# Metacarbon — Full Content

> Humans & Agents Design Company. Design direction, experience strategy, and design engineering for companies building with AI. Designers who ship production-grade UI at engineering speed.

This is the full-content companion to https://metacarbon.com/llms.txt. It contains the complete text of every page on https://metacarbon.com so AI systems can work with the site without fetching and parsing individual pages.

Last updated: 2026-07-06
Canonical site: https://metacarbon.com · Contact: hello@metacarbon.com · Book an intro call: https://metacarbon.com/?book=1

## Positioning & how we engage

We are the design partner for AI-accelerated product teams and fast-paced companies.

Design should compound. We set and hold the design direction across brand, web and product, build the design infrastructure to run it on, and then serve as the ongoing design partner. Three offer areas:

- Product: Experience design and UI for tech products at scale, usually when their growth phase starts.
- Web: Marketing websites. Built to be a proper entry point into the brand and product, with an agentic CMS under the hood.
- Brand & Marketing Design: Brand identity and visuals for product marketers' content engines. Digital, out-of-home, events, print, motion.

The problem we solve: design nuances die in the hand-off. The identity lands, the design scales across the surfaces — then someone else builds the web or product, and the integrity of the work quietly leaks out between the design intent and the build. Design-to-dev hand-off is where the leak starts; designers have limited control over the deliverables; long iterations kill the pace.

Our workflows keep designers in control. Direction is human: product thinking, AI-interaction strategy, design intent, aesthetic and visual systems. Infrastructure is engineered (agentic): machine-readable design systems, tokens, components, the codebase, skills and instruction rails — the system that carries the direction at scale, for people and for the LLMs to act predictably. Design engineering is what holds it together: ideation and execution happen on the same rails, with designers in full control of the UI from sketches to final deployment, while engineers handle what they should — API, integrations, performance. A hidden benefit: code becomes another canvas. Designers are no longer confined to visual editors, which pushes the boundaries of what is possible.

Engagement models: embedded (a fully integrated design team, as with Slash and Cortex) or focused scope (a defined revamp or build, as with ApplyPass).

## Home page (https://metacarbon.com/)

Designers who ship. We do design direction, experience strategy & design engineering for companies building with AI.

We are a humans & agents design company. Design that ships at engineering speed needs a new kind of expertise setup. Human craft, agentic workflows, and product thinking, so design becomes a driver. This is what we focus on.

### The Dynamic Process

AI-accelerated. Owned, directed & steered by human designers.

### Services

- Design Direction: Product thinking, AI-interaction strategy, design intent, aesthetic and visual systems. Shaping how the product feels, how it acts, and where it should be deterministic versus dynamic.
- Design Engineering: AI-driven daily design effort. Machine-readable design systems, rapid builds and prototyping, iterative product design. Figma, where needed, straight to code, where possible, skills, and instructions to handle the computer intelligence properly. Full page: https://metacarbon.com/design-engineering
- Visual Things: Visuals for product marketers' content engines. Brand, marketing, motion.

### Clients & investors

Partners and clients: Schibsted, Deloitte, Antler, Cortex, Creative Europe, Aptos, Y Combinator, Slash, 1st Digital.

Working with product teams backed by leading investors: Goodwater Capital, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Initialized.

- $2B+ funding raised by the companies we work with.
- 90% of new projects come from referrals.

### Testimonials

We enhance the product teams that ship fast. Over the years, we've refined how we collaborate with product teams of any scale. Rated 5/5 on Clutch (https://clutch.co/profile/metacarbon).

- "Working with your team is one of the highest ROI decisions we ever made." — Anish Dhar, CEO at Cortex
- "They really don't trade off speed for quality, because they usually do both really well." — Victor Cardenas, CEO at Slash
- "We're very happy with the final designs and the team just has a great eye for design." — Iris ten Teije, CEO at Koia
- "Very seldom do I find that my expectations about talent is exceeded, because I keep a high bar." — Arne Morten, CEO at Bookis
- "Our activation rate have increased by 20% since we started working with Metacarbon." — Xavier Lesage Moretti, CEO at Koala
- "We did 3 background checks on them before we made our decision and everyone was very positive about Metacarbon." — Philip Werner, CEO at Maekersuite
- "They are hard working, never egotistical, they give accurate timelines." — Omar Farook, CEO at Glorify
- "It was amazing. We trusted them to lead the way, and they trusted us to leave feedback in a timely manner." — Salar Hajimirsadeghi, CEO at Faliam
- "Their design approach and level of quality were always on point." — CEO at Metamundo

### Team

Small & feisty. Growing in quality, not headcount. Around 21 people making it happen, agents under the hood. Four roles: Design Managers (former lead designers on direction, teams management, process innovation, and client service), Product Designers & Design Engineers (hands-on IC peers working across product and web design — shaping experience strategy, designing UI/UX, and running design infrastructure), Brand & Graphic Designers (brand identity, marketing visuals, motion), and Full Stack Engineers (the engineering power beneath the UI — API, performance, integrations). Human designers pair with agent teammates (Claude, Copilot, Codex) working under human direction.

