Mike Stevens

Collaboratively developing ideas excites me and creating appropriate solutions fascinates me. I help people define, design and communicate ideas.

Combining product, identity and experience design, I create purposeful products and services, communicating them with idea-driven identities.

A big believer that design, creativity and imagination can contribute to making the world a healthier, more inclusive and sustainable place.

Mike Stevens

Method

Ideas

Ideas

Discussing ideas developing concepts and strategies to bring them to life.

Creative direction
Product strategy
Brand strategy

Products

Products

Designing appropriate and purposeful solutions, both physical and digital.

  • Concept design
  • Digital products
  • Physical products
  • Design systems
  • PUI design
  • GUI design
Identities

Identities

Branding businesses, communicating ideas and creating relevant experiences.

  • Naming
  • Infographics
  • Visual identity
  • Motion graphics
  • Icons & Pictograms
  • Packaging

Creative credos

3D + 2D = MIKEiD

Raised in an inventive household and studying product design, my background is practical and 3D. Combined with my obsession with logos, especially how a logo can say so much with so little. My innate interests combine product and identity design.

Spongelike curiosity

I’ve always been a “curious little bugger”, particularly fascinated by people and the products they use. Whether mechanical, digital or social, I always want to understand how something or someone works conceptually, if not functionally.

Whiteboards ≥ Artboards

As much as I like to make a coffee, put my AirPods in to tune out the world and get stuck into CAD. I prefer to solve problems with people in person as part of a multidisciplinary team. My favourite pastime is to create hypothetical (usually silly) solutions.

Beneficial not superficial

Passionate about designing with purpose, I'm conscious about not "making more stuff". I want to help people by creating beneficial and easy-to-use solutions to save people time and purchase with intention without costing the planet.

Less IS more

With a keen eye for detail and clarity, I always look to simplify ideas to their most tangible size. If a kid can't understand it, it's not simple enough. This can't always be done, but making an effort to organise and simplify things is something I take pride in.

Love words. Hate reading.

Lengthy paragraphs make me anxious. A believer in the benefits of succinct and personable copy, I enjoy working with people to scrutinise every word and see how fewer words can communicate an idea— even better if it can be done with wit.

Who I've worked with

What people say

COLLEAGUE

Matt Hall

DEPT®

Testimonial

Mike is great to bounce ideas off of and has great conceptual reasoning behind the ideas he brings to the table.

CLIENT

James McKeough

Narranomics

Testimonial

Mike is a brilliant creative with a business mind and a disciplined focus. We started with a name for our process before it was a company or a product. Mike listened, learned, created, and iterated. We continue to grow together. He’s a pleasure to work with.

COLLABORATOR

Rebecca Crowder

Bluedots Design

Testimonial

I first collaborated with Mike back in 2019. Since then, we have worked on a handful of projects together. Mike is excellent at all things design, from consumer products to branding. He is also one of the most passionate designers I know. His infectious enthusiasm makes him a pleasure to work with.

CLIENT

Suzanne Roelofs

Peritip

Testimonial

I’ve worked with Mike on Peritip from the beginning. His drive has got the project from a standstill to up and running. As a dentist designing a product was new to me, but Mike took on the project with energy and commitment. Without him, Peritip wouldn’t have come to fruition. He designed the product and produced all the graphics, animations, packaging and website. Going beyond by assisting in getting the product on the market. He’s dedicated, reliable and funny, a joy to work with.

CLIENT

Dr Ashish Bhatia

Humble

Testimonial

I’ve worked with Mike on Humble from the start and hope it continues for years to come. His friendly, professional manner and design and User Experience talents have been invaluable in translating my ideas into a brand. He has been receptive to ideas, grasping my humble vision and proactively guiding me when necessary.

CLIENT

Relish

Team

Testimonial

Having Mike onboard working with Relish has been a dream. He fits in very well with the team which is highly beneficial when creating work for us as he gets us, he gets our tone of voice and our personality as an agency. Because of this Mike has been producing amazing work for us for almost two years and is now currently helping us with a huge redesign project which we’re extremely happy is being led by him.

CLIENT

Simon Drane

Cognition

Testimonial

Mike is a pleasure to work with and the creative genius behind the branding, animations and website for my new company, Cognition. Mike's approach was invaluable in helping me clarify and formulate my offering into a coherent package. His design expertise were evident in delivering an aesthetically pleasing identity and site that fully encapsulated my business and exceeded my expectations. If you want someone to take rambling thoughts and transform them somehow into something that looks pretty damn good - I couldn't recommend him more.

