Calin Balea

Studio Contrast

Contrast Studio is a design partner for start-ups looking to design better, establish a strong foundation, avoid common mistakes, and speed up the journey to product-market fit. 
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Looking for a design partner who can deliver quickly and understands the start-up game?
Email us at hey@contrast.studio.

Founder & Designer

MVP Factory

Running design portfolio interviews for new talent that's being added to the MVPF network.

Design Domain Expert

Toptal

Toptal is a network of the top 3% of worldwide talent in design, development, marketing, and finance. Having crossed that bar, I'm now available for projects through Toptal at https://www.toptal.com/designers/resume/calin-balea.

Freelance Product Designer

Mochary Method

👤 As the only designer on a small team, I was involved in the entire production process, from strategy to final design. 

💬 Interviewed users to understand their needs or how the product is performing, summarized findings, and presented them to the team regularly.

🧭 Advised on product roadmap prioritization and strategy

💻 Designed dozens of new features and improvements

🔨 Collaborated with developers to get features implemented

Senior Product Designer

Havr

Single designer in the company working between both the product and marketing departments.

Most of my work was product-focused, helping shape and design major new features and improvements to the apps that make up the BrightLock system (iOS, Android, and web)

✅ Helped redesign the marketing website to drive more conversions (havr.io) and develop it in Webflow

✅ Refreshed the company logo and occasionally designed marketing collateral and printed materials for the physical product (user manual, etc.)

Xapo

Worked as part of an 8-person design team.

Spearheaded the adoption of Figma in the company and setting up the first design system

Designed features in the mobile app necessary for ordering and managing Xapo's new bank card

Helped design a concept app that won the company hackathon (Madrid, 2018). Fun stuff.

Product Designer

Crossover for Work

Involved in designing new features for the Crossover hiring platform
Contributed to setting up the first design system in the company
Lead the design of Worksmart, a new productivity-focused time-tracker, working directly with the CEO, Andy Tryba

UI Designer

eJobs Romania

For the first 12 mo. I was the only designer on the team, collaborating with both the tech and marketing departments
I refreshed the company logo and designed marketing materials for the release of the refreshed brand
I redesigned the main sections of the website (homepage, job search, candidate profile, company profile)
I redesigned the mobile app for candidates, fixing a long list of usability issues
In early 2017 I helped hire the second designer that went on to take charge of design for marketing efforts so I could focus more on product
I led the redesign of the ejobs ATS working with management, customer support, and development to define product strategy, identify paint points, and define features

I'm the founder of Contrast Studio - an interface and brand design studio for new ventures. 
I designed apps, websites, and brand identities that helped my startup clients raise over $20mil in aggregated funding.

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What you get:
→ Updates on tasks delivered every 48 hours
→ Daily communication in Slack
→ 90 min. per week for calls
→ Access to our exclusive collection of software deals (save over $250k)
→ Transparent project management in Notion and Figma
→ Access to all our design services (UI, UX, branding)
→ Creative direction and product strategy consultancy included

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Need a strong design partner? Book a call
Link in the Featured section below 👇

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