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Design Director & Creative Technologist

Building systems for complex creative environments

“I design systems that let creative work scale without losing soul.”

I’m a design director and creative technologist with around 20 years’ experience across creative direction, design leadership, design operations and design systems. I build the frameworks, workflows and production tools that help multidisciplinary teams move faster, reduce friction and deliver consistently high-quality work.

My work sits at the intersection of design, engineering and business: shaping the systems, workflows and production pipelines that unlock efficiency without compromising creative integrity.

With a background spanning visual design, technical art and front-end development, I bring a hands-on, full-stack perspective to design leadership. I’m often brought in to untangle complex or stalled environments: simplifying workflows, aligning teams and building the systems that lift output and impact.

I work closely with cross-functional stakeholders to bridge creative, technical and business priorities, helping organisations mature their design capability and operate more effectively.

Repository index

My work

A three-part index separating commercial work, personal creative practice and creative technology R&D.

Work

Commercial case studies. Shipped products, campaigns and design systems created under real-world client constraints, deadlines and business metrics.

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Art

Personal creative work. A curated collection of drawing, painting, illustration and visual experimentation, made for the craft.

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Code

Creative technology. My space for active R&D, where I test new tools, explore AI workflows and build rapid proofs of concept, driven by curiosity.

View the code
Featured case study

Google Cloud Summits

Creative Direction · Brand Systems · Design Systems · Production Systems · Automation · Motion · Team Leadership · R&D

I led creative direction, design systems and production development for Google Cloud Summits, a global program delivering more than 25,000 assets annually across 30+ countries. The work connected brand identity, digital campaigns, motion and live-event content through a flexible framework designed to support varied formats, languages and regional requirements.

By rethinking the systems behind the work, I brought responsive design, structured content, automated workflows and team development into a more connected production model. Between 2023 and 2025, this helped reduce agency production overhead by more than 50%, while improving consistency and giving the team more time to focus on creative craft.

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Featured case study

Stan

Technical Design Direction · UX/UI · Design Systems · Responsive Design · User Journeys · Prototyping · Component Design · Design Documentation

As Technical Design Director at Apparent, I led the UX/UI overhaul of Stan’s web platform, spanning acquisition, marketing, account creation and payment journeys. Working from discovery through to engineering handover, I established a modular, fluidly responsive design system that could support an evolving product and be introduced progressively alongside existing components.

The work connected clearer user journeys with reusable layouts, interactive prototypes and practical documentation, giving design and development teams a more coherent foundation. Following a subsequent brand update, the core architecture, components and journeys remained in production, demonstrating the lasting value of a system designed to accommodate change.

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Featured case study

Inspace

Technical Art Direction · Team Leadership · Production Systems · 3D Pipeline Development · Real-Time 3D · Digital Twins · Training & Mentoring · Studio Operations

As Technical Art Director at Inspace, I led a distributed team of around 25 3D artists and product designers across Australia and Thailand. Working on 3D Stack, a browser-based digital twin platform for commercial real estate, I combined team leadership with hands-on technical direction to meet growing demand for interactive property experiences.

I led recruitment and accelerated onboarding, rebuilt production around a modular Blender pipeline and helped introduce clearer project scoping. Together, these changes cut turnaround from about 10 days to a predictable five-day cycle per Stack, lifted production output by more than 30% and reduced production costs by more than 65%, while maintaining the visual quality and performance needed for real-time browser rendering. A revised pricing framework also contributed to revenue growth of around 10%.

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About me

Designer, technologist, systems builder

Creative Direction · Technical Art · Design Systems · UX/UI · 3D & Real-Time · Front-End Development · Automation · Team Leadership

My career has moved between disciplines that usually sit apart: visual design, front-end development, technical art and creative direction. Working across agencies, in-house teams and product companies, I’ve led work for brands including Google, Stan, IBM and Inspace, from global campaign systems and digital products to real-time 3D platforms.

That mix shapes how I work. I’m as comfortable art directing a campaign or designing a product journey as I am building a 3D pipeline, writing the code behind a prototype or automating a production workflow. The common thread is building the systems underneath the work, so teams can make more of it, more consistently, without losing the craft.

Outside client work I keep experimenting through art and code, from generative drawings to interactive 3D, like the turntable of me spinning alongside this as you scroll.

How I work

Frameworks for high-performance design

I approach design as an operational discipline as well as a creative one. My process starts with how teams actually work, then builds the systems, tools and habits that help them deliver.

Systems-first thinking

I map how the work gets made, then design the structures, frameworks and pipelines that let teams produce high-quality work consistently.

Anchored in business goals

I align design with product, engineering and business goals from the outset, so it drives measurable impact, not just output.

Clarity through complexity

I bring structure to ambiguous or fragmented environments, simplifying workflows and reducing friction across teams.

Cross-functional by default

I work closely with engineering, product and leadership to bridge gaps and make sure design is fully integrated into delivery.

Prototype, prove, then build

I test ideas early with working prototypes and tools, then build them into systems that increase speed and efficiency while keeping a high bar for craft.
Strategic impact

Where I add value

I focus on the areas where design has the greatest effect on how an organisation operates and delivers. My work centres on the structures, processes and alignment that turn design into a consistent, effective driver of business value.

Growing design teams and output

Operational foundations that let teams grow without losing quality or velocity.

Design systems and production pipelines

Reusable frameworks that reduce duplication, improve consistency and accelerate delivery.

Speed, quality and efficiency

Bottlenecks identified and friction removed across workflows, lifting overall team performance.

Design, engineering and business aligned

Clearer translation between disciplines, aligned priorities, better collaboration and better outcomes.

Raising design maturity

Design that evolves from an execution function into a strategically integrated part of the organisation.

Open to new leadership roles

I’m currently open to Head of Design, Design Director and senior creative technology roles, where design leadership, systems thinking and hands-on craft can shape how a team works. If that sounds like your team, I’d be glad to talk.

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© David Flitcroft 2026