CLIENT

Mike Fox

MUD\WTR

Testimonial

Mike is a true talent for building brands and designing visual identities. We’ve worked with him on two startups for sports fans. He’s been integral in fleshing out our brand strategy and helped us with product development and consumer definition. His passion and deep understanding of how design functions make him an invaluable partner to our business.

MENTOR

David Stuart

Former President of D&AD

Testimonial

Mike in my experience is an extremely rare animal, he is both very good at 2D design, graphics etc but also is equally at home in 3D, designing products and preparing them for production.

CLIENT

Adam Stuart

thepotentialists

Testimonial

Mike is fun to work with, responsive and professional in his approach. The identity is simple yet effective and precisely what I wanted. Mike’s technical skills in developing the website were excellent. I recommend Mike to others like me who are setting up their business and looking for someone to help their brand and experience.

CLIENT

Sarah Conrad

Monzo

Testimonial

MIKE IS BADASS! He's an exceptional designer and brand thinker. When I’m working on a project that needs creative muscle, he’s the first person I call. Mike goes beyond being “a designer” and is a creative strategist who is thoughtful, precise, and inspiring while being incredible open and reliable.

CLIENT

Kartini Sutoto

Relish

Testimonial

From the moment I got to know Mike I knew he was different to a lot of the design/creative agencies and freelancers I had worked with previously and that he had the right experience for the work I was trying to achieve. He not only understands every brief I put forward but also goes the extra mile to make it even better. I found he also has the right amount of patience without time wasting to help me understand and brainstorm creative ideas that are needed to ensure we produce the best solution.

CLIENT

Dr John Sykes

Prime Wellbeing

Testimonial

Working with Mike is great! He is creative and adaptive, bringing my ideas to life, visually appealing and easy to understand. The project changed several times. Mike was always good at communicating, which resulted in a fantastic identity and website. Mike’s expertise in design is evident, and I see him as an incredibly valuable asset to any project he works on.

CLIENT

Jess Miller

Sefin

Testimonial

Mike has helped us bring our business and ideas to life. The time he spent understanding our target market, their needs, and our value proposition meant his creations were spot on. It feels like Mike is part of the team as he’s often sharing ideas or “thought this might be of interest” ideas with us. Mike is reliable, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I recommend him for all aspects of design and business.

CLIENT

Matt Furness

Click

Testimonial

I’ve been impressed by Mike’s diverse skills in building a company’s brand and visual identity. I particularly appreciated how Mike challenged me so I didn’t settle for ‘good enough’ – instead, leading us to create something we can truly be proud of. Even after the project has officially ended, Mike continues to provide support to ensure that my company lands as it should.

COLLABORATOR

Holly Catford

Esterson Associates

Testimonial

Mike helped us conceptualise a large educational platform from scratch. We needed his speed and typographic precision to prototype something for our client to sign off on a tight deadline. We had very little content from the client, and Mike managed to put together something really exciting to get the project moving. Mike is fantastic to work with. He's fun and enthusiastic at every stage. He understands what you need from a job and takes any feedback straight into consideration, as well as bringing a different design perspective to things.

Inspiration

Treat your competitors as your first prototypes.

Michael Margolis

Design isn’t just about making things beautiful; it’s also about making things work beautifully.

Roger Martin

Humanly meaningful context informs our thinking. We need ideas to be connected to real world examples in order to grasp and implement them.

Margaret Donaldson

Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding.

Donald A. Norman

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Design is not a single object or dimension. Design is messy and complex.

Natasha Jen

A brand is not a logo, identity or product. It’s a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.

Marty Neuemeier

Good design is as little design as possible.
Less, but better.

Dieter Rams

Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.

Donald A. Norman

Interested is interesting.

Dan Mace

We must design for the way people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave.

Donald A. Norman

Good design is a language, not a style.

Massimo Vignelli

People shouldn’t have to think about an object when they’re using it.

Naoto Fukasawa

Questions are not dilemmas; they're signals to explore the potential of your business and indications of areas that merit closer inspection.

Todd Bracher

A client often doesn't think they know what they want but, they do know it when they see it.

