# Daniel Urquhart > I design financial products. Then I build them. Eight years designing trading tools, staking apps and developer infrastructure for fintech and Web3 teams. Now I take the work from first sketch to production code, so nothing gets lost in a handoff. Daniel Urquhart (Dan) is a senior product designer and design engineer in Berlin, working remotely with fintech and Web3 teams. I'm a British designer based in Berlin. I've been designing since 2013, and for the last eight years on financial products, from leading LSEG's design system team to Head of Design at Pye. I usually work remotely with US teams. Site: https://www.urquhart.design/ (the front door is a 3D room, URQ-224, and needs WebGL; every page below is plain HTML). Contact via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-urquhart/. Full text of the whole site in one file: https://www.urquhart.design/llms-full.txt ## About - [About Daniel Urquhart](https://www.urquhart.design/about/): who he is, what he designs and builds, the teams, what he is looking for, how to get in touch. ## Case studies - [Pye](https://www.urquhart.design/work/pye/): Two years of R&D on what staked SOL can do: every product designed, most of them built, on one design system. - [Foundry](https://www.urquhart.design/work/foundry/): Pye’s design system: a dense trading UI built from paper, embossed and pressed, in Figma, then Storybook, then code. - [Merlin](https://www.urquhart.design/work/merlin/): A seated retro computer in a space pod, built in Blender and three.js, with Merlin OS on the screen and my portfolio on its disk. - [Valorem](https://www.urquhart.design/work/valorem/): On-chain options trading: the options chain, order ticket, exercise and redemption states, and the design system. - [Haptic](https://www.urquhart.design/work/haptic/): A design sprint to v1.0: binary options on Uniswap V3 pairs. - [Kodex](https://www.urquhart.design/work/kodex/): A pro trading app for the ENS domain market, plus brand and landing page. - [Obol](https://www.urquhart.design/work/obol/): The Distributed Validator Launchpad, a seven-step setup flow for groups of Ethereum operators, plus brand. - [Rated Network](https://www.urquhart.design/work/rated-network/): A one-month brand and MVP sprint. - [MakerDAO](https://www.urquhart.design/work/makerdao/): The new website, brand guidelines and component library, and a new creative direction. - [Agentcoin](https://www.urquhart.design/work/agentcoin/): Brand and website. Now aitv.gg. - [Minterest](https://www.urquhart.design/work/minterest/): A brand and product sprint at Deep Work Studio. - [ETHA Lend](https://www.urquhart.design/work/etha-lend/): A brand and product sprint at Deep Work Studio. - [RideHere](https://www.urquhart.design/work/ridehere/): An MVP prototype for hosting electric scooters, designed in a five-day sprint to test with potential users. - [Huma](https://www.urquhart.design/work/huma/): An admin portal for setting up patient care plans: modules, learning sections, questionnaires and deployments. - [LSEG Forge](https://www.urquhart.design/work/lseg-forge/): Led the design system team for Forge, across the Refinitiv and LSEG digital ecosystem. - [Deep Work](https://www.urquhart.design/work/deep-work/): Product, branding and web design sprints for early-stage crypto projects. ## Field notes - [All field notes](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/): short dated working notes. RSS: https://www.urquhart.design/feed.xml - [Operator's Manual](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/operators-manual/): URQ-224 has a manual. Ten chapters, 26 pages, in the voice of a crew manual. - [Come aboard](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/come-aboard/): Merlin's sign-in is a visitor pass now. One button, Come aboard. - [Field Notes](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/field-notes/): Field Notes is live, in Merlin and on the desk. A note is a Markdown file. - [Weaponised ADHD](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/weaponised-adhd/): Built a Discord support bot, Slack app, Supabase database and automations. Designed a spaceship. Built a browser inside a browser. Did product design and FE. Lunch with my best mate. - [Merlin OS](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/merlin-os/): Refined the ship model, new logo direction. Working on Field Notes and Transmissions. - [Pye Finance](https://www.urquhart.design/notes/pye-finance/): CDP prototype, design iterations, team sync. ## Elsewhere - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-urquhart/): the contact route and the CV. - [GitHub](https://github.com/DanUrq) - [X](https://x.com/DanielUrq) ## Optional - [Sitemap](https://www.urquhart.design/sitemap.xml) - [Person schema](https://www.urquhart.design/about/): JSON-LD on the about page, @id https://www.urquhart.design/#dan. --- # About Daniel Urquhart Source: https://www.urquhart.design/about/ ## Who I am I'm a British designer based in Berlin. I've been designing since 2013, and for the last eight years on financial products, from leading LSEG's design system team to Head of Design at Pye. I usually work remotely with US