Everything to define
You're early, the page is blank, and there's a lot to figure out. You can make it fast with AI, but you're not sure yet whether it's the right thing to build.
Getting from good to great has never been more importantYour product has to be remarkable to win
I help teams with the direction and conviction they need to build products that are astounding by design.
Work
Sound familiar?
If a few of these ring true, this is the work for you.
Competent but forgettable
You can ship a clean, competent product now. So can everyone else. You want something people actually remember.
Stuck on the obvious
Every direction you land on is the safe one. The references all point the same way, and the epic version stays just out of reach.
All AI, no craft
You've built fast with AI, but no one has the trained eye or the critical judgment to tell good from nearly good, or to make it feel genuinely yours.
A team pulling different ways
Your team can't agree on a direction, or keeps hedging on the bold version because the safe one is easier to defend.
Here's how I can help
MVP Brand
A brand identity with just enough system that you can ship with it and not outgrow it in a year. Built to be used, not admired.
What you get
- Design tokens, a type scale and colour variables your developer can put into the codebase on day one
- A visual language that still holds when the product grows, not just on a launch page
- Nothing that gets thrown away when you scale
Typical deliverables
Logo and wordmark · design tokens · type scale · colour variables · core component set · usage guidance · deck and social templates · positioning language · and more
The process
- Two ways in. A short first call, then either a longer conversation about the company, the product, the goals and you, or a facilitated workshop in its place. Conversations if you already know what you're building. Workshop if you're still deciding, or there's more than one of you and you don't yet agree.
- Build the system, not the artwork. Type, colour, spacing and components defined as tokens from the start, so the identity arrives in the form your codebase wants it.
- Hand it over ready to use. Everything in a format a developer can pick up without translating it first.
Make It Yours
You built something with ai and it works. It also looks like everything else built with ai, because it inherited the same defaults. I take what's there and make it feel like yours.
What you get
- A product that looks like your company, not like its toolchain
- Brand and interface craft applied to the flows you already have
- Tokens that carry straight over if you do the MVP Brand too
Typical deliverables
Visual language applied to existing flows · type and colour system · component restyling · motion and interaction detail · empty and loading states · iconography · tokens ready for the codebase · and more
The process
- Look at what's there. I go through the product as it stands and find where the defaults are showing.
- Design the character, not the structure. The flows stay as they are. What changes is how it looks, moves and reads. That's why it's faster and cheaper than a product engagement.
- Hand it over in tokens. The same format as the MVP Brand, so the two fit together if you do both.
Deep Dive
A deeper look than a sprint allows, at what your product is really trying to be, and where intention and execution have drifted apart. You leave with a solid new direction and a clear target to build toward, written up with sketches and references. If you want the designs to go with it, I can do that too.
What you get
- A direction tied to the business outcome it's meant to move, with a way to test it
- A written articulation the team can build from
- Sketches and a cross-domain reference set
- Your team brought in along the way, so they own the direction and build it together
Typical deliverables
Written creative direction document · flow maps and IA · cross-domain reference set · design principles · mood boards · wireframes and annotated sketches · brand identity audit · visual language development · brand-to-product translation · stakeholder workshop facilitation · and more
The process
- Name the gap. What the product is really trying to be, tested against what it actually does.
- Work past the obvious. The right direction usually only shows up after the easy answer's been rejected a few times, so I don't stop at the first thing that fits.
- Bring in the outside. A clear new direction and a target to build toward, written up with sketches and references pulled from well beyond your category.
- Design it, if you want. Optional designs to go with the direction.
Step Change
Builds on the Deep Dive to find a direction that changes the rules of your category, not just the product itself. You leave with a fully developed creative direction your team can commit toward and build.
What you get
- A strategic bet with the business case made, not just a new look
- A fully developed creative direction to build against
- A distinctive visual language that's recognisably yours
- A team aligned behind the bet, pulling the same way
Typical deliverables
Full creative direction system · category-level competitive mapping · invention sprints from a blank page · visual signature development · design manifesto or brand book · atmospheric design language · written strategic articulation · and more
The process
- Move up a level. Building on the Deep Dive, I go after the rules of your category, not just the product itself.
- Invent, don't recombine. Where there's white space in your market, there are no references to reach for, so I work from the blank page and make something that's never existed.
- Compose the feel. A product's atmosphere is the sum of many small decisions made consistently; I treat it as something to compose, not decorate.
- Hand over the direction. A fully developed creative direction your team can commit toward and build.
Embed Direction
After one of the engagements above, I stay close to your team so the direction we found survives the build instead of quietly eroding. A few teams at a time, so the attention is real.
What you get
- Every call weighed against the trade-offs, so the work stays tied to outcomes
- The direction kept intact through the build
- Senior judgment on call when the team's stuck
Typical deliverables
Monthly creative direction review · ongoing design judgment on shipped work · design critique facilitation · directional input on roadmap trade-offs · ad-hoc senior design counsel · design ops guidance as the team scales · and more
The process
- Stay attached. A monthly arrangement after one of the above, so the direction actually gets built without losing its substance.
- Two days a month. Reviews of work in progress, a monthly call, and being on hand for the harder questions.
- A few teams only. Kept deliberately small, so the attention is real.
- 1. A 30-minute call. We talk about what you're working on, who's involved, and what you're trying to figure out. You ask whatever you want about how I work. By the end we both know whether to keep going.
- 2. A short proposal, within a few days. Scope, timeline, fee, deliverables. If anything doesn't feel right, we adjust before signing.
- 3. Work starts within one or two weeks. For shorter engagements that means I'm in your product and talking to your team. For longer engagements we agree a rhythm, usually one or two days a week embedded.
- 4. We talk if anything changes. Scope shifts, priorities move, a different shape of work would be more useful. I'd rather adjust openly than push through a bad fit.
Common questions Hide questions
What if I don't know what shape of engagement I want?
Common, and fine. The first call is partly to figure that out. I'll tell you honestly which format fits, or if none of them do.
How do you handle confidentiality?
NDA on request, signed before specifics. I don't write about client work without explicit permission.
Do you take equity instead of fees?
Mostly no. Cash keeps the relationship clean. Open to partial equity alongside reduced cash for early-stage work that's genuinely meaningful, not as default.
What if it isn't a good fit?
We don't proceed. Better to decline at scoping than underdeliver. If something feels wrong mid-engagement, we talk and either adjust or close out cleanly.
Make what others can't.
Most products read as competent and forgettable. The ones people remember were made by someone with the eye to see past the obvious, and the hand to do something about it.
Hand and Eye is the newsletter where I write about how to find it.
- Hard, playful interaction and motion experiments. Finding what defaults can't.
- Old-school techniques and ways of seeing. Carrying what creative education taught you into product work.
- How-to guides for creative leaps. Short practices for getting into flow, and for letting your hands find what your head can't.
Available for hire; contact me for availability.
Open to founders and product teams who want help finding the version of the work that's worth committing to.