Once upon a time, a girlboss was the best thing a woman in the workplace could be. After being undermined and overshadowed for so long, female employees were finally empowered to shatter glass ceilings.
A shining example of which could be Angela, the visionary behind Toffeenut Design Studio. This “purposely small and agile” product design collective has serviced fast-scaling startups and market leaders all over the world. In spite of her success, she advocates for a life without work at the center – the end of girlboss culture, if you will.
This isn’t to say that Angela doesn’t love her job: she does, and she’s damn good at it too. Her passion for design started in her pre-teenage years as an “atypical nerd” who wanted to make things look nicer.
“I was naturally curious about computers and software without even fully understanding them. Like, I would open Photoshop without a clue of what I was looking at and just tinker and tinker. This eventually led me to icon design, which I did alongside a ‘normal’ job for a few years,” she shares with Swarm.
Angela graduated with a degree in Communications Technology Management from Ateneo de Manila University, and thought a career in advertising was the default.
But after an “odd mix of chance and timing”, she realized that there was a demand for the cool, quirky digital products she was building in her free time.
“When you realize that the fun thing you’re doing as a side job can also earn you money, you just have to make the natural jump to doing it for real,” she says.
Sourcing inspiration from everywhere
Over the past decade, Toffeenut Design Studio has worked with big names like Stanford, Samsung, Huawei, and Bvlgari Hotels on mobile, UI, visual, and product design. The projects they’ve worked on vary widely when it comes to the industry they’re for and the complexity they require.
Toffeenut has worked on merging physical and digital art during the peak of the NFT storm, creating a nonprofit’s mental health support app for Gen Z, and building a platform that combined sports betting and car auctioning.
But among these past engagements, what stood out to her the most was her assignment with Digivalet. Angela and her team helped pioneer several innovations in the luxury space, like the first ever iPod remote for a smart hotel room: a technology that’s now used by the most iconic hospitality brands.
When the Old War Office building in London was transformed into the UK’s first Raffles Hotel, she developed a digital experience for hotel guests that matched the history of the attraction. “Remember the story about a wedding where Rihanna performed? That was us, too,” she shares.
As testament to their hard work, their portfolio is emblazoned with digital plaques from the Awwwards, Web Design Awards, and the CSS Design Awards Community. In 2020, they were also hailed as an honoree of the CES Innovation Awards, an annual competition honoring outstanding design in consumer technology products.
The secret to creating scalable and successful digital experiences, Angela says, is having a life outside of the 9-to-5.
“During the discovery phase of each project, I usually take time to info dump: you can never go wrong with consuming or collecting as much information, references, and competitor info as possible,” she says.
As a designer, Angela is drawn to noticing the strangest of things. For instance: a trip to an amusement park led to a fascination with exit signs and how they all seemed to be themed to where they were located.
“Today, I also am intrigued by book covers and how they all blend and look the same for a particular period, which speaks to the trends of the times,” she shares. “Ads, too. Whenever I see a smart one, my instinct is just to bookmark it for future use.”
Angela also engages in a rotation of hobbies: reading, running, and sometimes even both at the same time. She brings up the concept of active recovery, or non-strenuous activity after a period of high intensity, and likens it to a leisurely jog after a grueling day of work.
“When I run outside, I sometimes zone out and find myself thinking about work. All of a sudden, my ideas start to blend together as my mind becomes more relaxed. When I come back [to my desk], I’m good and ready to tackle whatever project I’m working on at the time.”
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Breaking free from misogyny
Of course, there are consequences to thriving in male-dominated spaces. “I frequently get asked if I really worked on the projects on my portfolio and deck, how much of it I actually worked on, and if I’m going to be involved if the client decides to hire me. It’s always funny when new leads try to skirt around the question of whether I can do the work or not,” Angela says.
Dealing with misogyny is marginally easier in the presence of other women. But sadly, Angela has observed these issues aren’t always represented within the design community.
“There are so many active designers, agency leads, and founders on Twitter and Linkedin who are men. Sometimes, you’d have to actively seek out voices coming from women of color. Being an Asian woman in a room of strong personalities is… something.”
This is why Angela always tries to carve out spaces for her fellow women to thrive.
A passion project she mentions is Noteshelf, a best-selling handwriting and note-taking app that started more than a decade ago. Frontrunners in this specific category were incredibly well-funded and networked – and yet, Noteshelf is still consistently topping charts in handwriting and note-taking apps for the iPad.
The app has bagged the Best of Month badge last September 2015, as well as the coveted Editor’s Choice title on the App Store. When asked about why she thinks the platform is as successful as it is, Angela prefers to be modest: “I think it’s because of the budding niche community of ‘going paperless’, or the fact that it gives off a certain vibe that encourages our users to recommend it to friends.”
But the app’s strength also lies in Angela’s talented roster of female UX designers, whose skills have flourished under her tutelage. “One was working as a graphic designer for a long time until she asked if she could train to be a UI designer, while another was pursuing a Ph.D. in linguistics and doing documentation of medical records software. I’ve had a pleasant time working with them,” Angela beams.
Angela’s mentorship has also extended to those who find her on ADPList: during her free time, she conducts resume and portfolio reviews and mock interviews and gives advice on breaking into tech for early-stage designers.
Since joining the platform two years ago, she’s been listed in the top 10% of contributors in her field of expertise – which doesn’t come as a surprise, given the number of glowing reviews on her profile.
Times truly are a-changin’. Women no longer want to be defined by their day jobs alone: instead, they find purpose in other roles. In Angela’s case, she’s a “friend, wife, mentor, hobbyist, all while being a hands-on mom to a soon-to-be first grader!” The list goes on, and it’s up to her to fill it out.
“I don’t want to just think of myself as a product designer or the owner of an independent studio. I want to be more of a person who happens to do this job that I like and that I’m good at.”
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