San Francisco
/ˈsɪv.əl.jən/ · Independent studio · Fractional design leadership
Technology-led design studio for startups and founders.
01 / Services
Idea to shipped product, end to end. Strategy, flows, interface, and the build itself. One thread runs from the first sketch to the first user.
Naming, visual identity, and the system that holds them together. Made to survive contact with real products, real decks, and real deadlines.
Marketing sites, landing pages, and the brand carried into the browser. Designed, built, and shipped as production code.
Principal-level design for teams that need one. Direction, critique, hiring, and the standards that keep quality up as you grow. Fractional or embedded.
02 / How it works
Strategy, brand, product, and the code that ships it.
civilian.design is one person, working directly with you. I shape what to build, define how it works, and carry it through to shipped product. AI runs through the whole process, extending what one designer can build. You get the range of a studio without the layers.
A kickoff that gets everything on the table: the problem, the audience, and what success looks like. Scope, timeline, and price agreed up front.
Design directions early, each a window into how the product could look and feel. We pick a path together and refine until it holds up.
Designs become the real thing. Production code for products and sites, complete systems and assets for brands. Nothing is lost in a handoff.
Live in the world. Software deployed, sites launched, identity systems rolled out. Then we tighten what the real world reveals.
03 / Working together
Waitlist · opens January 2027
Your design function, on a monthly retainer. Strategy, product design, brand, and the build itself, embedded with your team or running solo. Work lands in weekly drops you can plan around.
Waitlist · opens January 2027
A defined build with a start and an end. A 0→1 product, a brand system, a marketing site. Scoped together, priced up front, shipped working.
04 / About
I'm Andrew, a design leader and builder in San Francisco. civilian.design is my independent practice. I work with founders and startups to design and build products end to end.
I was Head of Mobile Design at Udemy, co-founded Sticky inside Menlo Labs, and spent time as Entrepreneur in Residence at Menlo Ventures. At Sticky I led design for a proactive AI assistant while most AI tools were still prompt-based chat. I've been designing and building with AI since.
My contributions are strongest when I'm brought on to help define what to build, design how it works, and own the implementation of the finished product.
05 / Questions
Not right now, but I'd love to hear about your project. I'm booked through 2026 and taking new clients again in January 2027. Send it through the form and I'll hold your place in the queue.
Everything the studio does. Product strategy, interface design, brand, and the code that ships it. We set a weekly cadence, you point me at what matters most, and work arrives in drops you can react to. Most months that means shipped screens, working prototypes, and decisions made.
Retainers start at $6,995 a month. No hourly billing and no change orders. Scoped projects are priced individually and start around $15k.
Founders who know what they're building and who it's for, and need the design function around it. People who want senior work without the layers of a traditional agency. If you're still working out the business itself, a retainer is probably early for you.
I respond to anything within 48 hours. Most requests turn into something you can look at within a few days, and bigger pieces break into weekly drops. Once we kick off, new engagements see a working prototype in the first week.
A kickoff where we get everything on the table. Then I show you design directions as working vignettes, enough to see what each world feels like and have a real conversation. We pick a path, and I move it to finished, with check-ins when there is something worth reacting to. Most projects run 4 to 8 weeks.
You do, 100%. Design files, prototypes, and code live in your accounts and your repos from day one. If we part ways, everything stays yours and keeps running.
A senior design lead runs $200k a year or more, plus equity, plus the months it takes to find one. The retainer gets you the same seniority next week, at a fraction of the cost, and you can stop any month. And when you're ready for a full-time team, I'll help you hire it.
For most early-stage products, yes. I cover strategy, design, and build, and I use AI to move at a pace that used to take a team. When something needs a true specialist, I'll say so and help you find one.
As leverage, everywhere it earns its place. Research passes, prototypes, production code, the repetitive middle of design work. Every decision that reaches you went through human judgment first. The speed comes from the machines. The taste stays mine.
Any month. The retainer runs month to month with no minimum term. Pause when things slow down, restart when they pick up. Projects end when they ship.
Then I plug in as a fractional lead. Direction, critique, design systems, and hiring help, with hands still on the work. Your designers get a senior partner without the VP price tag.
Yes. Brand systems, marketing sites, and 0→1 builds all work as scoped projects. If we keep going afterward, the project fee credits toward your first retainer month.
06 / Start
Booked until January 2027
The queue's open. Tell me what you're building and I'll hold your place. I read every message and reply within a couple of days. Prefer plain email? [email protected] works too.