Berlin-based digital creator with a European heart

Vanessa Balan

I design and code digital spaces that feel alive, inclusive, and kind to the planet.

Vanessa helps purpose-driven brands, climate-tech startups, and cultural institutions turn complex ideas into intuitive, beautiful, and accessible digital products.

Current
Founder of Lumen Studio, a small collective of three
Focus
Creative technology, product experience, Webflow, accessibility
Between
Berlin, Copenhagen, and Lisbon

Selected Work

Digital experiences with less noise and more care.

2024 / Climate Data

Breath

An emotional climate dashboard for individuals and small companies to understand carbon impact without guilt, panic, or spreadsheet fatigue.

  • Designed the data experience around calm comprehension instead of overwhelm.
  • Featured by Core77 and selected as an AWWWARDS Site of the Day.
2023 / Nature Connection

Re:Wild App

Led end-to-end design and Webflow development for a nature connection app shaped by biophilic principles and poetic interaction design.

  • Reached 40k organic downloads in the first six months.
  • Built a soft visual system that made daily rituals feel inviting.
2022 / Culture

Echoes

An accessible digital memorial and long-term archive for personal stories of migration and belonging, created with a Berlin cultural institution.

  • Designed for quiet reading, screen readers, and long-term preservation.
  • Winner of the German Design Award 2023 in Communication Design.
"Technology should connect people, not exhaust them. Beautiful is nice; humane is the point."

Lumen Studio

A high-touch studio for slow, useful technology.

Radical accessibility

Accessibility is treated as creative material, not a compliance checklist taped on at the end.

Mindful digital experiences

Interfaces should help people breathe, choose, understand, and leave when they are done.

Transparency and honesty

No inflated promises, no metric theater, no sustainability costumes. German directness when useful.

Joy as resistance

Small moments of delight can make serious work more durable, more generous, and more human.

Experience

Design, code, climate, culture.

Founder, Lumen Studio

Berlin / Independent creative technologist leading a small collective for purpose-driven brands, climate-tech startups, and cultural institutions.

Senior Experience Designer, Neue Narrative

Germany / Shaped digital storytelling, publishing experiences, and product systems around new work and culture.

Product Designer, Climatebase

Climate tech / Designed tools and flows that made complex career, organization, and impact data easier to understand.

Junior Digital Designer, IDEO Munich

Munich / Learned the discipline of research-led design, prototyping, and critique inside multidisciplinary teams.

Education

Grounded in interface design and access.

2014 - 2018

B.A. Interface Design

University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

2019

Erasmus, Interaction Design

Malmo University

2021 - 2023

Certifications

Google UX Design, Webflow Expert, CPACC by IAAP

Soft Systems

Essays and experiments on technology and emotion.

Contact

For digital work that needs to feel lighter, clearer, and more alive.

Vanessa takes on a small number of studio projects each season, usually with climate, culture, education, or care-focused teams.

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