I was born and raised in Colombia, college educated in the United States, and worked as an industrial designer for over 10 years. In 2019 I decided to move to London to pursue a MSc in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Design. Lots of colours, shapes and letters have crossed my path leading me to working as a contract based UX/UI designer today with an emphasis in sustainable thinking processes.
Below is a career standard description of my career path, starting from my most recent experience as a self-employed designer to 2011 when I was a toy designer for Toys R Us. For a more entertaining conversation, let's have a chat instead! You can reach me at: LetiSuarezDesign@gmail.com
Consultancy services in areas of user centric design, eco-design, LCA, branding, and visual design. Working closely with clients in different industries from a real estate cloud-based software organisation to environmental and climate action projects.
Analyzing and evaluating the existent information architecture to establish a baseline from which process flows, site maps and user stories can be created.
Developing heuristic reviews that identify user flow deficiencies and lead the design process of the product while optimizing the user experience.
Designing and implementing style guides that are modular and follow a systems thinking principles to establish efficiencies across all teams.
Creating prototypes that follow the style guide’s parameters to present design concepts and reduce frictions in the jobs to be done by the users.
Managing, documenting and presenting the design work on a weekly basis to different stakeholders to align priorities among the different teams.
Attending meetings with existing and potential clients to listen to their necessities, and document impressions and feedback into action points.
Initiating research protocols from the discovery stage followed through the implementation of prototypes to validate concepts before production.
Executing user interviews and analyzing their existing customer journeys to improve the user retention rates, and value proposition of their product.
Collaborating with the Director of UX on developing their social platform to suit the user needs and meet the design standards within the organisation.
Worked in collaboration with a multidisciplinary product team for the creation of a virtual student platform to teach students sustainable practices.
In charge of designing wireframes, UI mock-ups, prototypes and graphic elements to successfully engage users into learn and having fun.
Support food security initiatives for New York City through the implementation of Aquaculture Systems designed by Professor Michael B. Timmons from Cornell University.
Modules Include: Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development, International Business Ethics, Sustainability and Corporate Governance, Sustainable Design, Clean Technology, Logistics and Supply Chain Management
The main objective of this study was to investigate and understand the main environmental challenges during beer production through literature review, life cycle assessment, and small-scale home brewing experiments for the gathering of quantitative data and empirical learning.
It was found that a 60% reduction in water demand could be accomplished by eliminating the cooling step during the beer production. Potential energy efficiencies could be achieved by adding a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor, and the upcycling of wet spent grain into flour is the most promising sustainable solution.
The main contributions achieved through this work can be categorised under the following three criteria: clean technology application to reduce energy demand, pre-industrialisation water efficiencies, and by-product upcycling challenges.
Sustainable solutions were incorporated in the design of a two-year pre-business plan for a nano brewery with the aim to find circularity in beer production whilst aligning with the eight sustainable principles.
Undertook the development of ReCyrcle’s collection mobile app to redesign the user interface, adjust user flows and wireframes to ensure an UCD product.
Established user flows, Information Architecture structures, and interface design across web and mobile products for both ReCyrcle and inUse brands.
Implementation of LCA and Eco-design principles for the development and design of circular products while challenging their socio-environmental benefits. Keeping in mind that the benefit of such products must go beyond being made of recycled materials.
Defined project study scope, goals, and deliverables in the areas of material processing and circular product design.
Led the Samsonite brand, soft side category, keeping daily communication with marketing, sales, and overseas’ team while travelling 1 to 3 times to China.
Researched market opportunities, executed competitor analysis, and tested prototypes to inform the design process on user needs and behaviour.
Introduced and pioneered Sustainability awareness in the products and culture of the company through the development of fabrics made of recycled materials Recyclex™. Managed and designed the first “sustainable” luggage collection at Samsonite Eco-Nu.
Worked closely with the sourcing team to visit factories and textile suppliers (Recycled PET) to assess quality of the product, understand production practices and traceability of raw materials.
Designed and managed multiple lines of early development wooden products, educational toys, arts and crafts, and furniture under the Imaginarium brand.
Lead the design and development of Bruin’s brand vision through the creation and application of a style guide for infant and pre-school collections.
Worked closely with the product development team to advocate for the educational and early development value in the product design while aligning the business needs.
Carbon Literacy Training by Carbon Literacy Project September 2022
Carbon, GHGs, Foot Printing, Accounting and Management IEMA Approved June 2021
Linear to Circular Economy Programme – Ellen MacArthur Foundation December 2020
Intro to Auditing and Evaluating Behaviour Change Training – IEMA Approved July 2020
Excellence of Design Award for the graduate class of 2010
Summa Cum Laude 2010 and Dean’s List every term from 2007 to 2010
Recipient of the Don and Judy Miller Scholarship for the Visual Arts
Incredible Edibles, Skipton since February 2022
The Climate App since August 2022
Startup Bootcamp - Mentor Sustainability and Design, September 2021 - March 2022
Green Impact Auditor - Brunel University, July 2020 - August 2020
Rotary Club, February 2018 - September 2019
Textile Exchange - Consumer Research, February 2019 - September 2019
Adobe CC - Illustrator, Photoshop, XD, InDesign
Figma
Zeplin
Notion / Webflow
Asana / Trello / Jira
Basics HTML & CSS
CEO Eco Audit
SimaPro
SolidWorks
