about
I build and direct brand and product systems, end to end.
experience
4+ years
location
Paris (FR)
occupation
Design & Creative Direction
hello :)
I direct brand and product systems and build them end to end. Increasingly that means working with AI in the loop and shipping the real thing to production myself. Today I own design and creative direction across product, brand, and marketing at Candosa, which I took from 0→1 as the founding designer. Before design went full-time, I spent four years doing scalability and strategy at Qonto, which taught me to build systems that scale.
how i work
I design and I ship in production.
Most designers hand over a mockup. I hand over working frontend.
I work in an AI-native setup: I design in Figma, then build the frontend directly in the codebase, in a branch, and ship it to production. I take a feature from exploration to a production-ready PR myself, and engineers pick up the backend only when there is one. Most of the path has no handoff at all.
At Candosa we set up the team's whole ship process around this: design owns the frontend through to production, tech owns the backend, and we meet at a clean handoff. The point was to put as little distance as possible between an idea and live code.
One less seam. I take a problem from research to brand to product to shipped, and speak to the engineers in their own terms the whole way.
work experience
Senior Product Designer @ Candosa
Jul 2025 — now
Owning design and creative direction end to end across product, brand, and marketing.
Founding Designer
Jun 2024 — Jul 2025
Sole designer for the first year, taking Candosa from 0→1 across product and brand. Laid the visual foundations the company still builds on.
Brand Designer (Freelance) @ RNB Renaissance
Nov 2023 — now
Started with a full rebrand; now I shape the creative direction across everything the label puts out, from social and video to physical branding.
Designer / CD @ Freelance
2017 — 2024
Seven years of independent work alongside studios, artists, and labels. Visual identity, graphic design, and creative direction for editorial, music, and brand.
Senior Strategic Operations Manager @ Qonto
Mar 2022 — Jun 2024
Strategy and scale during hypergrowth at one of Europe's fastest-growing fintechs. Led cross-functional projects across product, ops, and finance, and built the systems to scale a fast-moving team.
Strategic Operations Manager
Nov 2019 — Feb 2022
Joined pre-Series C to drive scalability across ops, product, and growth as the team scaled from under 100 to 1,000+.
Visual Merchandising (Intern) @ Burberry
Aug 2018 — Jan 2019
Visual merchandising at the French HQ, tuning brand execution to standard around market events.
recommendations
“Aïna is a rare combination of thoroughness and creativity”
“She understands a brand's DNA and translates it into a clear visual direction.”
“Aïna moves between brand, product, and UX without losing consistency or attention to detail.”
stack
Claude Code
Figma
Photoshop
Linear
GitHub
Illustrator
InDesign
Premiere Pro
After Effects
Jira
Netlify
Vercel
Squarespace
Replit
Cursor
Lovable
Webflow
Framer
Midjourney
education
Graphic Design Specialization @ California Institute of the Arts
2023
Main courses: Design Theory, Art History, Imagemaking, Color Theory, Typography, Branding.
Bachelor's degree in Management and Applied Economics @ Université Paris Dauphine — PSL
2019
Main courses: Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Applied Statistics, Financial Mathematics, Financial Accounting, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Economic Culture, Strategy Fundamentals, Company Taxation, Scientific Management & Decision Making, Corporate Social Responsibility, Private Law, Public Law.
Dual degree in European Law and International Studies @ Université de Nantes
2016
Main courses: Constitutional Law, Private Law, Family Law, European legacies, Legal theory and philosophy of law, Sociology, Political Science, Economics, European literature, general culture.
volunteering
President @ Urbaine Paris
2017 — 2018
Design & Communication
2016 — 2017
