All Turtles

Sr. Director of Design
2021- 2025
Remote
US

Context

All Turtles is a product studio that partners with founders and teams to build tech-driven companies in productivity, health, communication, and other domains. In this role, I joined as the Senior Director of Design to lead creative and product strategy across multiple ventures, helping scale design capability, align brand and product direction, and drive impact through design leadership.

My Role

Led the design organization across the All Turtles venture portfolio, including brand strategy, product design, and creative direction.
Defined the design vision, shaped priorities, and managed design processes that served multiple companies simultaneously.
Built and coached distributed, multidisciplinary teams, from brand, UI/UX, and product design to motion and illustration, to deliver coherent systems and experiences across ventures.
Collaborated closely with founders, product leads, engineering, and marketing to translate business strategy into design execution and ensure alignment between brand, product, and growth teams.

My Team

Over the years, I’ve led multidisciplinary design teams that blend strategy, creativity, and execution. My teams have spanned Design Operations, Product Design, Content Design, and Brand Design—bringing together a diverse mix of thinkers and makers.

Team Crafts:

Product Design – Crafting intuitive, high-impact digital experiences
Content Design – Shaping narratives and user communication
Brand Design – Building cohesive and recognizable identities
Visual Design – Creating compelling visual systems
Motion Design – Bringing brands and products to life through movement
Illustration – Adding depth, personality, and storytelling
Design Operation – Ensuring efficiency, collaboration, and scalability

This structure allowed us to create seamless user experiences while building resonant brands. Let’s discuss how great design can drive real impact.

Partners

We worked on several projects that vary in stages from 0 to 1 to growth. My team supported the partners on conceptualization, prototyping, branding, product design, illustration, motion, environmental, and development.

Key Achievements

Drove the development of shared design frameworks and governance across ventures, enabling design teams to move faster, stay aligned, and scale their efforts.
Elevated the standard of brand expression across multiple startups, helping each launch with a solid identity, product interface, and cross-channel communication strategy.
Introduced strategic innovation practices (prototype sprints, validation loops) to venture teams, accelerating decision-making and reducing uncertainty in early-stage products.
Cultivated a strong design culture within a distributed environment, improving collaboration, clarity of roles, and designer growth, including mentorship, critique rituals, and leadership development.

Why This Matters

In a fast-moving studio environment, clarity and alignment are rare but critical. By leading design as a strategic function, not just a service, I helped All Turtles shift from “brand/product design happens here” to “design shapes how we create and scale companies.” The businesses became stronger, the teams became more resilient, and the design function gained influence and confidence.

What People I Worked With Say About Me

Chris Ploeg - All Turtles

Clio reported directly to Chris at All Turtles

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more positive, empathetic, or passionate design leader than Clio. He brings a rare combination of structure and heart to his work—detail-oriented while remaining attuned to the needs of his team. Clio brings intentionality to his work, from the way he facilitates collaboration to how he nurtures a culture of creativity and collaboration.

Through thoughtful design rituals and collaborative practices, Clio empowers his teams to co-create the culture they want to be part of. Clio leads with both precision and care, and any team would be lucky to have him.

Namika Hamasaki- All Turtles

Namika reported directly to Clio

Clio is an exceptional manager. Since joining All Turtles, he’s helped shape our culture and build a strong sense of team bonding, even in a fully remote environment. He’s also a thoughtful and supportive coach. When I was uncertain about how to grow in my career, he offered valuable feedback and helped me build a clear growth strategy.
I’d love to work with Clio again – any team would be lucky to have him!

Christina King - All Turtles

Christina reported directly to Heraclio at All Turtles

Clio is a highly skilled, energizing, and incredibly talented senior manager. I have always felt welcome and motivated in his presence, always encouraged to push the envelope. I have been working under his fearless supervision for almost three years, and it was a fulfilling experience. He was always available to provide guidance and support to me, helping me in every aspect of my career and encouraging me to improve my skills. Clio instills positive energy in every team member, keeping everyone focused on what needs to be achieved and goes above and beyond to maintain the team spirit, which is critical in a remote setting. He uses innovative approaches to tackling and solving problems, which has been invaluable to me. He is such an inspiration for me, and I feel proud to have worked under his guidance.

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