teams. ## The details in between A trade that half fills. A stake that's still pending. A balance that looks wrong for three seconds. That's where people decide whether to trust a financial product, so I design for those moments, then build them. ## Designed. Then built - Pye, 2024 to now Head of Design Design and product for a Solana staking platform through every pivot: staking, vaults, yield trading and marketplaces. Frontend too, since 2026. - Valorem, 2023 to 2024 Senior Product Designer On-chain options trading: the options chain, order ticket, exercise and redemption states, and the design system. - Kodex, 2023 to 2024 Senior Product Designer A pro trading app for the ENS domain market, plus brand and landing page. - Obol, 2022 to 2023 Senior Product Designer The Distributed Validator Launchpad, a seven-step setup flow for groups of Ethereum operators, plus brand. ## Case studies - Foundry, 2025 to 2026 Head of Design Pye’s design system: a dense trading UI built from paper, embossed and pressed, in Figma, then Storybook, then code. - Merlin, 2026 Designer and builder A seated retro computer in a space pod, built in Blender and three.js, with Merlin OS on the screen and my portfolio on its disk. ## Designed by me. Built with AI Since February 2026 I've also built the frontends for what I design, in React, Next.js and TypeScript with AI-assisted coding. Happy to walk through any of them on a call. - Stake Utils Open-source toolkit for Solana native staking. MIT. - SpeedStake Sell your future staking rewards through a simple UI, plus an embeddable modal for other protocols and validators. - Pye website The website for Pye, the DeFi platform for Solana stake. - Pye app DeFi for Solana staking, in early access: a reviewed sign-up list, or an access code. - Pye validator dashboard Where validators sign in to Pye's next-gen Solana stake accounts. - Pye Trade Trading for PT and YT tokens, Solana staking yield split into tokenised principal and yield. - Pye Stake The staking side of the PT/YT market, where positions are created. - Pye Vaults Fixed-term yield vaults on Solana. Not announced yet: pro trading: leveraged longs and shorts on perps, with a margin account you can borrow USDC against; a CDP stablecoin, minted against collateral. ## Eight years designing how money moves - Pye, 2024 to now Head of Design - Valorem, 2023 to 2024 Senior Product Designer - Kodex, 2023 to 2024 Senior Product Designer - Obol, 2022 to 2023 Senior Product Designer - Celo, 2022 Senior Product Designer - LSEG, 2019 to 2022 Senior Product Designer, Design System Lead - Rated, via Deep Work Brand and MVP sprint - MakerDAO, via Deep Work Website and brand guidelines - Agentcoin, via Deep Work Brand and website ## Working together Mostly financial and Web3 products. Remote from Berlin, usually with US teams. - Validation sprint, one week. One idea, one flow, a working build you can put in front of users by Friday. - Design and build. A product, a feature or a brand, designed and built end to end. Dense UIs, design systems, the frontend included. - Fractional head of design. Design, product and frontend for a team that can't hire all three yet. A few days a week, a few months at a time. - Senior or founding roles. Full-time, for the right product. Rates on request. Start on LinkedIn: say what you're building and when you need it. ## Contact The best route is LinkedIn. Also on GitHub and X. ## This site The front door is a 3D workspace: a space pod with a retro computer running Merlin OS, built in Blender and three.js. Step aboard. Everything aboard is also here as plain pages: case studies, field notes (RSS), and for AI agents llms.txt and llms-full.txt. --- # Case study: Pye Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/pye/ Years: 2024 to now Role: Head of Design Tags: Staking, Trading, Validator tools, Design system, Frontend Pye · Solana staking Pye explores what staked SOL can do beyond sitting still. I joined as the first hire, before the company raised its $5m seed led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures. As Head of Design I’ve designed every product we’ve tried, owned the brand and design system, often run product too, and since 2026 built the frontends. Most of the work is R&D: ship a product, test it with the people who’d use or fund it, decide what comes next. Role: Head of Design, frontend, often product When: 2024 to now Scope: Product, design system, brand, frontend Joined: First hire, before the $5m seed [Image: Pye marketplace for trading reward tokens across validators](Trading principal and reward tokens across validators.) The products ## Every product designed. Most of them built. Each product was a different answer to the same question. Some are still live, others were retired, and two are still unannounced. [Image: Pye Trade: the dashboard of PT and YT positions] ### Pye Trade Design + build A market for PT and YT tokens: staking yield split into tokenised principal and yield. [Image: Validator console: the validator dashboard] ### Lockups and the validator console Design Fixed-term stake with a better rate, and the console validators use to create lockups, manage their team and model