Koala: brand to first build
What does a startup need from design before it has a product?
I ran discovery with Koala's founders, then built the brand, a design system in Figma and React, the public website and the first product UI.
- Organisation
- Koala
- My role
- Principal Product Designer, freelance
- Period
- Nov 2025 – Jan 2026
- Type of work
- 0 to 1
- Capabilities
- Discovery, Product design, Front-end development, AI-assisted delivery
From founders' heads to a brand
I led discovery with the founders, then created the brand identity, logo and visual language.
A design system built for AI-assisted development
I designed and built the design system in both Figma and React, using shadcn/ui and Tailwind. I structured it so that AI-assisted development would stay consistent with the design instead of drifting away from it.
First build
I built the public website and the initial product UI myself, and left a foundation the team could keep building on.