I'm a brand designer who has built identity systems on three continents, in two languages, and under every condition imaginable — from global agency budgets to zero-budget hustle.

I started at FutureBrand Santiago straight out of university, working on national-scale identities — a masterclass in how big brands are built and protected. A screenprinting course then pulled me to Melbourne, where staying meant starting over: no network, a second language, visa restrictions that shut most doors. I rebuilt my design career from zero, freelancing across every industry and budget under my own studio, Studio Ratusa — a surf soap brand, a Melbourne fashion label, a Dubai bakery, my own stationery line — before landing the Melbourne Fashion Festival as Senior Designer in 2019.

Then I went deep instead of wide. For 5.5 years I was Senior Brand Designer on Culture Amp's Creative Team, a distributed team helping a global SaaS brand grow up. I collaborated with nearly every corner of the company, across nearly every format a modern brand needs. My signature contribution was operational: turning brand thinking into usable systems — templates, repeatable series, modular booths, and asset logic that made the brand easier for others to use well.

What kind of designer does that make me?

A systems thinker with craft roots — I care as much about how something feels as I do about how it scales across a global team.

An adapter — shaped by agency rigour, immigrant resourcefulness, freelance range, and in-house operational thinking.

A builder — of brands, of businesses, of systems, and, twice now, of my own career from the ground up.