# Irina Blok > Generative Engineer at Google DeepMind Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/irinablok I am passionate about building creative teams, collaborating and doing hands-on work. My specialties are product design and brand development. One of my best known projects was design of the Google Android logo. Design portfolio: www.irinablok.com Recent speaking engagements/press: 2020 - NBC TV: The Biggest Fail in ‘Shark Tank' History Was Rejecting a Pitch for Face Masks Ten Years Before COVID-19, TV Interview 2020 - AIGA SF Design Week, Judge 2019 - AIGA Designing Products: Voice User Interfaces, Organizer 2017 - SJSU Design Program Guest Speaker 2016 - AIGA - Design//Work: Articulating the Value of an In-house Team Panelist 2015 - Techniche of IIT Guwahati, India, Speaker (video) 2015 - Bairro dos Museus, Portugal, Speaker/Designer (video) ## Work Experience ### Principal, Generative AI @ Google DeepMind Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area ### Design Lead, Generative AI @ Google DeepMind Jan 2019 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area AI and Creativity Co-founder of the Generative AI creative team in Google Brain, led the design for the AI-assisted incubation effort in Google Research. ### Board of Directors Member: Chair of Product Design @ AIGA San Francisco Jan 2014 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area Product Design Chair of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, is one of the largest and most active in the country, representing over 1,600 designers in graphics, interaction, experience, motion, and affiliated fields in the Greater Bay Area. ### Product Design @ Facebook Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 Designing products focused on keeping 2B+ people safe across all communities on Facebook. ### Principal Designer - Innovation @ Zendesk Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area Running a design-driven idea incubator, functioning as a start-up inside the company. Coming up with a portfolio of product innovations, designing and building prototypes, doing customer validation and research and shipping products. Getting executive buy-in, hiring and managing engineers, partnering with sales, marketing, and other parts of organization. ### Head of Design @ Curbside Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 | Palo Alto, CA Designing the future of shopping. As founding designer created the whole UI/UX iOS experience from scratch. Responsible for the brand experience, including landing pages, product video, emails, packaging, marketing/social media ads, original illustrations and collateral. Managed design and fabrication of physical kiosks at retail locations. ### Head of Design @ Edmodo Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 | San Mateo, CA Building and mentoring a product design team, and reinventing the Edmodo brand. Product design and the new brand had contributed to growing user base from 5M to 35+M. ### Design Lead @ Apple Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | Cupertino Responsible for product strategy, interaction design, prototyping, and visual design. Projects included iOS apps, complex web products and branding. ### Product Designer @ Vurb (acquired by Snapchat in 2016) Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 Joined Vurb as the only Product Designer, responsible for redesigning iOS and web product and creating the landing page. Contributed to Vurb's victory at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2014 and their subsequent $8M investment round. ### Instructor, Graphic Design MFA Program (Part-Time) @ Academy of Art University Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco From time to time teaching advanced graphic design class focusing on experiments in typography. Aiding and challenging students in their graduate studies in Graphic Design. Providing guidance in design process and critique of work. ### Manager, Social Creative Services @ Adobe (via Context Optional acquisition) Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 Managing and growing international design team through two acquisitions with offices in NY, SF and London. Leading creation of compelling and successful campaigns across many social platforms for variety of Fortune's 100 clients. ### Sr Designer @ Google Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 Came up with creative narrative and campaign ideas for the Google brand by re-thinking marketing across every kind of media. Focus on design and art direction. Built and designed campaigns, products, ads, videos, online media, naming, events, logos and other projects. Well known projects include designing the Google Android Logo and launching the iGoogle. ### Sr Art Director @ Yahoo! Inc. Jan 2001 – Jan 2006 Responsible for online advertising, direct email, web sites, promotional events, and collateral for four of the company's seven business units. Hands-on Art Directing and managing team of writers, art directors, and designers. ## Education ### B.S. in Graphic Design San José State University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/irinablok - Portfolio: http://www.irinablok.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/irinablok JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/irinablok/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13