Design that ships. Products people keep.
I'm Ethan Cole, a product designer and creative developer. I take products from unclear to unmistakable: strategy, interface, motion, and the production code to match.
- Shipping products
- 8 yrs
- Products launched
- 40+
- Design systems built
- 12
- Average client rating
- 4.9
Shipping products
Products launched
Design systems built
Average client rating
Previously with
Selected work
Four projects, four moved metrics
Ethan Cole
Product designer & creative developer
- Based in
- Lisbon
- Replies in
- 24h
- Shipping for
- 8 yrs
About
One person, the whole pipeline
Most projects lose their best ideas in the gap between design and engineering. I close that gap by owning both sides: the strategy and interface, and the production code that ships it.
For eight years I've worked with startups and product teams across fintech, developer tools, and analytics, usually embedded, always hands-on.
Services
Three ways to work together
Fixed scope, fixed price, no surprise invoices. Every engagement is documented in the docs before we start.
Product design sprint
A focused two-week engagement that turns a fuzzy idea into a tested, high-fidelity prototype.
- Problem framing workshop
- High-fidelity prototype
- Usability test with 5 users
Design system build
Tokens, components, and documentation your team will actually use, delivered in code.
- Design tokens and theming
- Component library in React
- Living documentation site
Site and brand build
A complete brand and marketing site, designed and shipped end to end with real motion.
- Identity and art direction
- Production Next.js build
- CMS and analytics wired in
Process
From brief to shipped, in four steps
Discover
A short, sharp audit of the product, the users, and the goal. No decks for the sake of decks.
Design
Flows, interfaces, and motion designed in the open, with feedback loops measured in hours.
Build
The same person who designed it builds it, so nothing gets lost in translation.
Ship
Launch, measure, iterate. The engagement ends when the metric moves, not when the file is handed over.
“Ethan rebuilt our onboarding in three weeks. Activation went up 38% and the codebase got smaller. I still don't fully understand how.”
“The rare designer who ships production code. Our design system went from a Figma graveyard to something 12 teams use daily.”
Have a product that deserves better?
Tell me what you're building and where it hurts, right in the chat. I reply to every serious inquiry within 24 hours.