Denise Saito
Designer & Creative Director

Creative director with a design background, I create visual and immersive narratives for experiences, content and branding projects.

My main skills are

creative direction

design

strategy

experience design

content

management

leadership

production

creative direction projects

GOMA by Meta

creative direction

audiovisual

content

Overview

Meta Brazil Client Council and EmpregueAfro created a program with the aim of accelerating the careers of black people to leadership positions, through a free mentoring content hub. 42 classes, 14 frameworks and 4 podcasts were produced on racial awareness, colorism, non-violent communication, and other topics to train mentors, companies and mentees to develop black professionals for leadership positions.

my role

My role was to direct a team of designer, art director, video editors and audio producers in the production of all audiovisual materials. I also curated the team, made up 100% of black LGBTQIAP+ people.

See project →

Nésblack

creative direction

audiovisual

production

Overview

Nestlé's racial affinity group, Nesblack, needed to create institutional videos to train its employees on topics of race and blackness. Pulsos consultancy created a series of four educational videos for this mission and invited me to produce and direct it.

my role

I acted as producer and creative director in the filming of these audiovisual pieces. I did the executive production, curation of the creative team, art direction and creative direction of designers, video editors and screen writers.

Freela School

creative direction

experience design

design

content

Overview

Freela School is an educational project focused on training and professionalizing creative freelancers. Founded in 2020, it has produced 7 courses, trained more than 500 students, mentored more than 80 professionals and produced countless free content.

my role

As founder, I provide strategic creative direction for the project, plan content editorials, write scripts, manage copywriters, designers, video editors and videomakers, in addition to acting as a teacher, mentor and speaker on the freelancing universe.

See project →

CONTENT DIRECTION projects

Google Black Creator Program

experience design

management

content

production

Overview

Google and Creators.llc created a program to empower 100 black content creators to develop their own web content platform. For 7 months, topics such as finance, self-management, content strategy, storytelling, video editing, monetization and Wordpress were taught.

my role

My participation ranged from planning the program to graduating students. I designed the modules and classes, curated the teachers and monitored the content given by them. I also created and developed the graduation experience that took place online.

See project →

Snapschool

experience design

content

production

Overview

Snapchat was popular in Brazil but in recent years it has lost ground among young people. With this challenge, Creators.llc createad a program to bring it back to the community of young college students.

my role

My role was to develop a program that taught the platform's features and showed what's unique about it, through useful and inspiring classes about storytelling, art direction, video editing, oratory and others. I did lesson planning, teacher curation and content monitoring.

See project →

Learning Design Hub by SEB + WHF

experience design

content

production

Overview

The Learning Design Hub is an initiative that enables educators to use design language on traditional teaching and empowers them to create innovative learning experiences aligned to today's challenges.

my role

I was responsible for planning the program's modules and classes, designing the learning experience, directing the learning materials' creation and helping with the workshops facilitation.

See project →

DESIGN projects

Santander Corre

Ux/ui design

Overview

Santander is the bank that invests the most in street racing, which is why they decided to create a platform focused on this activity. Corre is a content portal for running lovers. The site brings together news, spreadsheets, podcasts and various interactions.

my role

My role was to transpose the art direction created by Diego Franco to digital media, and translate the ideas into a light and intuitive interface.

Bio Ritmo

visual identity

graphic design

brand strategy

Overview

Bio Ritmo is known as a gym but, in fact, it is an aggregator of gyms. This group includes SmartFit, Race Bootcamp, Vydia Studio and Jab House. With so many microgyms, it is a challenge to transmit the brand's visual and verbal communication in a clear and neutral way.

my role

My mission was to create a visual identity that would serve as a receptacle for these sub-brands. In partnership with Estúdio Arnold, and copywriter Alexandre Vasquez, we developed the brand strategy, strategic positioning, verbal and visual identity.

More Grls

Ux/ui design

Overview

More Grls is a non-profit initiative that fights for women's rights and gender equality in communication. Even today, only 26% of creative positions are filled by women, and 4.3%* of leadership positions are occupied by black women. More Grls' mission is to reduce these differences and give visibility to the talent of those who have little space in the market. (*Data from 2020)

my role

I was  responsible for creating the navigation structure and interface design of the platform.

See project →

I consider myself a multimedia professional, with strong creative, leadership, management, organization, communication and oratory skills.

Work Experience

(2024 - now) Partner @ Sentimental Casa & Café
(2021 - now) Freelancer Creative Director & Designer
(2021 – now) Founder @ Freela School
(2018 – 2020) Freelancer Designer
(2018) Creative Strategy Director @ Ponto de Criação
(2016 – 2018) Freelancer Designer
(2015 – 2016) Senior Designer @ UOL TAB
(2013 – 2015) Experience Leader @ MESA
(2013) Visual Designer @ The Kumite
(2012 – 2013) Brand Project Coordinator @ FLAGCX
(2012 – 2015) Co-Founder & Designer @ Estúdio Arnold
(2011 – 2012) Designer @ Ademia de Filmes
(2009 – 2010) Intern @ MES Eventos
Education

(2016) Spring Program @ LungA School, Reykjavik – Iceland
(2010 – 2011) Erasmus in Graphic Design @ Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto, Porto – Portugal
(2008 – 2013) Bachelor of Industrial Design @ Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo – Brazil
Personal Projects

(2020) Freela School
(2019) Freela Feelings
(2018) ASMANA
(2017) Noco Nozco
(2016) The Veganmade
(2015) Cem Saladas Sem Alface
Brands and agencies I have worked with
65|10
Bio Ritmo
Creators.llc
Diet Coke
Droga5
Facebook
Fiat
Gerando Falcões
Google
Globosat
GSK
Gympass
Jab House
Hyper Island
Liberty
MECA
Meta
Natura
Natural da Terra
NeoQuímica
Nestlé
Netflix
O Boticário
Ollo
PUC-Rio
Pulsos
Questto Nó
Riachuelo
Santander
Snapchat
Soko
Suno
The Grid
The Summer Hunter
Unilever

Reach me at denise@freela.school or follow me on Linkedin or Instagram.