photograph of Raquel with light pink glasses, short brown hair, smiling in front of leaves

about me

Raquel

Breternitz

I am a product designer and IC leader specializing in design systems and accessibility: the infrastructure that makes good design possible at scale. I care deeply about inclusion, research-driven thinking, and keeping tech human. I am also a writer, cartoonist, and occasional speaker who believes design is always, at its core, an act of communication.

Right now I'm leading Aurora, Iterable's internal design system, with full ownership over accessibility strategy, craft standards, and implementation across every product surface that ships.

Previously a Founding Lead Designer at GoodDay Software, branding and building a modern ERP for retail small businesses. Just before, I was a Staff Designer at Shopify, working on the Polaris design system. I was the Design Director for Elizabeth Warren for Presidentand a Staff Designer at Pivotal Labs, where I led design for multiple government clients including a full redesign of the US asylum case processing system. See the full breadth of my experience on my LinkedIn.

Also I speak on topics including accessibility & inclusion, politics, and design ethics, and I love to moderate panels. I have spoken at places like Design System University, PluralSightLIVE, QTBIPOC Design, Out in Tech, Lesbians Who Tech, O’Reilly Design, LCAD, NYU Startup School, and The University of Texas at Austin. I also give talks to individual product teams including at Mailchimp, Spotify, and IBM. I love comics, travel, and Very cute cat with white fur and blue eyesmy cat.

Work with me I provide creative consulting and speaking. I’m also taking on branding, illustration and comics work. ()

P.S. This site was personally hand-coded, no AI code or assistance included.