## Methodology (https://metacarbon.com/methodology)

Design workflows for building AI-native products. Ideation happens in heads, code, & canvases. Design is treated as infra that ships with every feature.

### Disciplines

- System Design: How information flows, where decisions live, how product intelligence builds up, and how the product scales. Architecture before the screens.
- User Experience: The ways a product serves the user. Optimizing for seamless user journey and maximum product clarity.
- UI Design: Design direction, interface expression, interaction character. Minimal UI where possible, UI-perfect where needed.
- Design Engineering: See https://metacarbon.com/design-engineering
- Rapid Building: The fastest way to think through a product idea is to build it. Quick conceptualization, generative UI, and rapid app builds.
- Design Agents Orchestration: Briefing and steering models to make the right calls. Prompts, skills, context engineering, evals — the connective tissue of an accelerated product building process.
- Visual Design: The brand expression, typography, colors, and visual narrative — the character product carries before a single word lands.
- Motion: Time as a design material. How transitions teach, reveal, and confirm without ever asking for attention.

### Contextual Toolset

- Figma when it's right: Some decisions need a flat surface and a frame. Direction, expression, the things you point at and align around.
- Code when it's faster: Real components, real state, real timing. The fastest way to know whether an interaction holds up.
- MCP for context: Our system, tokens, components, and product context piped into the model. AI works on the same source we do.
- Generative UI for exploration: Many directions in the time it used to take to draft one. We use it to test architecture, not to ship pixels.
- Agents for ongoing builds: Long-running work that keeps the system aligned. Agents handle the patterns; humans handle the calls.

### Steering between synthetic and organic

What AI handles & what humans do:

- Repetitive patterns? We generate them.
- Onboarding flow or retention strategies? Human thinking.
- Token system? AI renders it.
- Brand moment? Human craft.

## Design Engineering (https://metacarbon.com/design-engineering)

Design infra & orchestration for teams moving fast.

Our designers ship production-ready UI. They prototype in code, maintain component systems, and work inside your repository. Design direction, product look and feel, user experience and UI become an infrastructure. Patterns, tokens, components, documentation, and an instruction layer running under the hood, so design and product decisions are implemented fast, in the way the team intended.

We use Figma where it matters — new patterns, complex UX, design direction, and layouts that need visual exploration. Everywhere else, design agents and structured prompts work from the project's instruction layer, real components from the codebase, and design system context to generate production-aligned UI that designers steer and refine. Humans own the decisions that shape the product. Agents handle pattern work.

Product Design sets the direction. Design Engineering makes it durable.

### The layers beneath the interface

- Token Studio: Our proprietary styling control layer. Color, typography, spacing, motion — codified as a multi-axis token system with themeable modes. Compiles to CSS, Tailwind, Figma variables, and native iOS/Android. Restyle in an afternoon, ship dark mode in a sprint.
- Components in your codebase: Built in your repo, documented in Storybook, visually tested with Chromatic. Figma components mirror what ships — kept in parity through Code Connect.
- Rules agents can follow: Usage rules, component specs, and design guidelines served to humans and machines alike. Agents pull this context through MCP or API calls — so generated UI follows your system instead of approximating it.

### When you need design engineering

Symptoms that point to a missing design infrastructure layer underneath the product:

- Product iterations are slow and fragmented.
- Design context lives in too many places and none of them talk to each other.
- Engineers ship without designers — and it shows in the product feeling.
- Figma files diverge from what shipped.
- Components exist in the library but nobody uses them.
- New features get built from scratch because finding the existing pattern takes longer than recreating it.
- AI copilots generate plausible-looking UI that breaks every convention the team agreed on.

### What design engineering ships (each sprint ships product work and grows the system underneath it, over 3–6 months)

- Production-grade design system — tokens, components, Storybook docs, AI-ready annotations.
- UI/UX delivered in code, aligned with your engineering stack.
- Single source of truth across design and engineering.
- Shorter cycles from design decision to production.
- Design infrastructure that makes onboarding faster for every new team member.
- Figma ↔ Code loop that removes handoff friction.

