brightly colored illustration of raquel holding her shirt

about me

Raquel

Breternitz

I am an award-winning designer, leader, and strategist, with a unique bent for research-driven work with a high level of design quality and polish. I am passionate about inclusion, accessibility, and keeping tech human (and human-focused).

Right now I'm a Founding Lead Designer at [redacted]. More soon!

Previously I was a Staff Designer at Shopify, working on the Polaris design system. I was the Design Director for Elizabeth Warren for President, a Lead Product Designer at The New York Times, and a Staff Designer at Pivotal Labs, now VMWare Tanzu. See the full breadth of my experience on my LinkedIn.

Also I speak on topics including accessibility & inclusion, politics, and design ethics, and I love to moderate panels. I have spoken at places like Design System University, PluralSightLIVE, QTBIPOC Design, Out in Tech, Lesbians Who Tech, O’Reilly Design, LCAD, NYU Startup School, and The University of Texas at Austin. I also give talks to individual product teams including at Mailchimp, Spotify, and IBM. I love comics, travel, and Very cute cat with white fur and blue eyesmy cat.

Work with me I provide creative consulting and speaking. I’m also taking on illustration and comics work. ()