A senior design partner without the headcount.
I’m Tom Zeien, the founder of SUPERBOLD Design Lab. Design systems, product UX, and brand work for studios that need a lead who can run the project, not just take the ticket.
I work white‑label. I don’t pursue your clients, and I’m happy to sign to that effect.
Your client can meet me as part of your team, or never meet me at all. I’ll present in your deck template under your name if that’s what the engagement needs. Non‑solicitation is standard in my contractor agreement, and I’ll sign yours instead without redlining it.
Four shapes this usually takes. Any of them can start as a single scoped piece and grow.
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Design system builds
Foundations, component libraries, tokens, documentation, working code references, and the governance that keeps a system alive after the launch deck, which is the part that decays first once nobody owns it. The work most studios want to sell and don’t have the bench to staff.
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Product UX, end to end
Rapid prototyping, flows, wireframes, interface design, and handoff. Comfortable inside an existing design system and an existing set of platform constraints. The one thing I ask for is a line to whoever builds it, even if that line runs through you.
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Design lead
When a project needs someone who can run it—hold the direction, make the call, present to the client, keep juniors unblocked—rather than someone who takes the ticket.
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Overflow capacity
You won the pitch and the team is full. I plug into your process, your files, and your Slack, and the client sees one team.
Work
Three engagements that all arrived through another studio: their client, their process, their deck template. Each case study, as it’s published, states what was mine, what was the team’s, and what the client’s.
Design system and site redesign, led end to end
Owned system architecture and redesign direction across a team, working alongside the client’s in‑house group. The credential most relevant to a studio: systems capability plus leadership.
- Design systems
- Team lead
- E‑commerce
Shipping inside an enterprise system, white‑label
Exactly this arrangement, already working: an agency’s client, an agency’s process, an established design system I extended rather than replaced.
- Product UX
- White‑label
- Accessibility
Consumer product and brand, inside agency guidelines
A spec‑heavy enthusiast category, a strong existing brand, and a client with confident opinions.
- Consumer brand
- Product UX
Rates up front.
Published so you can price a pitch without waiting on me. Partner rates for repeat studios on request.
Hourly
$200For scoped, bounded pieces and short overflow work. Tracked and reported weekly.
Day rate
$1,080For sprints, design leadership, and anything where the day is the useful unit.
Project
$10k+Fixed fee against a defined scope, with a written change process so neither of us has an awkward conversation later.
Embedded retainer
$3,600/moA standing share of my week, reserved. The cleanest option if you have recurring design load.
Working together
Tooling & workflow
- DesignFigma — libraries, variables, branching, dev mode. Comfortable adopting your file structure rather than importing mine.
- Handoff & buildFront‑end fluent: HTML, CSS/SCSS, and enough JavaScript to prototype honestly and to spec things engineers can actually build.
- Your stackYour Slack, your Jira or Linear, your standups, your client calls—or entirely behind you. Your call.
- DocumentationSystems get written down. Component docs, usage rules, and a handoff your client can still use a year from now.
Vendor readiness
- W‑9 on fileSent same day.
- InsuranceAvailable on request.
- NDA‑readyI’ll sign yours. No redlines on standard terms.
- Contractor agreementYours or mine, including non‑solicitation.
- InvoicingNet 30, monthly or on milestones.
- EntityLLC, Illinois.
Send me the brief or just the shape of it.
Within a day you’ll know whether I can take it, when I could start, and what it would cost. If I’m not right for it I’ll help you find someone who is.