revenue. [Image: Pye Stake: choose a validator and a lockup duration] ### Pye Stake Design + build The staking side of the PT/YT market, where positions are created. [Image: SpeedStake: selling future staking rewards upfront] ### SpeedStake Design + build Sell future staking rewards upfront, plus a modal other protocols and validators could embed. [Image: Pye Vaults: the curated vaults list] ### Pye Vaults Design + build Fixed-term yield vaults on Solana. [Image: Stake Utils: tools for Solana native staking] ### Stake Utils Design + build An open-source toolkit for Solana native staking. [Image: Validator profit calculator](Validator profit calculator.) [Image: Validator console: create a new lockup](Validator console: creating a lockup.) [Image: Validator console: user management](Validator console: managing the team.) [Image: Validator console: create a new organisation](Validator console: setting up an organisation.) How we tested ## Tested early, fixed fast. Builds went in front of people within days: the team and design partners, validators, investors, and the odd hackathon. Bug blitzes did the most work. Thirty minutes each on every core flow, every failure path and every flow again on a phone, with issues logged against six usability heuristics. Core flows30 min / tester - ✓Connect and switch wallet - ✓Onboarding: open, skip, reopen - ✓Deposit - ✓Withdraw - ✓Reject in wallet - Failed transaction - Every flow on mobile Think aloud: what you’re trying to do, what you expect, what actually happens. VisibilityDid that actually work?- No pending state after signingFixed - Balance updates lateMed Real-world matchIs this jargon?- Term needs a one-line explainerFixed User controlCan I get out of this?- No cancel mid-flow on mobileHigh ConsistencySame thing, same look?- Two button styles for one actionFixed Error preventionCan I break it?- Max amount ignores feesFixed - Empty field submitsFixed MinimalismToo much on screen?- Advanced stats shown by defaultLow (How a bug blitz board looks. Flows and findings here are illustrative, not from a real product.) The system underneath ## One foundation across every pivot. Products came and went, so the foundation had to carry over. I set up the design system, Foundry, and the brand as code, so each new product started from shared components and tokens rather than a blank file, and the team and AI tools worked from the same source. [Image: Foundry component: data stack, light and dark](Foundry: the data stack, in both themes.) [Image: Foundry component: yield curve card, light and dark](Foundry: the yield curve card.) /* Foundry, generated from tokens.json */ :root { --layers-base-primary: #eceae8; --layers-surface-default: #f1efed; --layers-elevation-highlight: #ffffff; --layers-elevation-shadow: #e0ddd9; --text-primary: #24201c; --text-secondary: #6c6660; --brand-primary-purple: #9a4dff; --brand-action-green: #0d9c5e; --brand-secondary-green: #14f195; --brand-highlighter: #fbee8c; } (The tokens as code, built from one JSON file.) Brand as a tool ## A brand anyone on the team can use. Requests kept arriving from outside design: a marketing asset, a test UI to try an idea, a wireframe to share a concept before it went to product, a deck or a one-pager that looked like Pye. Good work, all of it waiting on one designer. So I wrote the brand down as something an AI agent can read and apply. A judgment layer covers character, voice and restraint. Skills load it first: one writes marketing copy and layout, one reviews work and reports drift as Fail, Flag or Note. Foundry holds the values in code, so the skills name tokens and never quote a hex. Now anyone can point their AI tools at the folder and get most of the way there. Anything that ships still comes through design, and the judgment in the system is mine. The pieces below are marketing work the system produced from the rules and tokens. (From the example library. Each one is the original HTML, scaled down.) Since 2026 ## From designs to production frontends. From February 2026 I built what I designed, in React, Next.js and TypeScript with AI-assisted coding, shipped as reviewed PRs. The handoff went away. An idea could go from Figma to something people could test in days. What I took from it ## Product-market fit was never a straight line. Over two years we tried staking marketplaces, validator tooling, structured yield, trading products and a collateral-backed stablecoin. What the search built is a way of working: small teams, shared foundations, production-quality prototypes, and one-week cycles when speed mattered. Not every product became the business, and that was the point. The system and the tooling took an idea to something users could touch in days rather than quarters, so the team had real evidence before committing months of engineering. Some things need far more than a week. But to find out whether an idea deserves the months, a week is usually enough. That is what I’d bring to the next team. --- # Case study: Foundry Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/foundry/ Years: 2025 to 2026 Role: Head of Design Tags: Design system, Elevation, Frontend Pye · Foundry design system Foundry is Pye’s design system. I