I design the parts nobody notices
I am Elena Marsh, a product designer & art director working independently from Lisbon, Portugal. For eleven years I have worked on the kind of problems that look like design problems and turn out to be clarity problems: an onboarding flow nobody finishes, a dashboard people copy into a spreadsheet, a shelf of packaging that all looks the same.
Before going independent I spent three years leading design on a payments platform, and three before that art directing an architecture quarterly. The two disciplines sound unrelated. They are not. Both are about deciding what somebody needs to know first.
These days I work with founders and small product teams, usually one at a time, usually for two to five months. I do the research, the design, and the handover, and I stay long enough that the team can carry it on without me.
- Based in
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Working since
- 2014
- Availability
- Booking new work for Q4
Four things I will not compromise on
Research before pixels
The first fortnight of any project is spent finding out what is actually wrong. It is the least glamorous part and the reason the rest works.
One project at a time
I take on fewer clients than I could. It means you get the whole of my attention rather than the leftovers of somebody else.
Built to be handed over
Every project ends with documentation your team can extend. If the work falls apart six months after I leave, it was never finished.
Honest about fit
If your problem needs an agency, an engineer, or nobody at all, I will say so. Turning down work I am wrong for keeps the rest of it good.
Where the years went
- 2021 — now
Independent designer, Marsh Studio
Working directly with founders and product teams across fintech, retail, and publishing. Usually one project at a time.
- 2018 — 2021
Senior product designer, Kestrel
Led design on the payments platform through two funding rounds, and built the design system still in use today.
- 2015 — 2018
Designer, Field & Co.
Brand and editorial work for cultural institutions, including three years art directing an architecture quarterly.
- 2014 — 2015
Junior designer, Northroom
Print production, retouching, and the slow, useful apprenticeship of preparing other people's files for press.
What I bring to a project
- Product design
- Design systems
- Brand identity
- Art direction
- Editorial
- Packaging
- Prototyping
- Accessibility
- 01
Understand
I talk to the people who use the thing and the people who support it. Most projects change shape in this first fortnight, and that is the point of it.
- 02
Frame
We agree on the specific problem worth solving and what success looks like in numbers. Nothing gets designed until that sentence is written down.
- 03
Make
Fast, rough, and in front of real people early. I would rather throw away three directions in week four than defend one in week ten.
- 04
Hand over
Documented, specified, and built to survive without me. If your team cannot extend the work six months later, I have not finished it.
Have something that needs thinking through?
Tell me what you are building and where it is stuck. I reply to everything within two working days, even when the answer is that I am not the right fit.