Alex Pines is a founding member and Vice President of Design at Vanilla, a pioneering FinTech company backed by Venrock and Insight Partners, dedicated to simplifying the complex through design for financial institutions like Vanguard. He leads the design team empowering financial and legal innovations through thoughtful and intuitive design. Before Vanilla, he co-founded the product and brand design studio, Rubric with Sam Trapkin and Justin Gilman. He has worked as a graphic and interactive designer at prestigious institutions, agencies, and technology companies such as the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), AppDirect, and Housing Works.
With over 20 years of experience, Alex bridges creative, business, and technological realms, from financial technology to AI. He is a former assistant professor of graphic design at Otis College of Art and Design, where he served as the digital fluency coordinator, helping to modernize the program's design curriculum around UX/UI and professional development. He teaches part-time at CalArts and other universities. His work has been featured in magazines, publications, collections, and exhibitions including SLANTED, IDEA Magazine, LACMA, Communication Arts, and the New York Times.
Alex studied at George Washington University's Corcoran School of Art & Design, received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art and MFA in Graphic Design from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). As a Korean adoptee, he supports the Korean adoptee community in Southern California and serves on the board of AKA Los Angeles.