created it and I own it: the design language, the tokens, the components and the way design and code stay in step. Its look is paper: thick, slightly 3D, every surface either raised off the page or pressed into it. That kind of finish usually lives on hardware, like a radio’s controls. I wanted to see if it could carry a full, data-dense product UI. I hadn’t seen anyone do it before. Role: Head of Design; created and owns Foundry When: 2025 to 2026 Scope: Design system, design language, frontend system Built: Storybook with Pye’s frontend team, then the React build, AI-assisted [Image: A Pye lockup page built in Foundry: overview, reward rates, charts and a heat map](A lockup page: overview, reward rates, charts and a heat map, all on Foundry’s surfaces.) The challenge ## A hardware finish, stretched over a whole product. Raised and pressed finishes work on a few big controls. Pye’s screens are the opposite: tables, charts, yield curves and heat maps, full of small numbers. Every one of them had to sit on the same paper surfaces without getting heavy or noisy, in light and in dark. Elevation ## Every surface is raised or pressed in. The layer stack is the core of the system. A base, a default surface on top, and from there each surface is raised one step or lowered one or two. Raised surfaces get a light top edge and a shadow underneath. Lowered ones flip it: the shadow on top, the light below, so they read as pressed into the card. The layers nest, so a raised row can sit inside a lowered well inside a card, and the edges still make sense. It works the same in light and dark. BG / Primary · lightDefaultLowered −1Raised +1 Raised +1Lowered −1 BG / Primary · darkDefaultLowered −1Raised +1 Raised +1Lowered −1 (The layer stack, in Foundry’s own values. Raised surfaces catch the light on their top edge; lowered ones are pressed in.) [Image: Foundry docs: layer stack and shadows, light and dark](The layer stack and shadows page in Figma.) [Image: Foundry component: data stack, light and dark](The data stack, the simplest component on the stack.) Components ## Dense data, still on paper. The Figma file grew to more than seventy pages: foundations, global components, and sets for operators and for trading. Each component is drawn in both themes, on the same layers. [Image: Foundry component: heat map, light and dark](Heat map.) [Image: Foundry component: yield curve card, light and dark](Yield curve.) [Image: Foundry component: stake and redeem modal, light and dark](Stake and redeem.) [Image: Foundry component: marketplace table, light and dark](Marketplace table.) In the product ## The same paper, from trading to the validator console. Every Pye surface was built from the same layers: the trading screen, the validator console in dark, staking and the personal dashboard. [Image: Pye Trade: markets, filters and the order panel](Trading.) [Image: Validator console dashboard in dark](The validator console, in dark.) [Image: Staking: choose a validator and a lockup](Staking.) [Image: The personal dashboard: positions and rewards](The personal dashboard.) A product of its own ## Run like a product, for the people who build Pye. A design system is only useful if the team can trust it. So Foundry has its own documentation, versioned from v1, with an overview, foundations, components and modules, and every page links straight to its story in Storybook. Tokens are the contract. In Figma they are variables, in semantic layers like primary, surface and text, for both themes. In code they are CSS variables with the same names, so a design decision lands in production one to one. Chromatic ties Storybook back to Figma for component QA, because sometimes designs have errors too. I set what goes in, review what comes back from engineering, and keep design and code from drifting apart as products come and go. Into code ## From Figma to Storybook to tokens. Every docs page in Figma links to its Storybook story. Pye’s frontend team built Foundry into the product’s component library in June and July 2025, and the whole app moved onto it. In February 2026 I took over the frontend, and Foundry with it. I rebuilt it with AI-assisted coding. One tokens file holds every colour, layer, edge and motion value and builds to CSS and typed constants. On top sit stateless React components with every state designed, and the brand’s judgment written down so AI tools apply it the same way the team does. Figma: 70+ pages Storybook: About 90 stories Themes: Light and dark Foundry v2: One tokens file, React components --- # Case study: Merlin Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/merlin/ Years: 2026 Role: Designer and builder Tags: 3D, Lighting, OS design, Companion robot, AI-assisted coding Merlin · Personal project Merlin is a retro computer on a desk in a small space pod. Sit down at it and it boots an operating system of its own, with my work on it as files. I designed all of it, from the concept to the keycaps, and built it with AI-assisted coding. Role: Concept, 3D, lighting, OS and interaction design, build When: October 2026 Stack: Blender, three.js, Vite, vanilla JS and CSS Built with: AI-assisted coding [Image: The pod from