Rafael is a designer, artist, curator, and educator. He was named one of the top fifty designers in the US in 2006 by ID, the international magazine of design. As the director of SWEAT his games have been exhibited in museums internationally. With his collaborators in Dizzy Spell he curates an ongoing series of art videogames. In 2025 he curated the show Code-X: Contemporary Chicanx Codices at the Myhren Gallery of the University of Denver.