
What has been your design journey up until now?
I’ve always been into art and design as a child. In high school I finished a 4-year fine arts program, but afterwards ended up going to business school because that’s what everyone around me did; I just didn’t see a clear creative career path for myself. After uni I worked in book publishing…
We’re hiring a second Designer Advocate to come and work alongside me on the EMEA team!
I’ve already put in a lot of groundwork, but Figma is scaling massively and it’d be great to have a buddy to help our community become more successful, faster.
Designer Advocate may seem like the perfect job — and it is for me! — so I wanted to ease you into what is typically covered in my job on a day to day basis.
You’ll be joining the Community team, and here are a few pictures of us being totally normal.
Welcome to April’s Beyond the PX! This month we have Akshan Ish, who has lived in several countries, recently became a father and is an excellent designer working on language products.
Enjoy.
Who are Babbel?
Babbel is a language learning company that were one of the first to take language learning online (disrupting the CDROM market, and launched pre-iPhone). Today, millions of people around the world use Babbel to learn a language through the lessons, podcasts, and other learning media that we offer.
We’re a company of about 750 people from 60+ nationalities with offices in Berlin and New York, moving towards a…
I’m fortunate to work at a place (Figma) that grants us “recharge days” every so often. Despite having a batch of vacation days to use up over the course of the year, working remotely for ~12 months has meant that our colleagues are feeling the ache of a lack of true break.
It’s no secret that it’s a lot easier to work more when you’re at home and remote. Time can slip and before you know it you’ve not left your desk in 4 hours and your eyeballs are drier than the Sahara.
On top of this, we’re one swipe…
What does a typical morning look like for you?
Coffee before most things is the general rule. I wake up around 7. Head to our espresso machine and enjoy a coffee with my girlfriend. I love the moment of calm before work starts.
I’m working from home right now — but my commute to the office is pretty dreamy. Pleo sits right on the lakes in Copenhagen. So a lush cycle along the lakes for me.
First thing I catch up on Slack and see how my calendar’s looking.
A good chunk of Pleo works across time zones. I work closely with people in Mexico, Argentina and Ukraine. …
Happy 2021 folks!
I’m really excited to kickstart the year with an interview with Brazilian designer Carla Demarchi, who lives in sunny Rio de Janeiro.
She is a design systems expert and loves jumping into the details!
Enjoy.
Who are Globo?
Globo is one of the largest media-tech companies in Latin America. It offers sports, journalism, and entertainment products.
What has been your design journey?
When I started college, I was studying Systems Analysis and Development at the time I was very curious to understand how this whole programming thing worked. Writing something and the computer being able to interpret it is very crazy.
Until then I had not…
Presenting work is a really underrated skill, at all levels of our career.
It’s something that is central to the success of us landing our dream job, but we are mostly then left to our own devices when it comes to presenting projects internally to stakeholders who typically:
a) Lack project context
b) Are mostly non-designers
c) Care more about their own work
d) Don’t know why they are in the room
There are a few things we can do though to smooth over these cracks, and ensure that at every opportunity we’re maximising return.
Wouldn’t it be great if…