the seat: the monitor booting Merlin OS, keyboard, trackball, Milo and the Earth outside](The pod from the seat. Merlin boots; Milo says hello.) The idea ## A portfolio you can sit down at. Most portfolios are a list of pages. I wanted a place: somewhere you arrive, look around, and find the work the way you would on someone’s actual computer. A desk only feels lived in if it has a life around it, so this one got a robot, a dog, some space homework and a few things that shouldn’t be pressed. It was also a test of what I say about myself: that I design products and then build them. This is that, with nobody handing me a brief. Process ## Five stages, each one shaping the next. - 01 ### Concept AI concept art set the mood: a cream pod, a warm niche, a retro monitor, the Earth at night outside. The seated view became the camera. - 02 ### Set Every object is a Blender script, lit once by a baked lightmap. - 03 ### Screen The monitor shows a real web page, and the 3D keyboard types along. - 04 ### Merlin OS A desktop with windows, a dock and apps, with my work on it as files. - 05 ### Life A robot with a personality, switches you shouldn't press, and a hyperdrive. [Image: AI-generated concept art of the pod from the seat](The concept. The camera was matched to this frame.) [Image: An early build of the pod: the set, monitor, keyboard and trackball with the first grade](An early build, the desk still empty.) The room ## Every model is a script. Nothing was modelled by hand. Each object is a Python script run in Blender, built from a few parameters, so changing the room means changing a number and running it again. The pod shares one panel kit, which keeps the corners, gaps and bevels consistent everywhere. The room is lit once, in a single baked lightmap, then graded on the site with a light filmic pass. The same grade sits over the screen too, so the page on the monitor and the room around it read as one picture. The screen ## A real computer, not a picture of one. The monitor shows a live web page, kept aligned to the 3D screen, so text stays sharp and everything on it works. Type and the keys on the desk press in time with you. Merlin OS ## An operating system with one owner and a guest. Merlin boots, signs you in and opens a desktop: menus, icons, a dock and windows you can drag around or zoom to full screen. The apps are the ones a desk computer would have, plus a few for this one: Research, the space homework on the wall behind you, and Ship, the vessel you are sitting in. Visitors come aboard as a guest and land on my work. Product Design holds the case studies, each opening on a playthrough of the real prototype, a cursor clicking through the screens I designed. Product Dev holds what I built. [Image: Merlin OS desktop with the Files window and the Ship app, a spinnable model of URQ-224 with its compartments](The desktop, with Files and the Ship app open.) [Image: The Research app: nine NASA and ESA space images laid out as a homework folder](Research: the prints on the wall behind you, due Friday.) Milo ## A robot with a personality, written down first. Milo lives on the desk. Before any code I wrote who he is: how he talks, what he loves, what annoys him. His lines come from that document, and he reacts to what happens on the computer, like a case study opening or a guest signing in. He drives around the desk without hitting anything, turns to face you when he arrives, and is pleased when you click him. Click him ten times and he gets dizzy, then grumpy for exactly three seconds. [Image: The PUP concept sheet: orthographic views, expressions, poses, interactions and colour options](The concept sheet Milo was built from.) [Image: Milo on the desk, looking up at the screen with a speech bubble](Milo, keeping an eye on the homework.) Things to press ## Eight switches and a hyperdrive. The niche has a panel of switches: sleep, lights, the window shade, other views of the Earth, a key that powers Milo down. Two sit under glass. One turns off gravity, and the prints, the toys and Milo float up and bump around. The other says DO NOT. People press it. The hyperdrive is my favourite. Flip open the plate in the desk, push the lever, and over six seconds the lights dip, the stars streak past and the pod arrives somewhere else: a gas giant, an ice world, a nebula. [Image: Low gravity: Milo floating up past the monitor](Gravity off. Milo paddles.) [Image: Mid-jump: the stars streak into a tunnel outside the window and the lights dip](Mid-jump.) [Image: Arrival: a violet nebula outside the window](Arrival. Milo asks where the planet went.) URQ-224 ## The ship the pod lives in. Once the room existed it needed a vessel around it. URQ-224 is a small research ship, fourteen metres long, with a crew of one plus Milo. A model of it hangs on the wall: take it down and its engines fire one by one. It is also on the computer, in the Ship app, with the room you are sitting in marked as you are here. [Image: The URQ-224 display model held up for inspection in front of the monitor](The model ship, up for inspection.) How it was built ## Specs first, scripts as the source of truth. Design came first: the concept, the look, the room and