A design & engineering
studio for founders.
Northwind is a 22-person studio building brands, products, and marketing sites for AI-native founders. We ship the design and the code — so nothing gets lost in translation.
Trusted by 142 founders & teams
Trusted by teams at
Four services, one studio.
We work in pods of two — a designer and an engineer — so the thing you approve in Figma is the thing that ships in code.
- Logo suite
- Brand book
- Typography
- Motion system
- Design system
- Hi-fi flows
- Prototype
- Dev hand-off
- Landing page
- Paid creative
- Lifecycle email
- A/B tests
- Next.js build
- CMS integration
- Analytics
- A11y audit
Three case studies,
one repeatable system.
AI journaling app, rebuilt from onboarding up.
New visual system, 4-screen onboarding, and a marketing site shipped in 11 weeks. Day-1 retention up 38%.
Read the full case studySeries-A landing that booked 11 calls in week one.
Hero redesign, comparison table, and pricing revamp. The site went live two weeks before the round closed.
Read the full case study120-component system used by 40 engineers.
Token-first architecture, Figma library, and a Storybook handoff. Spec time dropped from 3 days to 4 hours.
Read the full case studyThe humans behind the work.
Twenty-two people. Eight time zones. One Friday Loom where we share utilization, blockers, and what we shipped.
Mira Okafor
Founder & creative director
Daniel Reyes
Head of engineering
Priya Shah
Design lead, product
Tomi Adeyemi
Senior brand designer
Elena Voss
Motion & 3D
Kenji Park
Full-stack engineer
Aria Mensah
Content strategist
Lev Carter
Project & ops
From kickoff to ship in five steps.
Studio founded
First product team
Remote-first
AI-native pivot
Twelve years, still shipping
A typical 10-week engagement
- Wk 1–2
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, competitor teardown, success metrics.
- Wk 3–4
Direction
Two distinct creative directions, presented as clickable prototypes.
- Wk 5–7
Build
Design system + high-fidelity flows, weekly Friday Loom.
- Wk 8–9
Ship
Engineering handoff, QA, lighthouse + a11y audit.
- Wk 10
Launch & iterate
Go-live support, conversion telemetry, 30-day retro.
"The studio that finally shipped our launch."
“We hired Northwind for a brand sprint and ended up keeping them for 14 months. They are the studio that finally shipped our Series-A launch.”
“The level of craft is unmatched. Every detail — every transition, every margin — was intentional. Our conversion rate doubled in six weeks.”
“A team that actually understands code. We didn't need to translate design into engineering — they just shipped it.”
Frequently asked, honestly answered.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a typical engagement last?
Brand engagements run 6–10 weeks. Product design engagements run 8–14 weeks. Growth sprints are 4 weeks. We're happy to scope down to a single landing page or up to a 12-month retainer.
Do you work with early-stage startups?
Yes — roughly half our roster is pre-seed to Series A. We have a starter package ($18k) for founders who need a brand, a landing page, and a deck before they ship.
Can you just design it and hand off Figma files?
Absolutely. About a third of our work is design-only with a structured hand-off. We use a 90-minute Loom walkthrough plus annotated Figma frames so engineering can ship without us in the room.
What's your tech stack for engineering work?
Next.js + TypeScript + Tailwind + shadcn/ui by default. We also ship on Astro, SvelteKit, and React Native when the product calls for it. Everything goes through Vercel or your own infra.
How do you price retainers?
Monthly retainers start at $22k for a mixed design + engineering pod. They're month-to-month after a 90-day pilot. We share utilization numbers in a Friday Loom so you always know where the hours went.
Tell us about your project.
A real human (Mira) replies within one business day. No forms, no sequences.
hello@northwind.studio
Brooklyn · Lisbon · Remote
northwind.studio