Charlie's Avatar

Hi, I'm Charlie.

I design products for technical founders — in code, not Figma. Before that: design studios, campervans, yoga retreats, and a lot of ocean. Here's everything.

Testimonials
Bartosz
RT

“I’m amazed. Unbelievable. Everything was done so fast and the quality of the insights from the user validation is incredible.”

Bartosz, Co-founder, Research Tech

Szymon Sypniewicz
Co-founder of Ramp Network

“Shortest design cycle available on the market. Charlie is a master of communication, so working with him is not only very effective, but also a real pleasure.”

Szymon Sypniewicz, Co-founder of Ramp Network

Mike
Co-founder, Hummingbot

“In a mere two weeks, they took a high-level concept and turned it into a visually stunning leaderboard app that delights our users. As a small, highly technical team, we found that because they were able to own all the design, UI/UX and front-end engineering related to the project, it allowed us to concentrate on back-end and data engineering, where our strengths lie.”

Mike, Co-founder, Hummingbot

Philipp Toth
P

“We found Charlie by searching for the Ramp designer — we needed someone who actually understood fintech UX. His user testing caught what we never would have: users freezing on the first screen, not understanding why verification was needed. Insights that would have killed adoption. He delivered it all in production-ready code we could integrate directly — no Figma translation, no months of back-and-forth. His work was instrumental to securing our next round of funding.”

Philipp Toth, Founder, Paid247

About Me

I run a product studio building tools. I take on select client sprints to fund it — typically one to four week UX and product design engagements shipped in code. Browse the client case studies. 2026 availability. Below is everything else: personal projects, apps I'm building, and a few stories from along the way.

Now · 2024 — 2026
DocsNext.js

Zebra Design Sprint Docs

The full sprint methodology, documented and open. How we validate critical user journeys in code, not Figma.

zebradesign.io/docs
Zebra Design Sprint Documentation
AIAsyncUX

AI-Powered User Testing Tool

I built an AI user experience tool that interviews your users while you sleep.

usertesting.zebradesign.io
AI User Testing Interface - Dashboard View
AIOpen Source

Design Agents

AI-powered design workflow agents that ship production code. Open source tools for the design engineering era.

agent.config.ts

export const agent = {

name: 'design-agents',

type: 'design-engineer',

ships: true,

}

AIAnimationOpen Source

Visual Motion Design Agents

AI agents that generate production-ready Framer Motion animations. Turning design intent into shipped code.

motion.agent.ts

export const agent = {

name: 'motion-agents',

type: 'design-engineer',

ships: true,

}

PersonalFull-Stack

Gift List App — Coco

Built a gift list app for my daughter's birth. Full-stack Next.js, designed and shipped in a weekend.

cocoellington.com
Coco Gift List App
PersonalUX Case Study

IFS Application

A personal project exploring Internal Family Systems therapy through thoughtful UX design.

ifs-app.zebradesign.io
IFS Application Interface
Personal · 2018 — 2024
2023Sabbatical

Sabbatical

Sunrise surfs, values reset, and the space to figure out what actually matters. A year that changed everything.

Surfing during sabbatical
2023Off-Grid

Building Off-Grid Campervans

Hand-built a campervan and lived off-grid for months. Solar panels, composting toilet, complete freedom.

Custom-built off-grid campervan
2018Engineering

DIY Electric Yacht Conversion

Converted a sailing yacht to electric propulsion. Batteries, motor controllers, and a lot of fibreglass.

DIY electric yacht conversion
Web3 Era · 2017 — 2023
2018-2023Web3Remote-first

Deep Work Studio

Co-founded Deep Work Studio. The UX behind Web3's most important launches, including Ethereum's staking platform.

Deep Work
Ramp Network
Ethereum Foundation
Nexus Mutual
Maker
ConsenSys
Arbitrum
Web3Product Design

Ramp Network — First Product

Designed Ramp's first product from zero to launch. Fiat-to-crypto onramp used by millions.

rampnetwork.com
Ramp Network — first product design
DeFiWeb3First Product

Nexus Mutual

Designed one of the first DeFi products. Decentralised insurance on Ethereum, from concept to shipped UI.

nexusmutual.io
First Chapters · Pre-2017
2013-2017Founder€1.5M Revenue

Yoga Retreat Company

Founded and scaled a yoga retreat company to €1.5M annual revenue. Learned everything about building a business from zero.

Founder of yoga retreat company
2011FounderMedia

Media Agency

Created a media agency whilst at university in 2011. Clients included Danone and Evian and more fun ones like mountain bike events.

2008-2012Leadership

Teaching Sailing

My first 'job' was teaching sailing from a beach in Greece.

Teaching sailing on a Hobie Cat
1989Origins

Ocean Kid

On the ocean since I was eight, sailing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and later surfing.

Ocean kid — kitesurfing since childhood
Working Together