LI-ANNE
ARABELLA
DIAS
I design, build, and grow world-class brands and effective teams.
I'm currently leading brand and growth design as Executive Creative Director at Handshake. Previously, I led brand design at Grammarly and scaled the brand design team, systems, craft, and communications as they launched their enterprise business and grew from $43 million to over $250 million in revenue and from a design org of 4 people to over 50.
Before that, I was the first brand designer at Reddit where I built the first 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.
I’ve worked with brands like Uber, Capgemini, Olympus, Winnie Labs, and more—and currently 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 am based in Oakland, 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 Twitter or Instagram
If you like flaming bananas and three-legged mushrooms, check out my online store.
I design, build, and grow world-class brands and effective teams. 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.
I design, build, and grow world-class brands and effective teams.
I'm currently leading brand and growth design as Executive Creative Director at Handshake. Previously, I led brand design at Grammarly and scaled the brand design team, systems, craft, and communications as they launched their enterprise business and grew from $43 million to over $250 million in revenue.
Before that, I was the first brand designer at Reddit where I built the first 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.
I’ve worked with brands like Uber, Capgemini, Olympus, Winnie Labs, and more—and currently 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 am based in Oakland, 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 or get in touch on twitter for inquiries
If you like flaming bananas and three-legged mushrooms, check out my online store.
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 Oakland, 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 Twitter or Instagram
If you like flaming bananas and three-legged mushrooms, check out my online store.
BREX 2025–Present
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.
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
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
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
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
Please get in touch for detailed case studies.
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
REDDIT BRAND 1.0 2015
In 2015, Reddit had not seen any significant design updates for more than a decade since its inception. With rapidly growing brand awareness and significant product updates on the way, it was time to evolve the brand and tell a memorable, cohesive story.
Together with a lean team of two product designers and co-founder Alexis Ohanian, I built Reddit's first brand identity and design systems. We would go on to use this visual language for the launch of the first Reddit app, and Reddit's first major integrated brand campaigns and product launches. The “orange-red” color scheme and iconography we developed are integral parts of the brand to this day.
REDDIT TEAM
Celestine Maddy, Vicky Chang, Nika Dyen Alexis Ohanian
Erica Firment, Derek Hunten, Tavish Maclellan, Jen Morrow
GRAMMARLY 2019–2022
I scaled the brand design team, systems, craft, and communications at Grammarly as they grew from $43 million to over $250 million in revenue and from a design org of 4 people to over 60.
Starting with a team of 1, I built a high performing brand design studio of over 20, collaborating with over 100 marketers and stakeholders to craft highly effective, distinct, and memorable experiences for all audiences at scale. (Our creative Black Friday campaigns, for example, brought in 1M+ in bookings over 24-48 hour periods.)
I also partnered with executive leadership on key narratives, fundraising, and managed a creative ops function to ensure high-quality work at scale or engage top-tier agencies for major projects when necessary.
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
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
LI-ANNE
ARABELLA
DIAS