Here’s a self portrait.
What sets me apart from other design leaders, is not just my uncanny resemblance to cro magnon humans.
It’s actually my success balancing
Art and Science and Culture in the craft and professional practice of digital design, to produce delightful, measurable and scalable outcomes.
Design is art and science.
It’s the cycle of strategy and execution that effectively brings good ideas to life.
Design is about people, humanity. It’s about our lives, how we experience the world, how we communicate, how we make connections. Ideally, it’s also about setting us up for the future.
Successful teams are happy teams, that have healthy design culture.
In my experience, teams with a strong design culture produce better outcomes. At Mercatus, we built a growth minded design culture that supported creativity, innovative thinking, collaboration, feedback cycles, ownership and mentorship. We created a design culture and environment for high performing teams to thrive.
Design principles are for design. Design values are for designers.
Design principles lay the ground for good design. Design values are the cultural mantra of every successful design team. Together, they become the backbone of every successful design process and system.
Design systems should be part of your infrastructure and process.
Your team can do so much more with the right design system. The quality of your Product will benefit too. Polish, quality with speed and efficiency are just some of the merits of a good design system. Like yoga, make sure yours is flexible.
Without reservation, I wholeheartedly recommend Djen for any creative leadership endeavour. His steadfast professionalism, innate wisdom, empathetic nature, goal-oriented mindset, and exceptional creative prowess make Djen an invaluable asset. Djen has consistently played a pivotal role in helping us achieve our design objectives, and I am confident he will continue to do so for any fortunate team he collaborates with.
Djen is an innovative and pragmatic design leader that thrives in an environment where he understands customer needs and builds tools that are both very functional and extremely appealing. At the same time, Djen understands trade-offs and how to prioritize ideas so that they have the most impact, quickly. He is also wildly creative and inventive, with a fine eye for detail. Djen has the ability to translate spoken and unspoken needs into a solution and experience that delights. I'd consider myself lucky to work with him again.