### How we balance design engineering and product design

Design engineering without design direction produces technically clean UI that nobody connects with. Automated, consistent, and forgettable. We keep both in the same process because they depend on each other. Designers own the experience: product thinking, interaction strategy, the moments where a screen becomes memorable. That work shapes what the system should express. Design engineering makes sure the system carries it — at scale, in code, across every surface.

## Career (https://metacarbon.com/career)

We're always hiring for two roles — product designers and design engineers. Product designers set the direction; design engineers ship it in code and orchestrate the interfaces. We hire for attitude and vision. If you've read what we do, you already know whether it's a fit. If it is, send us your CV and portfolio: hello@metacarbon.com

## Case studies

### Cortex (https://metacarbon.com/cases/cortex)

Engineering excellence tool, redesigned & scaled. Location: USA, San Francisco. Duration: 2 years of cooperation and counting. Engagement: embedded. Activities: product design, marketing design, brand identity, design system. Backing: Y Combinator (Series B). Client site: https://www.cortex.io

Cortex is the Engineering Operations Platform that helps teams improve their operational maturity and reduce developer friction. We partnered on product design, brand identity, website and marketing visuals to scale their visual language across surfaces.

The context: We kicked off a deep UX revamp in 2024 to prepare the platform for scale and respond to customer feedback. The refreshed UI and initial design direction were built on the lean improvements we shipped first — so customers saw early wins without waiting for the major design effort to land. The major product, brand, and marketing revamp was next.

Main product design challenge: Cortex is a data-heavy product, and the hardest part is making the data useful. As Cortex scaled, the platform needed to surface insights faster, give engineering leaders the right view at the right altitude, and evolve a brand that could carry the company from technical early adopters into a broader market — all while agentic workflows were rewriting what a product surface should even look like.

Brand direction & marketing: In 2025 we began evolving the brand identity and marketing visual language across every touchpoint: marketing, employer branding, and Cortex's own community conferences. Social media graphics, out-of-home in Times Square, educational videos, product tutorials, and quick update reels.

Why it worked: Two years and counting. The partnership has produced a redesigned product — rebuilt dashboards that surface insights faster for engineering leaders — a brand system that runs from social tiles to Times Square, identities for two flagship conferences (IDPCON and Evolve), and an ongoing marketing site improving every cycle. It held together because one team contributed into product design, brand, marketing, and events — so every surface reads as one Cortex, not four. Leadership called it "one of the highest ROI decisions we ever made."

Cortex platform numbers: 97+ countries with teams running on Cortex; 41,286 engineering teams onboarded; 1,524 days saved for customer teams across all workflow runs; 10,040,203 entities managed; 20% average PRs-per-dev increase across customers; 64% average deployment frequency increase across customers.

### ApplyPass (https://metacarbon.com/cases/applypass)

AI-powered job search. Location: USA. Duration: ongoing. Engagement: focused scope. Activities: product design, design engineering, front-end development, design system, UX copy.

ApplyPass auto-applies to software engineering jobs on its users' behalf. We came in for a full platform revamp. Alongside the new UI/UX, we built a design infrastructure: a machine-readable design system generated from Figma to the codebase and an LLM-instruction layer for engineering workflows and UX copy. The result — roughly 30% faster feature delivery.

Main product design challenge: ApplyPass does a lot of work on the user's behalf — scanning job boards, picking roles, submitting applications, answering custom questions, tracking progress. The redesign had to surface what the system was doing without burying users in operational detail. We came in to rebuild the foundation: the UX, the design system, and the frontend itself.

Design engineering × front-end: ApplyPass is a great example of how design engineering workflow streamlines both design and dev activities. Instead of handing off static mockups, we shipped the production frontend ourselves, where the designer has full ownership of the UI look and feel implemented. Built on a Figma ↔ code pipeline and centralized copy.

One ApplyPass, built to last: ApplyPass moved from a Bubble MVP to a repository-based frontend with version control, a typed component library, and a Figma ↔ code pipeline — speeding delivery by ~30%. It works because design and engineering are one workflow, not a handoff: a single source of truth linked by Code Connect and guarded by automated review, type-checking, and accessibility tests. The result reads as one ApplyPass across every plan and flow — one voice, one component set, one accessible baseline — built to absorb whatever comes next.

Numbers: ~30% faster feature delivery after the design infrastructure landed; 400+ jobs auto-applied per user per week.

