Marcelo Rondon · cello@cello.design · https://github.com/celloopa

Marcelo Rondon

Product Designer & Design Engineer — Design Systems & AI Tools

Portland, Oregon

About

Product designer and design engineer focused on design systems and human-centered AI tools. I build and run what I design: deterministic code does everything it can, the model gets the smallest trustworthy job, and human approval sits where the consequences are. Recent work includes an AI video pipeline for Asheville Dispensary that replaced 3–5 hours of manual work a week, Ghosted, my AI resume-tailoring product used by 30+ users, and a Payload CMS that two non-technical editors run every day.

Experience

Cello.Design

Independent Product Designer

2021 - Present
My independent design practice: brand and web design from 2021, product design and production code since 2024. Client engagements below, plus:
- Mantera (first client, 2021–2022): designed campaign and marketing materials for retail clients under tight deadlines, working directly with clients through fast iteration cycles.
- The Green Phial: redesigned and maintained the WordPress storefront, translating brand direction into responsive, accessible front-end implementation with improved performance and SEO.
- Accessibility consulting: improved WCAG 2.1 compliance for multiple organizations, including River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, covering screen-reader behavior, keyboard navigation, and performance.
- Legal Impact for Chickens: built secure internal tooling for data-management workflows, handling confidential materials with discretion.
- Ghosted (my product, since January 2026): designed and run an AI resume-tailoring product used by 30+ users, with their feedback shaping each release.
Asheville Dispensary

Product Design Lead / Design Engineer

2022 - Present
Client engagement through Cello.Design · Asheville, NC (Remote)
- Lead product and brand design for three brands (Asheville Dispensary, Plantbar, Nightshade) across web, print and packaging, anchored by a shared Figma design system.
- Built an automated product-to-social video pipeline that replaced 3–5 hours a week of manual design and editing: when a new flower drop is announced in Slack, an AI agent pulls each product's data, generates branded cards and vertical story videos, files them in Asana and queues them for social approval, with duplicate protection, quiet hours and a go-live check so nothing posts early.
- Cut an idle day's running cost from about $12 to $0.30: a script checks for new drops before any model starts, and a stronger model runs only when there's work, measured with a per-run usage report.
- Extending the approach across our design system: print coordination with separate artwork, cost and release approvals is in testing; template-driven presentations and packaging compliance checks are planned.
- Designed and built an internal asset-management tool in React, TypeScript and Tailwind CSS that gives marketing and operations one place to find, manage and preserve brand assets.
- Design and ship reusable UI components into WordPress through custom PHP and JavaScript plugins, closing the gap between mockups and production.
VegAvengers Marketing

Product Designer / Design Engineer

2025 - Present
Client engagement through Cello.Design
- Designed and shipped the organization's content platform on Payload CMS: content model, editorial dashboard, and publish workflow, now run day-to-day by two non-technical editors.
- Built an AI freshness checker as Payload jobs that verifies festival data against primary sources and proposes corrections as drafts, so nothing goes live without editor approval.
- Designed and built the public discovery experience with flexible search across festivals and sanctuaries, served from the CMS with graceful fallbacks so an outage never breaks the site.
Success Academy Charter Schools

Learning Experience Designer / Teacher

2020 - 2021
New York, NY (Remote)
- Designed remote learning experiences for ELA and math using structured learning frameworks.
- Produced educational content and visual aids, applying design thinking to improve comprehension and engagement.
The Fine Print Magazine

Visual Storytelling Lead / Photo Editor

2017 - 2019
Gainesville, FL
- Led a team of photographers and directed visual coverage for editorial stories and events.
- Developed visual direction for fundraising events, using photography and design to improve visibility and engagement.

Skills

HTML
CSS
JavaScript
TypeScript
React
Tailwind
Git
WordPress
PHP
MySQL
Figma
AI Product Design
SwiftUI / SwiftData
Photoshop
Illustrator
After Effects
Premiere
Python
Go

Projects

Ghosted

My AI resume-tailoring product, used by 30+ users: a live resume you edit by chatting, where every AI change is a proposal you keep or reject.

2026
- Designed a live React + Typst resume canvas where every AI edit lands as a highlighted, versioned proposal the person keeps, rejects, or fixes by clicking the line.
- Designed Fit and Research from three prototypes tested on a real job: a one-line read, proof-first checklists, and research links that come only from real searches, never typed by the AI.
- Built the brand and motion system from the product's yellow highlight, which only ever means "the AI changed this", and a scroll-driven showcase landing page (Lighthouse mobile 93 → 98, JavaScript 288 → 81 kB).
- Logged 70 production releases in the first four days, most traced to tester feedback; a phone focus pass moved the resume from 522 px to 233 px down the first screen.
- Designed a guided walkthrough over the live app, a first-resume interview for students, and Spanish CVs for Latin America.
Product DesignAI Product DesignInteraction DesignMotion DesignDesign SystemsReactTypeScriptHuman-in-the-Loop AI

Education

University of Florida

Visual Journalism & Communications

2016 - 2019

Minor: Digital Arts & Sciences