A Silicon Valley-based designer, Irina Blok has worked for a variety of large companies including Google, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook, and has been founding designer at multiple startups, including designing Vurb for their victory in TechCrunch Disrupt 2014 and designing the future of shopping at Curbside. One of her best known projects was the design of the Google Android logo, the first open source logo of its kind. She started her career at Landor Associates as brand designer, helping create and evolve HP, Visa, H&R Block and FedEx brands. She was interviewed by The New York Times Magazine, and her work has garnered recognition from Communication Arts Magazine, How Magazine, AIGA CI Annual, and Graphis.
Just for fun, Irina has been working on a variety of creative passion projects, with some becoming viral. She has appeared on ABC's Reality Show Shark Tank with her collection of fashionable surgical masks, and her cartoons have been shared by millions of people and translated to 30 languages, and featured in Mercury News, New York Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Times of India. Her humorous jewelry and Only in Silicon Valley greeting cards and other projects were featured in NBC's Today Show, USA Today, SF Weekly, NY Daily News, Elle Magazine and multiple publications around the world.
Recent community engagement/press:
2022 - AIGA Designing Products: NFT, Organizer
2022 - AIGA Designing Products in the Post-Pandemic world, Organizer
2020 - New York Magazine - Shark Tank Contestant Who Pitched Face Masks in 2009 Has No Regrets, Press
2020 - NBC TV Interview: The Biggest Fail in 'Shark Tank' History Was Rejecting a Pitch for Face Masks Ten Years Before COVID-19, TV Interview
2020 - Mercury News - Coronavirus cartoons: Designer behind Google’s Android logo says illustrations help relieve stress, Press
2020 - AIGA 50 Design Competition, Judge
2019 - AIGA Designing Products: Voice User Interfaces, Organizer
2018 - AIGA Designing Products with AI, Organizer
2018 - AIGA Designing Inclusive Products, Organizer
2016 - Techies Project by Helena Price, Participant
2016 - AIGA Designing Products for Business, Organizer
2016 - Design Details Podcast, Speaker
2016 - Out of the oven and onto your neck: 5 business lessons I learned from being burned, Article
2016 - Only in Silicon Valley - Greeting Cards for Geeks, Side Project
2016 - The Creator Project by Vice - The Designer Behind the Android Logo Has a Raunchy Sense of Humor, Press
2016 - AIGA - Design//Work: Articulating the Value of an In-house Team, Panelist
2015 - From App To Architecture: How Curbside Designed And Built Its "Pickup Pod", Press
2015 - Techniche of IIT Guwahati, India, Speaker (video)
2015 - Visual Media Alliance, Art Institute of Silicon Valley, Speaker
2015 - Bairro dos Museus, Portugal, Speaker/Designer (video)
2015 - AIGA CLEVELAND | Design 730 Competition Judge
2015 - Business Insider - What it's like to leave Google for a startup, Press