Hello there, my name is Daniele Buffa. I’m a designer originally from sunny Rome and living in London for the past 10 years.
With over 10 years of experience in the design industry, I have had the opportunity to work with industry leaders such as Google, Sony, Headspace and Spotify, as well as fast-growing startups. My work includes creative and interactive web projects, product design and everything in between.
I like to give my profession a high level by thinking in tailor-made visual solutions, meaningful animations and deeply thought-out experiences for the people who ultimately interact with my work.
Over the years my work has been recognized with awards such as a Webby, Lovies, Cannes Lion, D&AD Pencil, CSSDA, FWA and Awwwards Site of the Day. I’ve also had the opportunity to share what I’ve learned through courses curated for platforms like Awwwards, Dribbble, and Domestika.
I have a passion for pushing the boundaries of design and breaking the rules when necessary.
Growing up with art
I grew up in a family surrounded by art and inspiration. My father is an artist and my mother a writer. Our house was filled with paintings, works of art and books, and film also played a big role. We had an entire wall covered in VHS tapes, and I remember staring at them in awe.
That environment naturally sparked my desire to create. I started finding ways to externalize that creativity early on. When my dad started experimenting with Photoshop, I became curious and started playing with it around the age of 12 or 13, browsing design forums and teaching myself. Good old days.
I quickly realized that this was something I loved. I studied graphic design in high school and then attended a design academy for three years, where I really mastered my craft.
In addition to formal education, I remained open to inspiration from everywhere, films, album covers, typography on the street, random texts on walls, and constantly tried to translate those influences into my design work.
Background
I started my professional journey in Rome, working at a small digital agency where I had the opportunity to create digital campaigns and websites for the film industry. I worked on experiences for films like The hateful eight And Miss Peregrine’s home for special childrenand won my first CSS Design Award for the website for which Hacksaw Ridge.
In 2017, I moved to London to join Google Creative Lab. It was an incredible experience that allowed me to work on groundbreaking projects with incredibly talented people.
After Google, I worked at a number of agencies, most notably MetaLab, where I worked for about five years. I started as a product designer and left as a creative director. I then moved to Spotify as a Staff Product Designer, and now I lead design at one of the fastest growing prop-tech startups, Huspy.
I still enjoy it just as much as the first day.
Selected works
Synthetic Theatre
Synthetic Theater is a personal project I started last year, born from explorations around mixing design, movement, storytelling and AI to create imaginative stories. Ultimately, I decided to turn those explorations into a living archive, and that’s how the project came to life.
As a personal project, it became one of my greatest achievements. Synthetic Theater received several awards, including Awwwards and FWA Site of the Day, a Webby Award and two Lovies.
Design is funny
Design Is Funny is my personal brand and portfolio. It plays on my last name, “Buffa,” which translates to “funny” in English, so there you go.
I am convinced that the way you present yourself and your work matters. That’s why I always take great care in designing my portfolio, treating it as a project in itself and not just as a container for work.
Fresco
What is Fresco? Think of Apple CarPlay, but for recipes and smart cooking appliances in the kitchen.
We helped Fresco reshape and redesign the entire product experience, from ‘Guided Cooking’ to ‘My Kitchen’. The challenge was to solve complex usability issues while improving the overall experience through distinctive ‘Fresco moments’ that made the product feel both intuitive and delightful.
Insider
Business Insider approached us for a complete redesign of their mobile app after rebranding to Insider.
They cover a wide range of topics, from business to news to lifestyle, and needed a fresh, solid design system that could better represent their diverse content while remaining current and flexible for the future. The goal was to reflect their new identity through a clearer, more cohesive and expressive mobile experience.
Final comments
Over the past ten years, my journey through design has shaped who I am today. It has made me a better person and helped me keep that creative spark alive.
I’ve explored design in many forms, from branding to web to product and beyond, and I’ve found a renewed passion every time I started something new or created a personal project, purely for the sake of discovery and learning.
Today I work at Huspy, a prop-tech startup that aims to revolutionize the real estate industry. Like every challenge I’ve taken on before, this one is exciting, demanding and exactly what keeps my passion burning.
If you would like to get in touch, you can find me at Instagram, LinkedInor there Design is funny.
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