Design Strategy
A Little BitAbout Me
I'm drawn to work where precedent is thin and the rules aren't fully written yet. Where tools, incentives, and norms are still being defined, and early decisions meaningfully shape how systems evolve.
Over the last fifteen years, my work has sat at the intersection of systems, design, and emerging technology. I've helped build and shape products across fintech, education, crypto, and AI, often stepping in where things are complex, loosely defined, or evolving quickly, and making them usable, durable, and understandable.
My interest in new organizational models, particularly DAOs, eventually led to a conversation with TIME Magazine about what it's actually like to work inside them.
DJing for many years led me to co-found Night Vision, an underground electronic music project that shaped how I think about communal experience and participation.
Most recently I led design and frontend across Octant, Golem Foundation's public goods funding suite, unifying five apps under one design system delivered as an agent. Before that I worked with organizations like The Ethereum Foundation and Optimism on public goods funding, and worked on products like Safe and Gnosis Pay, where the goal was to make self-custody and crypto payments feel obvious rather than intimidating. I've also helped rebuild Typing.com, a free platform that helps tens of millions of students and teachers across the world, and contributed to causes and movements I believe in, from Yang 2020 to work with Amnesty International.
Being a parent of two has been a reliable way to stay grounded, especially when deciding what actually needs to be complicated and what doesn't.
Today, I focus on building systems that can handle real-world complexity, scale responsibly, and continue to work long after the initial excitement wears off.
MyExperience
Download My CV
Colin Spence
Product Designer & Design Engineer
I’m a product designer and design engineer with 15+ years of experience building system-level UX across SaaS, AI, and decentralized products. I bridge design and code, turning ambiguity into clear interaction patterns, shipping production-ready work, and aligning cross-functional teams in fast-moving environments.
Proficiencies
Design Leadership
Product Design
Design Systems
Human-Centered Design
Frontend Development
Prototyping in Code
AI & Agent Product UX
Generative Art
3D Illustration
Tools
Figma/FigJam
Miro
Adobe Creative Suite
React / TypeScript
Next.js
Tailwind CSS
Framer Motion
Claude Code & agent tooling
Three.js
Education
2006 - 2009
Branding & Illustration
MacEwan University
References
Julio Avila
|OctantJordan Ellis
|PerplexityAndrej Ktitarev
|Deep WorkAuryn MacMillan
|Gnosis GuildOri Shimony
|dOrgReferences are available upon request.
Work Experience
2026 - PRESENT
Octant
|Design Lead & Design EngineerLed design and frontend across Octant's five apps and shipped octant.build in six weeks. Built Kay, a design system delivered as a Claude Code agent that the whole team prototypes and audits with.
2024 - 2026
AITV
|Product DesignerShaped the core UX for agent creation, credit systems, and real-time actions, improving clarity across a rapidly evolving product surface.
2021 - 2024
Gnosis Guild
|Product Designer / Frontend DeveloperDesigned intuitive UX for decentralized governance tools, simplifying complex DAO mechanisms and concepts into clear interaction patterns.
2021 - 2023
Deep Work
|Freelance Creative Director / Product DesignerDirected and delivered rapid UX solutions in a number of "Hyper Sprints", helping early-stage teams define flows and patterns under tight constraints.
2020 - 2024
Polywrap
|Product Designer / Frontend DeveloperImproved developer experience and brand clarity for Polywrap tooling, translating protocol-level complexity into accessible product surfaces.
2019 - PRESENT
dOrg
|Freelance Product Designer / Frontend DeveloperDesigned and built UX for multiple web3 ecosystem projects, contributing both design and frontend engineering across varied decentralized products.
2017 - 2019
Teaching.com
|Product Designer / Frontend DeveloperDesigned UX/UI for Typing.com, the leading typing education platform, improving core flows and learning interactions for tens of millions of students.
2014 - 2017
Granify
|Design LeadLed a five-person design team on e-commerce nudges triggered by real-time machine learning, pairing behavioural psychology with data-driven optimization in a culture of trust and exploration.
2010 - 2014
Venture Publishing
|Associate Art DirectorDirected visual design across multiple print and digital publications, delivering consistent editorial layouts and brand systems.
Currently
![Leon Vynehall - Rare Forever [2021]](/_next/image?url=%2Factivities%2Fleon-vynehall-rare-forever.webp&w=3840&q=75)
listening to:
Leon Vynehall - Rare Forever [2021]
cooking:
pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and sage
enjoying:
backyard gradient sunset views