I advise early-stage founders at Blume Ventures and Sequoia India (now Peak XV Ventures) on design hiring, design systems, product, growth, brand design, and marketing. I'm based in San Francisco, California.
Press:
Creative Review: Li-Anne Dias on Balancing Design Leadership with Play By Aimee Mclaughlin
Print Magazine: What matters to Li-Anne Dias by Debbie Millman
Page Magazine: From the Inside Out. How in-house design leaders offer creatives new career paths.
Email me for inquiries or get in touch on Linkedin or Instagram.
If you like flaming bananas and three-legged mushrooms, check out my online store.
LI-ANNE ARABELLA DIAS
I design and build world-class brands, and lead the teams behind them. I'm currently Executive Creative Director at Brex. Previously, I was ECD at Handshake.
At Grammarly I grew a team of 1 to a high performing brand studio of over 20, collaborating with over 100 marketers and stakeholders to craft highly effective, distinct, and memorable experiences for all audiences at scale, launching new products and take new revenue streams to market, as they grew from $43M to over $250M in revenue.
About 11 years ago, I was the first brand designer at Reddit where I built foundational visual systems, libraries, principles, and creative directed their first major integrated campaigns and launches including their native app. I've also worked with editorial teams and art-directed features on Wired, Techcrunch, Yahoo News, and more.
BREX 2025–Present
Currently at Brex, I’m helping build a performance brand that reflects the realities of founders and finance teams who are pushing to do more and go further. I lead creative across all surfaces as we expand into new segments and markets.
I’ve helped raise the bar for both the work and the team, moving the brand into more expressive, bold territory. I'm closely involved in the design and currently focused on building a strong creative in-house practice.
CREDITS:
Art direction and design: Sojin Kim, Suvani Dave, Julie Cho, Sophia Zempel
Creative direction, film and video: Skyler Vander Molen
Motion design: Bruno Nogueira, Tim Hubner
Experiential and spatial design: Heather Hale, Ellesse Imongirie
Copywriting: Abby Landers, MJ Speakman
Interaction design: Renee Ferro
Production: Iris Hung, Jeremy Arth, Galina Mishniakova
Production design: Steve Fan
Agency Partners: Even Odd, XYZ
Our most recent brand campaign, introducing agentic finance in a way that feels real, not abstract.
Grounded in everyday finance problems, the work uses humor and lived-in moments to show how systems can take action to drive speed, control, and accuracy. We are eolling this out across film, out of home, and digital, positioning Brex as mission control for modern finance teams.
We're pushing the visual language to match the intensity of the product.
Bold, compressed type. High-contrast layouts. Graphics that feel fast, direct, and slightly confrontational.
The system breaks from polished finance tropes, using scale, motion, and disruption to communicate urgency and control.
Experiences are a core part of the Brex brand.
We're designing moments that meet audiences where they already are, across segments and stages of the funnel. Instead of inserting ourselves into culture, we build within it. Creating environments, objects, and interactions that feel native to their world and impossible to ignore.
The goal is relevance, presence, and ownership of the moment.
HANDSHAKE 2022–2025
As Executive Creative Director at Handshake, I overhauled the Handshake brand, and led design for all things outside product design as they grew from $100 million to nearly 1 billion between 2022 and 2025.
I established a strong design practice, hired top designers, and onboarded agencies to support sales, localization, and demand generation for our teams in North America and Europe. I also collaborated with company leadership on strategic business deals and large-scale initiatives like Handshake AI, driving business growth.
Press:
Forbes This Gen Z Jobs Site Wants To Give Employers A TikTok Alternative
CREDITS
Art direction and design: Stef Jung, Kelsey Cordutsky, Aqua Xie, Bal Icme
Brand Writing and strategy: Brianna Jacobson
Motion design: Oleg Shcherba, Matt Ebling
Operations: Beth Leggett, Anna Graney
Production design: Sean Hipkin, Parker Richard
Agency Partners: Manual, Planthouse, Superside, Datalands
GRAMMARLY 2019–2022
At Grammarly, I scaled the brand design team, systems, and communications as the company grew from $43M to over $250M in revenue, and from a design org of 4 to over 60.
Starting as a team of 1, I built a high-performing brand studio of over 20, partnering with 100+ marketers and stakeholders to deliver distinct, high-impact work at scale. Our campaigns directly drove revenue, including $1M+ in 24–48 hours during Black Friday.
I also partnered with executive leadership on key narratives and fundraising, while building the systems and operations needed to maintain quality at scale.
Press:
How Grammarly Built A $13B+ Brand Targeting Simple Typos Foundation
How Grammarly Climbed Its Way to 30 Million Daily Users Worldwide, Hackernoon
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GRAMMARLY BRAND DESIGN TEAM
Art direction and design: Kim Vu, Elena Godina, Kyle Knobel, Sarah Jacczak, Daria Ivanova, Jesse Sanchez
Illustration: Matt wong, Yuliana Tsikalo, Christina Jung
Motion design: Oleg Shcherba, Ace Eichten, Matt Ebling
Operations: Kendra Rankin, Rachel Sa Onoy, Lauren Hirata
Interactive design: Alex Baldwin, Justin Graham, Soheil Najjaran
Production design: Sean Hipkin
Agency Partners: Stink studios, Intrepid, Superside, Planthouse, Studio Dumbar, Bokeh, Mustache
REDDIT BRAND 1.0 2015
In 2015, I was the first brand designer at Reddit. I built the company’s first brand identity and design system, which went on to define the launch of the Reddit app and its first major campaigns. The visual language we created remains core to the brand today.
REDDIT TEAM
Alexis Ohanian, Celestine Maddy, Vickie Chang, Nika Dyen, Erica Firment, Derek Hunten, Tavish Maclellan, and Jen Morrow
LI-ANNE ARABELLA DIAS
I design and build world-class brands and lead the teams behind them. I’m Executive Creative Director at Brex, previously ECD at Handshake. At Grammarly, I scaled brand from a team of 1 to 20+, partnering with 100+ marketers to launch products and drive growth from $43M to $250M in revenue.
I was the first brand designer at Reddit, where I built foundational systems and led early campaigns, including the launch of their native app. I’ve also art-directed editorial work across Wired, TechCrunch, and Yahoo News.
I advise early-stage founders at Blume Ventures and Peak XV on design, growth, and brand. I live in San Francisco.
Press:
Creative Review: Li-Anne Dias on Balancing Design Leadership with Play By Aimee Mclaughlin
Print Magazine: What matters to Li-Anne Dias by Debbie Millman
Page Magazine: From the Inside Out. How in-house design leaders offer creatives new career paths.
Email me for inquiries or get in touch on Linkedin or Instagram.
If you like flaming bananas and three-legged mushrooms, check out my online store.
Paying it forward with design and illustration
Over the years, I've worked with community leaders in San Francisco and Oakland as a creative partner and designer. It's something I find deeply rewarding.
Some highlights include out-of-home advertising design for Oakland Pride, editorial design and illustration for 826 Valencia, and painting a San Francisco Heart, for the benefit of heart research at the San Francisco General Hospital.
Volunteering, Design Leadership