Glòria Langreo

Hi there, Glòria! Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what you do?

Sure, yes! I am a designer based in Barcelona, I’ve been working as a Design Director at GitHub for the past 2 years in my lovely home office surrounded by plants, sewing machines, and mechanical keyboards. Prior to that, I worked at a plethora of digital companies for the past 20 years, such as Sketch, XING, and Tuenti.

How did your journey to becoming a designer begin?

I was hired by a small agency in 1999 to translate millions of prices from Pesetas to Euros calculator in hand in thousands of HTML tables to face 2YK. I hated it, so I learned programming and SQL to automatize the process and finish faster. This prompted me to study for an Engineering degree and a Graphic Design one right after.

What do you enjoy the most about working as a Design Director at GitHub?

Getting to lead a multi-talented group of designers to leverage solutions that have an impact in society and feeling that we’re defining the future of software development brings me much joy daily.

What do you hate the most of it?

Being far away from the pixels most of the time. Not like I hate it, but it’s more of a FOMO situation. Moving to management some years ago also meant accepting not being up to date with the latest design tooling updates. But days don’t have 36 hours and it is what it is.

Could you share a tip with other designers?

Being highly proficient on your hard skills is not what will move you up in the career path. Working on multiple projects and having to face different setups, structures, and projects together with succeeding and failing at them is what will take you to the next level. Experience is what helps to connect the dots and being able to navigate any project with confidence.