# About — Ricardo Costa, designer and front-end developer

> Five years of design that had to ship: Williams Lea, freelance illustration as Yohuro Kano, a BA in Animation, and the self-taught front-end behind it.

Source: https://ricardoportfolio.xyz/about
Language: en

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( About )
## Designer, artist, builder.
The useful kind.
I’m a Portuguese multidisciplinary designer based in Leeds, working across product, brand, presentations, illustration and front-end — and planning my move to China.
Download CV ↓
Get in touch
![Ricardo Costa](https://ricardoportfolio.xyz/covers/ricardo.png)
Ricardo Costa · 李启达Leeds, UK
Now
Presentation Associate, Williams Lea · Founder, Pholu Labs
Education
BA (Hons) Animation · University of Huddersfield
Based
Leeds, UK · planning a move to China
Working in
English · Portuguese · Mandarin (learning)
The short version
Six years of design that had to ship — and enough code to make sure it did.
I’m Ricardo Costa — a multidisciplinary designer and creative workflow coordinator with 6+ years across presentations, brand systems and marketing. At Williams Lea I support a confidential global private-equity client, designing executive-level work and managing the full production cycle.
My foundation is a BA in Animation, and I’ve taught myself enough front-end development (React and TypeScript) to build and ship my own products — useful for designing things that actually work, not just things that look good.
Timeline
## How I got here.
Animation school, then freelance illustration, then commercial design, then the code to finish the job myself.
Jul 2025 – Present
Presentation Associate at Williams Lea
Supporting a confidential global private-equity client across offices in Europe and New York. Designing executive presentations, co-managing creative intake, prioritising requests and tracking jobs through production, QA and delivery.
2018 – Present
Freelance Visual Designer & Illustrator (Yohuro Kano)
Delivering design, branding and illustration for clients across Europe, North America and Asia — running projects end to end from brief to final delivery.
Jun 2022 – Sep 2023
Graphic Designer at Smkd
Created branding materials and visual assets, managing multiple design projects under deadlines.
2023 – Present
Self-taught front-end development
Learned React, Next.js and TypeScript to build and ship my own design-led products.
2018 – 2021
BA (Hons) Animation — University of Huddersfield
Built a strong foundation in visual storytelling, design principles and digital art tools.
2016 – 2018
BTEC Extended Diploma in Graphic Design — Park Lane College, Leeds
The formal grounding in typography, composition and print that the animation degree built on.
What I work with
## Practice, tools, and languages.
The disciplines I take work in, the software I do it in, and the languages I can do it in.
### Capabilities
- Presentation design
- Brand identity
- UI/UX design
- Illustration
- Creative ops
- Front-end development
### Tool belt
- Figma
- Adobe CC
- PowerPoint
- Think-cell
- React
- Next.js
- TypeScript
### Languages
- Portuguese — native
- English — native-level
- French — professional
- Spanish — conversational
- Mandarin — beginner, studying
( Contact )
## Let’s build something people keep.
I’m open to design roles in China, freelance collaborations and interesting products. If you think we’d make something good together, send me a message.
Email me →
LinkedIn ↗ — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-lourenco-da-costa
WeChat · ricebe
Download CV
Ricardo Costa
Product · Brand · Front-end
© 2026 Ricardo Lourenço da Costa
Designed in Figma · Built with React
Leeds, UK · Open to China