the operating system, worked out before any of it was built. Then I built it the way I build product frontends: a short spec for each feature, then the build with AI coding tools. Anything with real logic has tests. Anything with geometry lives in a script, so no change is ever a one-off. The night Earth is NASA’s Black Marble. The prints on the wall are NASA and ESA/Webb images, credited in the repo. What I took from it ## The gap between designing and building has closed. Not long ago this would have been a Figma file and a wish. Now the distance from a concept image to a lit, working, inhabited room is weeks, and what limits it is taste: what the room should feel like, which switch deserves glass, how long a robot should stay grumpy. That judgement is the job. The tools let me carry it all the way to the end. --- # Product design: Valorem Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/valorem/ When: 2023 to 2024 On-chain options trading: the options chain, order ticket, exercise and redemption states, and the design system. Client: Valorem Labs Work: On-chain options Years: 2023 to 2024 Platform: Web dApp ## The product Valorem Labs builds on-chain options. I designed the options board: the chain, the order ticket, exercise and redemption, and the design system behind them. ## What I designed - Options chain: calls and puts by expiry and strike, with bids, asks and open interest, and a spot chart beside it. - Order ticket: choose buy or sell, call or put, expiry, strike and amount, then see the premium, fees and collateral before opening a position. - Expiry and strike: picking a new expiry keeps the call or put you had selected for the new strike. - Positions: long and short options in one list, with Sell and Exercise for a long call and Redeem for a short one. - Design system: the components behind the board. --- # Product design: Haptic Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/haptic/ When: 2024 A design sprint to v1.0: binary options on Uniswap V3 pairs. Client: Haptic Role: Product design Length: Design sprint to v1.0 Platform: Web app ## The product Haptic creates a binary-option market for any risky and stable token pair traded on Uniswap V3. The markets are made by liquidity providers, who deposit LP shares and use them as collateral for selling European-style binary options. The app has two sides: an exchange where traders take a position, and the provider side where liquidity goes in and comes out. I did the product design, and someone else built it. ## What I designed - Exchange: a chart of the pair, a checkout module to set up a trade, and open and closed positions in a table beneath. - Pricing: a BlackScholes mode and a Multiplier mode, with duration, payout token, rise or fall, and a stake. - Token pair selector: a list of markets with their prices. - Vaults: every pair in a list with its TVL, APY, fee tier and your own liquidity. - Provider flow: deposit, withdraw and claim from one panel, with a note that withdrawals process at the end of the round. - States: transactions in progress, successful, rejected or failed. --- # Product design: Kodex Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/kodex/ When: 2023 to 2024 A pro trading app for the ENS domain market, plus brand and landing page. Client: Kodex Role: Senior Product Designer, part-time Work: V2 product, creative direction and landing page Years: 2023–2024 ## The product Kodex is a pro trading app for the ENS market: one place to find, buy, register and snipe .eth names, with the market data to judge them. Kodex had built its first app with another agency, and it didn’t work. Renatus was the v2: a whole new product and its design system, started with me. I worked with the team part-time for several months, responsible for the product design end to end, the strategy, the creative direction of the brand and the landing page. ## What I designed - Renatus: the v2 rebuild, and the design system it is built from. - Marketplace: every ENS name with live market data, filters by status, category, length and price, and a details panel with price history and similar domains. - Analytics: market activity charts for listings and sales, by category. - Cart: buy listed names, make offers or register unregistered ones, one at a time or all at once in a bulk purchase. - Transactions: each step confirmed in the wallet, from the allowance to the purchase, with success and failure states. - Portfolio: your domains, the offers you made and received, a watchlist and activity. - Notifications and chat: expiring names, snipes, offers and sales in an inbox, and a global chat beside the market. - Brand and landing page: creative direction for the brand, and a site that sells the app feature by feature. The illustration and the logo were another illustrator’s. --- # Product design: Obol Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/obol/ When: 2022 to 2023 The Distributed Validator Launchpad, a seven-step setup flow for groups of Ethereum operators, plus brand. The full case study is being written. --- # Product design: Rated Network Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/rated-network/ When: Deep Work A one-month brand