Calin Balea

Designer in Bucharest, Romania

Member since November 29, 2017

Calin is a product designer, lean UX practitioner, and branding specialist with experience at both startups and large companies. He's worked on end-to-end product design, from concept and strategy to usability testing to visual design. Calin works well with small teams and startup founders to iterate quickly, test early, and deliver on time.

Branding UI Design UX Design Product Design Logo Design Visual Design User Interface (UI)User Experience (UX)Brand Identity Band Logos Mind Mapping User Research Figma Adobe Creative Suite UX Research Show more

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Portfolio

Digital Design

Grover Card
- Mobile Banking
- Financial UX
- Product Design
- Mobile UI
Applicant Tracking System
- UI Design
- UX Design
- UX Research
- Responsive UI
- Responsive Web Design (RWD)
- Wireframing
- Mind Mapping
- Visual Design
- Team Leadership
- Figma
- InVision
- Photoshop CC
- Information Architecture (IA)
- Focus Groups
- HR Tools
- Recruiting
- Job Boards
- Coggle
- User Interviews
- Web UI
- Web App UI
- Web App UX
- Web UX
- B2B
- Product Design
Xapo 2020 Concept
- Mobile Apps
- Figma
- UI Design
- UX Design
- Financial Design
- Mobile Wallet
- iOS App Design
- Android App Design
- Visual Design
- Usability
- Mobile UX Design
- Information Architecture (IA)
- Emotional Design
- Product Design
- Mobile Banking
- Mobile UI
Logo collection
- Logotype
- Logo Design
- Branding
- Brand Guidelines
- Marketing Design
- Marketing Collateral Development
- Visual Design
- Graphic Design
- Versatile Logos
- Software Branding
- Digital Branding
- UI Branding
- Band Logos
- Brand Identity

Employment

Freelance Designer
2017 - PRESENT
Self-employed
- Helped Xapo, a fintech company, design its prepaid card experience.
- Helped Havr, a French company, design new features for the mobile and web apps and redesign the website havr.io.
- Supported Grover, a rapidly-growing German company, redesign the in-app bank card experience.
- Rebranded and redesigned the app of Indiestor, a UK company that sells storage drives and the software used to manage them.
- Rebranded and redesigned the website of DotPerformance, an agency based in the Isle of Man.
- Designed an MVP for Equip, a job board app for the gig economy in construction headquartered in New York.
Technologies: Adobe Creative Suite, Figma
Product Designer
2018 - 2018
Xapo
- Designed the in-app experience of ordering using the pre-paid bank card.
- Redesigned the Xapo app in an exercise to define what the product should become in two years.
- Collaborated with the team to develop the company's first design system in Figma.
Technologies: UI, UX, Mobile UI, Fintech, Mind Maps
Product Designer
2017 - 2017
Online Freelance Agency
- Collaborated closely with the CEO to design a new time-tracking and productivity app.
- Helped design and document the company's first design system.
- Worked with two PMs to design new features to the existing web app.
Technologies: Adobe Creative Suite, UI, Web UI, Design Systems
Lead Designer
2015 - 2017
Ejobs Group
- Initiated the build of the first design department, after working as the only designer in the company.
- Refreshed the company brand by updating the logo and developing a solid visual identity that expresses the company's values and mission.
- Redesigned the eJobs' candidates app: a major component of the eJobs business. It's an app that candidates use to search for jobs, update their CV, and apply.
- Redesigned the company's ATS: the app used by employers to search for candidates, post jobs ads, and manage their hiring process.
- Directed a marketing campaign consisting of five video ads that ran on national TV.
Technologies: Figma, Adobe After Effects, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, InVision

Other Experience

4 Steps to Mastering the MVP Development Process (Publication)
https://www.toptal.com/designers/product-design/mastering-mvp-development-process
In the world of startup products, design resources are scarce. This four-step MVP process helps designers build and launch user-friendly products on time without blowing their budgets.
Gray Matter: What Is a Mind Map in the Design Process? (Publication)
https://www.toptal.com/designers/digital-product-design/what-is-a-mind-map
Mind maps are widely used as a thinking tool. Designers can use them to organize ideas into an arrangement for clarity as well as untangle system complexity to make things more understandable.

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Finance and Banking
2010 - 2013
West University of Timisoara - Timisoara, Romania

Certifications

Certificate in Front-end Development
JANUARY 2018 - PRESENT
TeamTreeHouse.com
Completed Search Fundamentals and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
JANUARY 2012 - PRESENT
Google Romania

Experience

Product Design7 years
Branding7 years
Logo Design7 years
UI Design7 years
UX Design7 years
Figma6 years
Adobe Creative Suite6 years

Tools

Location

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