Paula Scher

Your craziness can kill you, or it can make you achieve remarkable things.

Arsène Wenger

Having to build a new website is like moving house. You get to decide what you want to take with you, and what you want your new place to say about you.

Jo Barnard

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

Noam Chomsky

Branding is a process of art and science, and they need to multiply eachother.

Gregg Hoffman

Get to a point where the solution seems inevitable… ‘Of course it’s that way, why would it be any other way?'

Jony Ive

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

If a consumer product is to last, it must be visually durable not just mechanically.

Nick Chubb

Logic logic logic magic.

Sean Perkins

Design is an act of translation between business and consumer.

Henry Dreyfuss

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

Vince Lombardi

What works good is better than what looks good because what works good lasts.

Charles Eames

Why would you design something if it didn’t improve the human condition?

Niels Diffrient

Just move me, dude!

Dan Wieden

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.

Charles Kettering

If all else fails, simplicity’s the thing that’s likely to endure.

Michael Bierut

Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing…

Austin Kleon

I don’t really know a lot, but I’m really really curious.

John Hoke

The role of a designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of their guests.

Ray Eames

An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.

Stephen Fry

I’m never gonna break three—I’m just not that guy… Oh f*ck that!

Casey Neistat

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Steve Jobs

Original ideas are the easy part. Actually producing the idea as a successful product is what is hard.

Donald A. Norman

Less is more…

Mies van der Rohe

There is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence—and in the end, you make it look like a quantum leap.

James Dyson

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

Henry Ford

Ideas and feelings are best underpined with a narrative.

John Hoke

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Aristotle

I had this naive belief that the object speaks for itself… I'd hide it under a black sheet and pull it away, and the client would get it as soon as they saw it— which, of course, was rubbish.

Tim Brown

To design without our planet in mind is to create problems rather than solutions.

Jonas Zieher

Design is more about finding the real problem than it is solving the one you've been handed. We never use 'problem solving' as a definition of our work in design. 'Problem seeking' is a more inspiring approach for us.

Brian Collins

There cannot be any gaps between what your company messaging says your product does and what it actually does.

Gavin Ivester

It is not what it looks like but what it does that defines a symbol.

Paul Rand

…and remember, we can talk about making a difference, we could make a difference or we could do both.

Debbie Millman

Design needs to be plugged into human behavior. Design dissolves in behavior.

Naoto Fukasawa

User Interface design can be viewed as a digital exercise but the reality is that they are interacted with physically. A reminder that physical and digital design should be considered simultaneously.

Nick Chubb

Design is messy.

Nick Foster

Design is thinking made visual.

Saul Bass

The smartest designers understand that producing junk is essential to the creative process.

Orman Clark

The future is not inherited, it is created.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Solve the larger problem and the smaller one will get solved along the way.

Brian Collins

The role of a designer is that of a very thoughtful host anticipating the needs of their guests.

Ray Eames

Experience

Interdisciplinary designer

Freelance 11/2019 - current

Working with a variety of professionals, startups and businesses in; health, finance, education, sport and retail. Helping them to define, design and communicate their ideas. Combining product, identity and experience design.

CREW

Part-time 08/2020 - 06/2021

Defining a visual direction and developing unique ideas and experiences for a new sports fan-focused messenger. Creating an identity that worked seamlessly across product and communications. Also helping forge a brand strategy.

Relish

Freelance 04/2021 - Ongoing

Working on Relish’s identity, brand strategy and various design and illustration briefs. Developing our relationship to become design director, consulting on their offering and how to level up customer communications with digital experiences.

Superunion

Full-Time 06/2019 - 11/2019

Designing identities, creating campaigns and illustrating ideas for major brands. Focussing on ideas that champion a brand’s strategy, amplify its narrative and enable it to evolve. Working on projects for O2, Shelter, Nespresso, BBC, Equinor and WPP.

Monzo

Freelance 06/2021 - 12/2022

Consulting on Monzo’s identity-product relationship and brand strategy to help them continue to redefine banking. Also working on various design and communication briefs, including the narrative and design of the COO’s Wired Fest 2022 presentation.

Pearlfisher

Full-Time 10/2018 - 12/2018

Designing identities, packaging prototypes and creating campaigns for both existing and emerging companies in food, health and beauty. Working on projects for Wagamama, OTO, Nivea, and No7.