and MVP sprint. Client: Rated Via: Deep Work Work: Brand and MVP sprint Length: One month ## The product Rated builds reputation models for machines: independent, third-party ratings for Ethereum nodes and the operators who run them. The Network Explorer is where the ratings live, and a widget carries them onto other sites. Rated later raised and was acquired. ## What I designed - Brand: the creative direction and identity, from a personality the team voted on in the branding workshop to the logo, colour, type and illustration. - Brand guidelines: light and dark themes, Space Grotesk with Plus Jakarta Sans, and a retro-futurist illustration style. - Website: the landing page, shaped in a landing page workshop and designed for desktop and mobile. - Design system: the components and styles behind the landing page, from buttons and block links to metric tiles. - Network Explorer: product design with the team, from the validator ratings to each entity’s own page. - Widget: Rated’s ratings for other products to embed, in Logo, Lite and Expanded versions, light and dark. --- # Product design: MakerDAO Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/makerdao/ When: Deep Work The new website, brand guidelines and component library, and a new creative direction. Client: MakerDAO Via: Deep Work Work: Website and brand guidelines Platform: Website ## The product Maker is the protocol behind DAI, a stablecoin. I defined a new creative direction that keeps the legacy of Maker: the MKR and DAI logo stay, and the product suite grows around them. The guidelines describe it as serious, simple, calm, concrete, polished, modern and brave. ## What I designed - Website: the landing page, from the hero and the product suite to the ecosystem and the DAO, with a menu that opens onto every product. - Contact: a page to talk to the team, in three parts: your goal, your details and your enquiry. - Protocol health: the collateral in the Maker Protocol, and the sources DAI is minted from. - Brand guidelines: the Maker logo and its variants, a logo for each product, colour, typography and illustration. - Tone of voice: I designed the guide, for each audience from DAI users to developers. The copy in it is someone else’s. - Component library: type, grid, buttons, cards, forms, navigation, stats and layouts the site is built from. --- # Product design: Agentcoin Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/agentcoin/ When: Deep Work Brand and website. Now aitv.gg. Client: Agentcoin Via: Deep Work Work: Brand and website Now: aitv.gg ## The product Agentcoin is a network of AI agents that work for people. Its strategy summary states the mission as creating and scaling human-centric, agent-driven economies, so that humans and AI can co-ordinate more intelligently. The brand and website had to say that plainly. Agentcoin is now aitv.gg. ## What I designed - Brand strategy: a summary with goals from short to long term, a mission statement and the brand personality. - Brand manual: the landing page, blog and blog post for desktop, and the mobile screens, in a blue and cream palette with IBM Plex Sans. - Website: a landing page that moves from “AI, realigned” to what the agents do and the latest updates. - Components: type scale, colour tokens and the navigation, desktop and mobile. --- # Product design: Minterest Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/minterest/ When: Deep Work A brand and product sprint at Deep Work Studio. Client: Minterest Via: Deep Work Work: Brand and product sprint Platform: Web app ## The product Minterest is a DeFi money market, billed as the only DeFi where everybody wins. People lend and borrow assets, bridge them in from other chains, stake MNT and vote on governance proposals. I designed the product at Deep Work Studio. ## What I designed - Markets: an overview of what there is to lend and borrow, with each asset’s APY, liquidity and balance in your wallet. - Lending: each market has its own page with earnings estimates, liquidation risk and history beside the lend panel. - Bridge: bringing assets over from another chain, with the wallet connection and the transfer confirmed. - Portfolio: holdings, lent and borrowed, with performance, distribution and the liquidation risk of the whole portfolio. - Governance: staked and earned MNT, and proposals to vote on, open or closed, each with its own page. --- # Product design: ETHA Lend Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/etha-lend/ When: Deep Work A brand and product sprint at Deep Work Studio. Client: ETHA Lend Via: Deep Work Work: Brand and product sprint Platform: Web app ## The product ETHA Lend puts your money in stable assets and turns the yield into exposure to volatile ones like BTC and ETH, so the principal stays stable. It works out the best allocation for earning yield and runs the order in one click. ## What I designed - Vaults and a lending market: each strategy and asset with its APY, value locked and volatility. - Investing: projected returns, fees and the gas saved, shown before you commit. - Advanced: the route a deposit takes across platforms, with the weighted APY. - Portfolio: invested and unused assets, earnings, claim