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Sharpening the pencil…

The handCraftMore than 10 years with the pencil up: UX/UI, branding and production.
The headJudgmentI think about the business problem first, and then about the screen.
The heartCareI design for the people who use it and for the people who build it.
The stomachMethodI digest every problem in parts: I research, iterate and document.
The fistDriveI take ideas all the way to production, using AI to move faster.
The feetIndependenceI can walk alone when needed, and I always walk with the team.

Rafael Rubiano · Product designer

I design products
people actually use

More than 10 years turning business ideas into clear interfaces: self-service kiosks with more than 2,000,000 orders a year, CRMs, field apps and complete brands.

Scroll and open me

Inside

This is what I bring

Scroll slowly, one part at a time

This is what I'm made of

And I want to keep creating

I'm looking for a project where I can keep experimenting, inventing and growing. Take a look at what I've built.

Keep scrolling

Projects

01
Product · Service · Design system

Otter · Self-service kiosks

+2,000,000 orders in 2024

View on Behance — Otter · Self-service kiosks (opens in a new tab)
  • Service
  • UX/UI
  • Design system
  • Dashboard
  • White label

The challenge

Otter needed a white-label self-service kiosk: one product that each restaurant chain could dress up with its own logos and colors, and that could sell fast and without errors to customers ordering on their own, standing up and in a hurry.

What I did

I designed the whole service, not just the screens: the ordering flow, the design system that makes it customizable, and an admin dashboard where each client changes their logos, colors and menu. At KFC Mexico it runs on more than 500 kiosks and handled more than 2,000,000 orders in 2024.

02
Product · Data · UX/UI

YADAS · Business intelligence in the CRM

From seeing numbers to understanding them

View on Behance — YADAS · Business intelligence in the CRM (opens in a new tab)
  • Research
  • UX
  • UI
  • BI
  • CRM

The challenge

The sales team was asking for more screens in their CRM. In interviews with salespeople and management, the real problem came up: they had plenty of data, but nobody was reading it to decide who to call and what to offer.

What I did

The research showed they didn't need to see more numbers, they needed to understand them. I designed a business intelligence module that turns data into insights: sales and growth indicators, a traffic light that marks each client as healthy, needs attention or at risk based on their buying cycle, and reactivation alerts.

03
Product · Redesign · UX/UI

DKSilos · Bayer

From the field to the screen

Case study coming soon
  • Redesign
  • Dashboard
  • UX/UI
  • Field app
  • Agriculture

The challenge

Bayer needed a full redesign of DKSilos, the platform where its field sales reps log sales and inventory of seeds and agrochemicals, and the starting information was vague. I did it at the same time as the KFC kiosks, so prioritizing was part of the challenge.

What I did

I redesigned the platform end to end, including its dashboard: one-on-one sessions with the client, a scalable toolkit with the team, and the app with sales details, inventory logging and users by role and region.

04
Art direction · Event

Luxor · 20 years of dance

20 posters and counting

Case study coming soon
  • Art direction
  • Composition
  • Posters
  • Print
  • Web

The challenge

Luxor Danza Árabe has been my client for years: I've already designed 20 posters for them. For their 20th anniversary they needed to announce the gala with four guest artists from Colombia, Ukraine and Panama.

What I did

I built a visual world around an Egyptian sunset: one poster per artist and a group poster, all with the same temple, the golden lotus flowers and the 20-year seal, plus the anniversary landing page.

05
Design system · Product

YADAS · Design system

One source of truth, from paper to screen

Case study coming soon
  • Design system
  • Tokens
  • Documentation
  • DevOps

The challenge

The print catalog, the e-commerce site and the internal modules were growing in parallel, and each one solved things its own way: the same product card had four different heights, and half the text was showing up in Inter by default instead of Sora, the brand typeface.

What I did

I built the complete design system: I themed Ant Design with YADAS colors and created components with all their states. For returns and dropshipping I handed development a spec sheet per screen, flows, states and the code already set up, and I started using AI to clean up and organize the design files.

06
Brand · Illustration · Packaging

Feeling Good · Handmade kefir

From lettering to the bottle

View on Instagram — Feeling Good · Handmade kefir (opens in a new tab)
  • Own business
  • Lettering
  • Illustration
  • Packaging
  • Print

The challenge

Feeling Good is my own handmade kefir business. The challenge was making a drink that few people know feel interesting: with a story, a character and packaging that makes you want to try it.

What I did

I hand-drew the logo in lettering and illustrated Ana, the cow with heart-shaped glasses, with 11 poses and 10 faces. I took it all to the glass: front label, back label with custom icons printed in UV DTF, stickers and flyers to launch the brand in the neighborhood. Design that leaves the screen and ends up in your hand.

07
Own business · Product design

Quesito Pa' Llevar · 3D wall hooks

From my dog to your wall

Visit the store — Quesito Pa' Llevar · 3D wall hooks (opens in a new tab)
  • Own business
  • Product design
  • Illustration
  • 3D modeling & printing
  • Packaging
  • Web

The challenge

Quesito is my dog, adopted from the street. I wanted to turn his face into a product: a wall hook with an open mouth to hang the leash, the keys or bags. It's my own business, and I designed it from the idea to the customer's wall.

What I did

I did the product design from start to finish: I illustrated Quesito with his own rules, 8 poses and 12 stickers; I created the brand, with the hand-lettered logo and its crown; I modeled 5 dog breeds, keychains and accessories in Blender, and I 3D print them in four finishes, one of them glows in the dark. I also designed the little-house box printed in DTF, the UV stickers, the Instagram posts and the website, with a 3D configurator to choose breed, color and wall.

My name is Rafael, but people call me Räfá

If one word
defines me, it’s

Verde.

Verde (green) is what's alive and keeps growing. An idea that gets tested, fixed and improved every week; a product that is never completely finished.

That's how I work and how I want to grow: learning along the way, leaving things better than I found them, and working with a team that also wants to move forward.

  • Grow
  • Learn
  • Propose
  • Iterate
  • Care
  • Move forward

Why work with me

Strengths

  • 01

    Strategic thinking

    I balance UX and UI and design for scale: I plan for growth, prevent errors and improve processes to build solid products.

  • 02

    Iterative process

    I'm always improving things. Every version is validated with real feedback to make the experience better and bring more value to the business.

  • 03

    Experience

    More than 10 years of solid processes and attention to detail, creating visual solutions that express the brand's identity and meet its goals.

  • 04

    Using AI

    I use artificial intelligence, ethically, to turn ideas into reality faster, sharpen creative precision and automate repetitive work.

Because failing is also designing

My failure résumé

Four times something went wrong. Flip each card to see what I did.

01YADAS · Automation

My first image automation

What went wrong

The first workflow to generate product images with AI went pretty badly: images full of mistakes, off-brand, and we had to redo them by hand.

01YADAS · Automation

What I did

I went deeper into the process and iterated on it five times. Today the workflow is defined: images come out with high design standards and are easy to replicate.

01 / 04

Failure is not the end: it’s part of the process.