Freelance design lead for large digital brands
I've led design on large projects for years, usually as a freelancer working through agencies — creative and design direction on KLM's brand refresh, Design Lead on the Odido rebrand, Design Lead & Senior Product Designer at adidas.
Leading, for me, means setting and holding the direction — the foundations, the quality bar, and how brand, product and system fit together — while staying hands-on enough to make that direction real. I lead through the craft, not from a distance.
How I lead
- Creative and design direction on large digital projects
- Setting the foundations and the quality bar a team designs against
- Connecting brand, product and design system so they pull in one direction
- Interim or fractional design leadership for a specific phase
Who this is for
Teams in a big moment — a rebrand, a redesign, a platform scaling up — that need senior design direction without a permanent hire. The common thread is a project that needs someone to hold the direction and the quality, and to make sure the brand, the product and the system all end up in the same place.
Where I've led
KLM — Creative & design direction (2023–2025)
With Laurens Beil in a small core team, I helped lead KLM's digital brand refresh — setting the direction and building the foundations (colour, type, shape, iconography, motion, illustration) that had to hold across a very wide range of touchpoints and teams.
Odido — Design Lead, design system
I led the design system side of the T-Mobile → Odido rebrand with Code d'Azur / Hypersolid, holding the direction for how a brand-new identity became a usable system across web, app and TV — and translating the concept team's more expressive work back into something teams could actually build with. It later won a Diamond Sabre Award for Brand-Building.
adidas — Design Lead & Senior Product Designer (2021–2023)
Leading design across a large, global digital surface, where the challenge is keeping many teams and touchpoints coherent.
How I work
- Set a clear direction
Foundations and principles a team can actually design against, not a vague vision. - Lead through craft
I stay hands-on enough to show what good looks like, not just describe it. - Connect brand, product and system
Most of the value is making sure those three end up pointing the same way.
FAQ
What does a freelance design lead actually do?
Sets and holds the design direction on a project — the foundations, the quality bar, and how brand, product and system fit together. For me that's usually the creative and design direction on a large piece of work, like KLM's brand refresh or Odido's rebrand, working closely with the teams delivering it.
How is this different from your other pages?
Same work, different emphasis. The UX/UI and product pages are about the design itself; this one is about leading the direction of it. In practice I do both — I lead through the craft, not from a distance.
Do you work through agencies or directly?
Both. Most of my lead work has been via agencies — Code d'Azur, Hypersolid, User Intelligence — embedded in the client's project. I'm just as happy working directly with an in-house team that needs senior design direction for a phase.
Need someone to lead the design direction on a big project?
Let's talk.