and withdraw. - Swaps: unused assets in the smart wallet swapped in place. --- # Product design: RideHere Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/ridehere/ When: Deep Work An MVP prototype for hosting electric scooters, designed in a five-day sprint to test with potential users. Client: RideHere Via: Deep Work Work: MVP prototype and product design Length: Five days ## The product Here Mobility Protocol is a pre-seed startup building a distribution network of electric vehicles hosted by local entrepreneurs. The goal was an MVP prototype to test with potential users for market fit. A host finds a scooter on the map, claims it with a scan and a $HERE security deposit, and adds it to their fleet. ## What I designed - Prototype: the MVP, designed to be tested with potential users for market fit. - Become a host: how it works in four steps, from finding a scooter to earning. - Fleet and map: the host dashboard with earnings, and the available scooters near them. - Claim a scooter: its earnings and deposit, a scan of its QR code, a match, and then it joins the fleet. - Changes: the designs adjusted from the test findings, from a map on the scooter details to a new confirm stake screen. - Fleet: each scooter’s earnings, its current rider and rental history, and managing the vehicle. --- # Product design: Huma Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/huma/ When: Deep Work An admin portal for setting up patient care plans: modules, learning sections, questionnaires and deployments. Client: Huma Via: Deep Work Work: Product design Platform: Web admin portal ## The product A deployment is one programme’s setup of the patient experience, with its own name, country and status. The portal is where a team builds one: its care plan, language, onboarding and consent, behaviour and the rest, checked through before it goes live. ## What I designed - Deployments: every one in a list with its ID and status, and cloning one as the start of the next. - Setup: a care plan built from a module library of learn modules, questionnaires and key actions. - Editing: learning sections and their articles, with thumbnails and files, edited in place. - Questionnaires: built by dragging field types in, from yes or no to scales. - Deploy: a last check that lists every section, from the icon and version to integrations, before it goes live. --- # Product design: LSEG Forge Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/lseg-forge/ When: 2019 to 2022 Led the design system team for Forge, across the Refinitiv and LSEG digital ecosystem. The full case study is being written. --- # Product design: Deep Work Source: https://www.urquhart.design/work/deep-work/ When: 2020 to now Product, branding and web design sprints for early-stage crypto projects. The full case study is being written. --- # Field note: Operator's Manual Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/operators-manual/ Date: 2026-10-15T15:41 URQ-224 has its own manual, on the computer: ten chapters over 26 pages, in the deadpan voice of a crew manual. - Welcome, the ship, the studio, Merlin OS, the applications - The niche panel, the hyperdrive, the desk, Milo, warnings - Line drawings in cream on dark paper - Three small turntables: the ship, the trackball, Milo It's in Documents and under Help. Later that day every figure was redrawn, most of them traced from the real 3D models. --- # Field note: Come aboard Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/come-aboard/ Date: 2026-10-14T22:29 The sign-in reads Come aboard, with URQ-224 · visitor pass under it. One button, into the portfolio desktop. It greets you with Welcome aboard. --- # Field note: Field Notes Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/field-notes/ Date: 2026-10-14T22:03 Field Notes is live. A note is a Markdown file with a title, a date and a category: daily, projects, ideas or media. In Merlin it's an app: a sidebar with counts, search, and the notes as cards grouped by day. A guest can open it. On the desk it's a notebook, right of the trackball. Click it and it lifts, tilts toward you and the cover swings open on an e-ink page with the latest note. Click again for the next one, with an e-ink flash and a tick. --- # Field note: Weaponised ADHD Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/weaponised-adhd/ Date: 2026-10-14T20:32 One of those days where everything clicks. - Discord support bot + automations - Slack app and a Supabase database behind it - Ship model (URQ-224) - A browser inside a browser - Logo exploration - Lunch with my best mate Product design in the morning, front end in the afternoon, a spaceship in the evening. --- # Field note: Merlin OS Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/merlin-os/ Date: 2026-10-14T17:14 The OS on the desk has a name now: Merlin. New mark, new wordmark. Refined the ship model (URQ-224): a shark nose, a proper chin, a belly with some stance, and engines that actually fire when you pick the toy up. Next: Field Notes (this) and Transmissions. --- # Field note: Pye Finance Source: https://www.urquhart.design/notes/pye-finance/ Date: 2026-10-14T12:03 - CDP prototype - Design iterations - Team sync