Hi, I’m Julia, a London-based designer who builds innovative products and experiences
Most of my work has emerged from a messy mix of
Things I've built
An ethical fintech
Co-founded and led. £35m raised. Double-regulated. B-Corp. Multiple awards. A transformative experience in what it takes to build from zero and the day-to-day reality of running a high-stakes business →
A regulator-ready AI financial advisor
Headed up experience and strategy in a small four-person team that had to deliver on technical, human, and institutional constraints →
A holistic banking operations tool
that connected all partners, data streams and tasks into a single interface resulting in a 48% reduction in operational costs. →
One of the first GenAI chat interfaces that queried live production data
It broke down barriers to business data while demonstrating its potential to support leadership teams. →
Various community research spaces
Included curating a pop-up ‘bank branch’ delivered in collaboration with Westminster Council →
Countless highly crafted national and international advertising campaigns
Worked as an advertising Art Director for a decade across TV, print and digital channels including launching Dacia cars in the UK →
An educational WWII Twitter drama
Self initiated project where four characters tweeted "live" from 1943. It was used as a learning tool in classrooms across the world →
I love startups, particularly the 0-1 phase.
I'm a generalist who can get things moving.
I can run things end-to-end, scaling myself with CustomGPTs and AI tooling. I’ve shipped products that real people use. I’ve shipped screens (and campaigns) that regulators have scrutinised over. I've built and scaled design systems. I love working closely with developers. I have the judgement to know what’s MVP and what’s premature optimisation.
"Not a typical designer and not a typical product leader… Julia should be one of the leading design voices globally, especially as the world grapples with defining (and redefining) Human-Centred AI in the decade ahead."
Aritra Chakravarty, Group Head of Agentic AI, Lloyds Banking Group
"A rare talent… She has the kind of broad and encompassing view of our industry which will ultimately help to change and improve the industry itself. I can't really give a higher recommendation than that."
Ken Muir, Founding Partner, Mohawk
"She has the ability to think of the extraordinary in such a simple way that you can only admire and wish you'd thought of it yourself"
Simon Crosbie, Founding Partner, Mohawk
"A great laugh too. If only more creative departments had more people like her. They'd be a lot richer for it."
Sid Gordon, Creative Director at Rapp
What I do
I specialise in making complex ideas real, social, and durable – whether expressed as products, platforms, or cultural artefacts.
Product, Systems & AI
Product design (end-to-end, from discovery to delivery)
Human–AI interaction design (LLMs, conversational, voice, agentic systems)
Systems & service design (complex, regulated, multi-stakeholder environments)
Responsible AI & trust-led design
Strategy & Business
Product strategy & problem framing
Launching and running early-stage products
Cross-team collaboration and leadership
Decision-making under uncertainty
Research & Making
User research, synthesis & sense-making
Prototyping & experimentation
Design systems & interaction frameworks
Culture, Narrative & Community
Conceptual project design (education, culture, public understanding)
Community platforms & participatory systems
Narrative, campaigns & storytelling
Bringing abstract or difficult subjects into public space
I build teams with care and accountability
I’ve built teams from scratch, coached them, celebrated with them, and supported them through tough times. I believe in the role of good pressure and momentum, alongside the need for a psychologically safe environment. I aim to build individual and group trust, and put in place the systems teams need to produce their best work.
Comments from 360 reviews
Outside of work
At weekends I volunteer at Bethlem Museum of the Mind. It’s a grounding antidote to the working week — away from screens and in conversation with the public. It also gives me continual exposure to how people engage with sensitive, often misunderstood health experiences.
I love visiting galleries and museum spaces, finding hidden cocktail bars, seeing other cultures, and experimenting with gadgets – especially anything involving a camera. (I brought these last two together in my Autographer + North Korea project).