Creative Operations Lead in Barcelona. Fifteen years as a designer, the last four leading creative operations at Alura, Brazil's largest EdTech.
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From reactive in-house team to creative operations unit
At Brazil's largest EdTech, I rebuilt how design and video work flows. Rework fell 42% and output rose 30%, and that productivity drew more professionals into the team after company restructurings.
Two developer brands, each with its own place
I worked with the CEO to redesign both identities, give Galaxy its own place in a wider market, and ship toolkits that let developers and marketers create on their own.
An award-winning RPG podcast, run like a product
I founded and run a tabletop RPG media brand with more than 1,000 episodes. Rebuilding its production system grew listener support by 45% and ad and partnership revenue more than five times.
An identity for beauty with autonomy
A full identity for a São Paulo hair and beauty studio: logo, palette, patterns, key visuals and Instagram templates the team uses on its own.
Growing up without losing the DIY spirit
A tabletop RPG podcast needed to look more professional without losing its hand-made charm. Listener research and pen-and-paper sketching led to a logo, a cast of characters, social templates and merch.
Good rules make better play. These are mine.
Tools change every year. I start from what the team needs to ship, then pick the simplest thing that gets it there.
I was a designer long before I ran operations. Scaling output is only a win if the work still looks right.
Libraries, templates and brandbooks written for non-designers, so people create on-brand work without waiting for a designer.
Rework, throughput, time to publish. I set a baseline first, so every change can prove it helped.
Designer first, operator second, game master always.
I'm Rafael, a Brazilian designer who learned to run the machine behind creative work.
I started in agencies and in-house teams across branding, retail, show business, finance and every other kind of business. After some years teaching design, I spent the last four leading creative operations at Alura. Outside corporate work, I run Café com Dungeon, an award-winning tabletop RPG and game studies podcast I founded in 2018. Studying games taught me a lot of what I know about leading creative people: set clear rules, share the right inspiration, give precise technical feedback, then get out of the way.
From designer to creative operations.
I'm a Barcelona resident, open to Creative Operations, Brand Systems and Creative Lead roles. I work in English and Portuguese, and I'm learning Spanish.
rafael.balbi@gmail.com
