🍨 The Inside Scoop — Bruno Bach 🇧🇷
I had the pleasure to sit down with Bruno Bach, who told me all about his journey into Product Design and his design philosophy.
Bruno is a Brazilian product designer, currently working as a Senior Product Designer @ ArcTouch. You can book a mentorship session with Bruno on ADPlist here.
🍬 Bite-Size Facts
What’s your go-to book?
I have a few, but I’ll say Meditations, by Marco Aurélio. Every time I take this book to read, it’s ready to speak to me about something. Very good!
What show are you binge-watching?
Netflix’s series on Spotify, “The Playlist”. Very interesting, I had no idea of Spotify’s size, its technology impact, and how they were pioneers in the industry. Surprising!
Who’s your favorite singer/band?
I think Gorillaz. In every album, they change its form but keep the essence. Very much like design.
đź‘‹ Hi, Bruno! Thanks for sitting down with me. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
I’ve been a designer for 8 years, I came for innovation. I have identified this aspect of design since the beginning. Also, I came to design with the aim of achieving the highest number of people.
When I started my career, I was in coding, went through journalism, and publicity, and ended up finding myself in design by questioning things: why do we do things this way and not in a clever way, so to speak? It was when I left publicity and came to design.
Explaining my career transition, which was for me something very new that came like a bullet train: I thought I would stay my whole life doing publicity, and when I realized, transitioned to Product.
A little more about myself, I can say two main things: science fiction and technology. I always watched films like Star Wars and thought it was something very cool, I wanted to be in that universe.
Another thing super relevant to me is the control sense that design brings (without being totalitarian), the broad possibility to be in every step of the process: a kind of governance that I could find in design.
Also, design systems are some of the topics that most describe me, personality-wise.
Interesting! Let’s talk a bit more about your career transition to Product. What made you become a UX/Product Designer?
At the time I decided on product design, I was working at a publicity agency and one day, an ebook request came in. It was for a real estate client that wanted to recommend properties around a college area, in order to attract people moving for the beginning of the classes.
My question was: why are we going to do an ebook for a younger audience? Why not a website, or landing page? The answer I had: was the client’s call. I thought: Will I continue from now on investing my time and creativity in lacking solutions? Or will I seek transformation, real solutions? In the same month, I resigned, moved to Curitiba, and started my career transition.
I thought: Will I continue from now on investing my time and creativity in lacking solutions? Or will I seek transformation, real solutions?
What’s a hobby you picked up recently if any?
When the pandemic hit, I focused on learning 3D. I always desired to do it but also was afraid of the entry barrier to learning the software, but it was what kept me entertained and saved me from boredom!
It also opened some doors; I worked in AR filters and brought 3D to products as well.
What kind of impact do you wish to make in the world using your design skills?
First, two things: one which is essential; that it solves the pain without creating another one. Often we choose easy and jeopardize something else. Second, nostalgia: I’d love any moment to be a part of a remarkable project that is present in people’s lives, to be in people’s affective memory.
Where do you find inspiration for your projects?
First and foremost in everyday life. There are a lot of things that we use and do that are kind of automatic, we don’t even realize or think about them. A task or product we often use can be the logic or replicated solution to another service or scenario. Try to pay attention to what we consume every day. Second, we need a little imagination, to try to break the barrier of the common point: what if I could do this on Figma? Try to experiment and think out of the box.
Try to pay attention to what we consume every day. […] A task or product we often use can be the logic or replicated solution to another service or scenario.
What is the kind of mentorship you’d like to offer and why?
My philosophy of mentoring is to bring the content that at the beginning of my career was very difficult for me. Especially for the folks changing careers.
I spent one year and a half trying to learn design by reading articles on Medium. It was very confusing and stressful not knowing a way to learn. If I had someone to point out his way, I could have optimized my time and had better opportunities at the beginning of my career. So I’d say I try to demystify and show the basics to people coming in, transitioning. The biggest pain is indeed trying to understand what is really worth in the middle of so much content and possibilities.
It was very confusing and stressful not knowing a way to learn. If I had someone to point out his way, I could have optimized my time and had better opportunities at the beginning of my career.
What is the most frequent question you get asked during your mentorship sessions and what’s your answer?
The first one is for sure about portfolios. “How do I build my portfolio, how many cases?”. The second one is “what do I need in order to break into the area, to be a junior designer?” “Do I need college?”
If you could give one piece of advice to every mentee, what would it be?
I’d say to probably test it out. Really face it and try to do it. Even if in the beginning it’s wrong, and it’ll probably be.
One of the things that blocked my development in the area for so long was just not trying to open Figma and design any screen. Even today I suffer a little from this. If you break this initial barrier of being afraid to disappoint yourself, you’ll advance much faster in your learning process. If you put yourself to the test and just do it, it will bring results. I experienced this learning when I started 3D; at first, I only made cubes, just like Minecraft. But it was just the beginning. Only watching classes and taking courses won’t make you evolve. It’s just like watching soccer without ever playing a match.
Why ADPlist?
I already had the desire to mentor but didn’t know how or through which platform. My initial idea was to schedule through LinkedIn. But it was on Linkedin I kept seeing many mentors promoting ADPlist; that famous post: “I’m mentoring on ADPlist”. I had the impression ADPlist was a sort of masterclass or something, seeing so many good people promoting mentorship.
I sent my application and here I am! The mentor’s pool on the platform also encouraged me to join. I knew it would be a way of having access to mentees and other mentors as well.
Thank you so much for your time and wisdom!
📸 Shall we take a picture together?
I hope you enjoyed my talk with Bruno! If you’re looking for career advice and someone that will help you on your UX journey, do reach out to him, or book a session with this great designer.
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