### Slash (https://metacarbon.com/cases/slash)

Data-driven neobank for high-spend businesses. Location: USA, San Francisco. Duration: 36+ months, ongoing. Engagement: full embedded partnership — product, brand, motion, and design engineering across web and mobile. Activities: product redesign, design system revamp, iterative product design, marketing design. Backing: Y Combinator. Award: Red Dot Winner.

Slash is a banking provider for Gen Z entrepreneurs. We redesigned their web and mobile apps, built a scalable design system, and continue as their integrated design team. Slash raised a $100M Series C in April 2026, reaching a $1.4B valuation.

### Luminai (https://luminai.com)

The AI platform for health system operations — automating referral intake, patient registration, pharmacy renewals, and denial appeals for large health systems. Backing: Y Combinator (Series B). No case page on metacarbon.com yet; the live site is the work.

We started with their marketing website: interactive and high-load, shipped with no developers in the process. Now an ongoing UI/UX and design engineering partnership across their wide product suite — a strong example of design infrastructure at scale for an engineering-led product team.

### Koia (https://metacarbon.com/cases/koia)

Fractional marketplace for investments into alternative assets. Location: UK, London. Duration: 2 months. Activities: product redesign, UX strategy, design system. Backing: Monzo.

Koia lets you own fractions of exclusive assets — from sneakers to fine wine. We designed an investing experience accessible to anyone, regardless of financial background.

### Metamundo (https://metacarbon.com/cases/metamundo)

3D assets, models and scenes marketplace. Location: Netherlands. Duration: 7 months. Activities: product redesign, iterative UI/UX design, design system.

Metamundo is a marketplace for 3D assets, models, and scenes. We redesigned the platform to deliver a seamless browsing and purchasing experience across web and mobile.

### Amnesia (https://metacarbon.com/cases/amnesia)

Marketing compliance tool for the cannabis industry. Location: USA, San Francisco. Duration: 12 months. Activities: product redesign, iterative UI/UX design, design system.

Cannabis marketing has its own compliance rules. We redesigned Highlyte by Amnesia — a web and mobile tool that checks content against legal and social media policies.

### Bookis (https://metacarbon.com/cases/bookis)

A social marketplace that makes paper books more sustainable. Location: Norway, Oslo. Duration: 1 year. Activities: product strategy, UX/UI design, branding, illustrations. Backing: Schibsted.

Bookis is a social marketplace for second-hand paper books. We redesigned the app to make discovering, buying, and selling books feel natural and community-driven.

### Koala (https://metacarbon.com/cases/koala)

Student engagement app for iPad & Chromebook. Location: USA, San Francisco. Duration: 16 months. Activities: UI/UX audit, product redesign, onboarding strategy, design system. Award: Best Virtual Classroom 2023.

Koala helps teachers engage students on iPads and Chromebooks. We redesigned the platform to make classroom interaction intuitive and fun for both sides. Activation rate increased by 20% since the engagement started.

### Maekersuite (https://metacarbon.com/cases/maekersuite)

Making you confident in front of the camera. Location: UK, London. Duration: 10 months. Activities: product redesign, UX strategy, design system.

Maekersuite helps creators feel confident on camera. We redesigned the product from dashboard to recording, across web and mobile.

### Glorify (https://metacarbon.com/cases/glorify)

The ultimate design tool for e-commerce marketing. Location: UK, London. Duration: ongoing product collaboration. Activities: UI/UX audit, product redesign, design system. Award: Product of the Day on Product Hunt.

E-commerce entrepreneurs need fast, professional design tools. We audited and redesigned Glorify to streamline the creative workflow from template to export.

### Pure Vitamins (https://metacarbon.com/cases/pure-vitamins)

A conversational interface making ordering vitamins so much better. Location: USA, New York. Duration: 2 months. Activities: UX strategy, UI design, product strategy, naming, branding.

We designed a conversational ordering interface for Pure Vitamins, replacing the typical checkout with a guided, story-driven experience.

### Faliam (https://metacarbon.com/cases/faliam)

Dental supplies provider that decided to be a tech company. Location: USA, California. Duration: 3 months. Activities: product strategy, UX/UI design, branding. Recognition: featured on DesignRush.

Faliam brings dental supplies online with a modern e-commerce platform. We handled product strategy, UX/UI design, and branding from scratch.

## Contact & links

- Email: hello@metacarbon.com
- Book an intro call: https://metacarbon.com/?book=1
- Careers (always hiring product designers and design engineers): hello@metacarbon.com
- Clutch (rated 5/5, 30+ reviews): https://clutch.co/profile/metacarbon
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/metacarbon
- Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/metacarbon
- Sitemap: https://metacarbon.com/sitemap.xml