Design consultant in Austin: product, UX, and brand, built and launched.

Why hire a senior design leader instead of an agency or a junior.

Most teams' first instinct is to hire a junior designer or bring in a design agency. Both have a place, and both have a cost. A junior needs direction you may not have time to give, and learns on your product. An agency delivers a project and leaves, with no stake in your team or your long game, and a layer of account managers between you and the people doing the work.

Hiring one senior person who can both lead and do the work gives you direction and execution in the same place, with no handoffs and no learning on your dime. For most Austin teams at an inflection point, a startup finding product-market fit, a company scaling its first design org, a brand that needs to convert, that's the higher-leverage choice, and often the cheaper one once you count the overhead you're not paying for.

Working with me, remotely or in person.

Being based in Austin means local teams can meet in person when it actually helps, for a kickoff, a working session, or a hard conversation that's better had face to face. There's real value in being in the same room at the right moments, and I'm happy to be.

But most of the work happens the way modern product work happens: in shared docs, working prototypes, and tight async loops, which means distance is no obstacle. Whether you're down the street here in Austin or across the country, you get the same senior attention and the same direct line to me, not a junior the agency rotated in after the pitch.

A design partner for Austin builders.

Austin is one of the best places in the country to build right now, full of startups, founders, and product teams building real things. I've spent fifteen years doing exactly that, leading design and delivering products across startups and the Fortune 500, and I do it from here in Austin. If you're building something and design is in the way, I can help.

What sets me apart from a typical design agency or freelancer is range and seniority in one person. I can set the strategy and lead your team, or I can sit down and design and build the thing myself, end to end. You don't get a junior swapped in after the pitch, and you don't get a strategy deck with no one to execute it. You get a senior design leader who delivers.

Industries and stages I work with.

I've worked across consumer and B2B: AI-native startups, a multi-billion-dollar B2B and B2C apparel platform, automotive and industrial brands, eCommerce, edtech, and subscription commerce. I'm as comfortable at zero-to-one as I am inside a mature organization, and the right engagement looks different at each stage.

An early Austin startup usually needs a generalist who can design and build the first real version fast. A scaling company needs systems and leadership so the team can move without drifting. An established brand needs a site or product that finally converts. I meet you where you are, and I'm honest about what you actually need, which is sometimes less than you think.

Design that earns its keep.

Good design isn't decoration, it's the metric that moves and the customer who's better off. The work I've delivered has lifted conversion by double digits, turned a stalled paid-social campaign into a hundred-plus paying subscribers in a week, and turned slow design orgs into ones that deliver with evidence instead of opinion.

When you hire me, the deliverable isn't a folder of files. It's a better business outcome, and where the work is leadership, a team that keeps delivering after I'm gone. I'd rather do the smallest version of the work that proves real value than the biggest version that pads an invoice.

How an engagement starts.

It starts with a short call: tell me what you're trying to build and where it's stuck. I'll be honest about whether I'm the right fit, and if I am, I'll propose a clear, right-sized way to work rather than the most expensive one. From there I work in the open, sharing strategy and working prototypes early, so you're never waiting months for a reveal.

You'll work directly with me the whole way, not an account manager and not a junior the agency rotated in. That's the upside of hiring one senior person instead of a layered agency: fewer handoffs, less overhead, and one person genuinely accountable for the result.

Design help for Austin teams, and beyond.

I work with Austin companies in person and with teams everywhere remotely. The work is the same either way: understand the real problem first, then design and deliver something people remember.

I'm a leader and a maker. I'll set design strategy and lead your team as a fractional head of design, or I'll sit in Figma and build the thing end to end. You get one senior set of hands from strategy to launch, with no agency overhead and no handoffs.

What I do.

Product and UX design: research, flows, design systems, and delivered interfaces. Brand and marketing sites: I've launched sites for national brands end to end, design and build. Design leadership: fractional or full-time. And AI-first design, which is my differentiator, helping teams make AI genuinely useful without losing the craft.

Proof.

A multi-billion-dollar design org taken AI-first; Story Genie, an AI-native company I founded; Surf Studios, my agency, delivering brands like Permatex and Evercoat end to end; a stalled paid-social campaign turned into a hundred-plus paying subscribers in a week at Supply Drop; and a flagship store rebuilt with double-digit conversion lifts at The Mysterious Package Company.

Why Austin teams work with me.

Austin is a builder's city, and so am I. You get a senior design leader who has actually delivered, who actually does the work, hands on the keys, and who treats AI as a tool to build better rather than a buzzword. No agency layers, no lost-in-handoff, one person accountable from the first sketch to the launched product.

And because I've led design inside a multi-billion-dollar apparel company and founded a startup from zero, I can talk to your engineers, your executives, and your customers in their own language. That range, the ability to set strategy in a boardroom and then build the prototype that proves it, is rare, and it's what lets a small engagement punch well above its weight.

Ways to work together.

Consulting and fractional leadership through Surf Studios, full-time design leadership (see my resume and hiring overview), or a single project build, designed and delivered end to end.

And if you landed here from outside Austin, the full picture of my consulting practice, what I take on, how engagements are scoped, and what it costs, lives on the design consultant page.