01Introduction

I am writing to warmly recommend Julia Mendes for any role seeking a senior-level brand designer with proven strategic impact and genuine leadership qualities. As her direct manager for the past three years at Fortini Studio, I have watched Julia evolve from a strong individual contributor into a designer who consistently shapes business outcomes and elevates everyone around her.

Julia joined Fortini Studio during a period of growth, and she has been instrumental in scaling our creative practice without compromising the quality and specificity that our clients depend on. Her work has become synonymous with the studio's reputation in the Brazilian SMB founder community.

02Strategic Design Leadership & Client Impact

Julia's most distinctive strength is her ability to connect design decisions to business results. This is best illustrated by her rebranding work with a fast-growing fintech client. The brief was challenging: the existing brand felt corporate and impersonal in a market that valued trust and approachability. Julia led discovery interviews with the client's customer base, synthesized findings into a coherent strategic narrative, and executed a complete visual identity system that positioned the fintech as modern yet trustworthy.

Following the rebrand launch, the client reported a 3x increase in signup conversions—a metric that matters far more than aesthetic praise. Julia didn't simply make the brand "look better"; she made it work harder for the business.

Across her portfolio, Julia has led rebrand engagements for 14 clients, spanning fintech, e-commerce, B2B SaaS, and consumer services. What distinguishes her work is consistency: clients don't just feel heard in the discovery process; they experience genuine strategic thinking translated into visual language. Several of her past clients have returned for second and third projects, and a notable subset now specifically request Julia by name when engaging Fortini for follow-on work.

03Building Systems & Scaling Operations

Beyond client delivery, Julia identified an operational gap that was slowing the studio's ability to scale quality work. Early in her tenure, each project began from first principles—beautiful work, but time-intensive and prone to inconsistency as the studio grew.

Julia took ownership of designing and building Fortini's complete internal design system. This wasn't a cosmetic exercise. She spent weeks documenting our design principles, establishing typography hierarchies, creating a reusable component library, and building templates for rapid, on-brand client deliverables. The system now serves as the foundation for all new client work and has reduced our design-to-delivery timeline by an estimated 25–30% without sacrificing quality.

This kind of infrastructure work is often invisible to clients, but it's where senior designers prove their strategic maturity. Julia understood that investing time upfront in systems thinking would amplify her own impact and that of the entire team.

04Mentorship & Team Development

Julia has mentored two junior designers during their time at Fortini Studio. Both joined the team with foundational skills but limited real-world project experience. Julia's approach to mentorship is hands-on and generous: she reviews work with specificity, explains the "why" behind feedback, and creates space for juniors to lead projects under her guidance rather than shadowing from the sidelines.

One of these junior designers recently took on a complex rebrand project with Julia in an advisory role, and the client feedback was enthusiastic. The junior's growth in confidence and capability over eighteen months has been visible and earned. Julia treats mentorship as part of her role, not as an afterthought—a mindset that reflects her commitment to building a stronger creative community.

05Work Style & Collaboration

Julia brings a rare combination of technical rigor and genuine warmth to every interaction. She is equally comfortable presenting strategic findings to a first-time founder who is nervous about rebranding their business as she is collaborating with engineers and product designers on complex cross-functional projects.

Her communication is clear and client-focused. She asks excellent questions, listens more than she speaks in discovery phases, and translates feedback into action with grace—even when client requests push against strategic principles. When disagreement arises, she advocates for the work with conviction but remains open to being wrong. That balance between conviction and humility is rare and valuable.

Within the studio, Julia is collaborative and supportive. She contributes generously to internal design critiques, celebrates the wins of her peers, and has become a go-to resource for both technical questions and morale-boosting perspective.

06Reliability & Professionalism

Over three years, Julia has demonstrated the kind of sustained reliability that separates good designers from great ones. She meets deadlines, communicates proactively about blockers, and takes ownership of outcomes—including when things don't go perfectly. She has managed multiple concurrent client engagements without letting quality slip, and she has stepped into higher-stakes projects with composure and focus.

Her portfolio is strong, but it's her integrity and follow-through that impress me most as a manager. I never have to worry about quality, communication, or commitment with Julia.

07Summary & Recommendation

Julia Mendes is a senior-level designer ready for expanded responsibility and impact. She excels at strategy-driven brand work, has proven her ability to build systems and scale operations, and brings genuine investment in the people around her. Whether your organization is seeking to strengthen its in-house design function, scale creative delivery, or develop a design leadership capability, Julia will be a valuable addition.

I recommend her without reservation. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss her work or qualifications further.