I am Chela Giraldo

👉🏼 She / Her / Ella

HEY GIRL HEEY!

👉🏼 Pronounced as "hella" but with a c - Chela. Many people call me Hella Chela or Bella Chela!

👉🏼 From Colombia 🇨🇴, based in Austin, TX 🇺🇸

👉🏼 Collaboration is core to my creative process!

LET ME SHARE MY DESIGN STORY WITH YA!

Growing up I was always a curious kid, always fascinated with shapes and colors and I think that's why I became a designer. My childhood and cultural background have shaped the way I approach my work and helped me develop the skills I have today.

I grew up in Bogotá, Colombia as a vegetarian; It was a challenge because Colombians are all about "potatoes and meat" - being vegetarian was not easy at all. But my mom taught me the value of empathy and compassion for ALL beings, no matter how challenging it was. These values stayed with me throughout my life and have guided me to make choices thinking about the impact they have on others. 5 years ago I became vegan, taking my empathy and compassion to the next level.

As a child, my mom always said that I had an "eagle eye." At the time, I wasn't exactly sure what she meant, but as I got older I understood. I was constantly observing everything around me, whether I was playing with blocks and making sure they were perfectly aligned and organized by colors/shapes or setting the table and noticing if a spoon or fork was off-center, I was always paying attention to small details. I still do, I just can't help but notice the little things!

I pursued a degree in Industrial Design because I was passionate about creating products that could positively impact people's lives. For a lot of my projects including my thesis, I experimented with recyclable materials and was always focused on sustainability.

After graduation, I found myself working as a graphic designer - using my sense of balance and consistency to create visually stunning designs. After six years in the field, I started creating landing pages and asking myself, "why do I have to create a button from scratch every time I make a landing page for the same website?"

Aaaand, ladies and gentlemen, that's when I discovered my true passion - product design and design systems. I've been hooked ever since!

These days I work as a product designer and let me tell you, my "eagle eye" and empathy have been a real asset to me in this role. My attention to detail helps me create visually stunning and consistent products, and my ability to understand users' needs allows me to make attractive, functional, meaningful, and impactful products. I am so stoked to be able to use my skills to make a positive difference in the world, YAY!

I'm the crazy child here

Oh so stylish

Me, presenting my thesis work

DESIGN POWERHOUSE

With a background in industrial and visual design, I have developed a wide variety of skills that seamlessly integrate with one another, giving me confidence and the capability to take on fun challenges ♥️

MY FIGMA PERSONA

I did the Figma Persona quiz to identify what kind of designer I am and how I create and collaborate in Figma, and the result was spot on: Branch Merger 😎

" You are an organized, expressive collectivist. You may have uttered the phrase "let's go back to first principles" more than a few times in the past week. "A messy canvas is a messy mind," (yup) you chant to yourself as you rearrange your team's stickies by topic and color. Somewhere in your workspace is a fresh notebook and a set of highlighters just waiting to be cracked open.

You keep your team moving forward with a mix of expressiveness and guided structure—after all, H2 planning should be fun (right? right!). Whether facilitating a design crit or organizing the digital icebreaker session for a remote holiday party, your mode is to circle back, huddle up, and align."

FUN FACT!

I have been skating since 2011. Back home, I was the champion of the women's Colombian ranking for 3 years in a row.

I am fortunate enough to be sponsored by many brands; because of that, I had the opportunity to travel, skate, and meet many different people around the globe.

YAY! Thanks, skateboarding!

I am a professional downhill skateboarder 🏄🏼‍♀️

YEP, YOU ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT ME!

I hope you enjoyed learning about who I am and what I do. Now that we've gotten to know each other, I would love to hear from you.