Principal, Northstar Folio
Brooklyn, since 2022. Product design and creative direction for small product teams, mostly on four to twelve week engagements.
Profile
Twelve years of product design, in order.
A Brooklyn product design and creative direction studio run by Elena Cardoso, working with small product teams from first sketch to launch.
Practice boundary
What the studio does—and what it hands off.
Product design, design systems and creative direction. Front-end engineering, brand identity from scratch and paid media get referred out to people who do them better.
Experience
Where the work came from.
Lead product designer, fintech
2018 to 2022. Owned the onboarding and account surfaces, and built the first design system the engineering team actually kept.
Designer, editorial and print studio
2014 to 2018. Layout, type and art direction for magazines and catalogues, which is where the colour habit started.
Qualifications
What can be checked.
- 01
BFA in graphic design, Rhode Island School of Design, 2014.
- 02
Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, IAAP, renewed 2025.
- 03
Working day to day in Figma, Framer and a good deal of paper.