Independent design studio · San Francisco/Bay area
Who you’d be working with
Seventeen years in product design.
I help startups, small businesses, and creative brands turn fuzzy ideas into clear, usable products, from user research and UX strategy to website and app design, design systems, and branding.
I'm a seasoned UX and product designer with 17 years of experience delivering solutions across healthcare, finance, enterprise, and teams that need design that works, without the hassle.
Five ways to work together
What I do
End-to-end design for web and mobile apps: user flows, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and polished UI ready for developers. Ideal for startups building an MVP or teams improving an existing product.
A distinct look and feel for your business, product, or project: logo direction, color, typography, and a simple brand guide you can apply across your website, social media, and marketing materials.
Not sure what to build or why users aren't converting? I run user interviews, usability tests, and UX audits to find what's getting in the way, then turn the findings into a clear, prioritized plan. You get practical recommendations, prioritized and ready for action.
Clean, modern websites that clearly explain what you do and make it easy for visitors to take action. Includes site structure, page design, copy guidance, and mobile-friendly layouts. Great for small businesses, creators, musicians, and service providers who need a site that works as hard as they do.
iOS, Android and web apps from first prototype to MVP. Dashboards, data-heavy tools and AI-assisted workflows are a specialty.
Selected work
What the services look like in practiceWeb + strategy · ABI Mastermind
Research across payroll, management and operations led to clear demo paths, a consistent voice and a custom icon set.
Brand identity + web concept · Brickline
Identity and website design for a network that places online brands in independent shops.
How a project runs
DESIGN TO FIT YOUR NEEDS. BUILT TO SCALE.
Let's talk about what you need over a 90-minute discovery call. We'll cover positioning, messaging, personality, and visual direction.
This is where we talk strategy. We'll share directions with moodboards, color, typography, architecture, and flows. We make decisions, and we know it'll work.
We'll bring the strategy to life visually with prototypes, and drafts. We'll get feedback from real users, refined until the structure holds and the visual language is set.
This is where we'll execute on everything we've decided, and deliver it. We'll Package up the project, or kick off the build.
All deliverables completed: website, app, print materials, and promotional assets. Brand guidelines and organized Figma files delivered.
Ways to engage
2-14 DAYS
Designed to deliver fast results. A focused block of work on one problem: a template, UX audit, vision prototype, brand direction.
PRICED TO FIT YOUR BUDGET
Get a quote2+ WEEKS
Scoped end to end, from discovery through launch. This is for bigger projects with more unknowns.
COMPETITIVE PRICING
Get a quoteTestimonials
"...A GREAT FACILITATOR. [...] JOHN BRINGS HIS THOUGHTFULNESS TO THE TEAM. HE IS GOOD AT INTERVIEWING US AS A TEAM, HELPING US TO UNTANGLE A DISCUSSION... RUNNING GOOD RETROS AND FACILITATING LARGE GROUP EXERCISES."
“He has a way of asking questions that challenge us to think deeper about problems and solutions, and he presents them with curiosity and encouragement”
Before you ask
Startups through enterprise teams. Web and brand projects also suit small businesses, creators and service providers.
Yes. UX architecture, brand, strategy, web and app work are each available on their own or combined in one engagement.
We book a 30-minute call to talk through goals, constraints and timeline. I follow with a written scope and quote. Once you approve it, we set a kickoff date and I share the first deliverable on the schedule we agree.
Projects are fixed-fee, quoted after the discovery call. The scope lists deliverables and revision rounds, so the price does not change as we work. Ongoing support is billed monthly.
It depends on scope. A focused sprint, a brand identity and a multi-page website each run on different timelines, and I give a delivery schedule with every quote. Tightly scoped projects can run in a few days, and bigger projects can take weeks depending on your specific outcomes.
Yes. I often work embedded with in-house teams, setting architecture and standards they carry forward. I'm based in the San Francisco Bay Area and work remotely.
Both. Web projects include front-end development and CMS setup, so you can edit the site yourself. App projects can run through MVP build, or end with production-ready files and a clean handoff to your engineers.
Yes. You receive the working files, exports and brand assets in the formats you need, whether we continue together or not.
Yes, as a tool, with intention. Specifically to spin up interactive prototypes fast, explore directions faster and handle repetitive early-stage work. Strategy, decisions and final deliverables are crafted, reviewed and refined by hand following a design process I've honed over 20 years.
Yes. After launch I can stay on for optional ongoing support on a monthly retainer, covering updates, improvements and new requests.
HAVE A PROJECT IN MIND?LET'S TALK SCOPE,TIMELINE AND BUDGET.
BACKED BY RESEARCH, DESIGNED TO SCALE, HUMAN CENTERED.
