Currently splitting my time between London and San Francisco: designing how humans and AI relate to each other. Previously founded a fintech and worked for a decade in London's ad agencies.
About
I haven’t always worked in tech, but I have always had a deep fascination with how people engage with the technology and media around them.
I spent a decade as a Creative in London's ad agencies — directing TV campaigns, launching brands, and creating characters that ended up on supermarket shelves. It involved high levels of craft across media channels, plus being aware of wider public culture and capturing moments by saying the right thing, in the right place at the right time.
Then in 2018 a mate called with a startup idea and I said yes. That became Dozens — an ethical fintech I co-founded and ran for six years. We raised £35m, secured two FCA licences, built our own banking platform, and launched products that genuinely aimed to do right by customers. We navigated leading a team through Covid and managing customer trust through the Wirecard collapse. And eventually a clean, controlled wind-down that I'm still proud of.
More recently I've been at Jiffy.AI, where I led design on Finley — an AI financial advisor built to work within the real constraints of regulated advice and authored the whitepaper. I write about human–AI experience at Astronauts of AI — on trust, legitimacy, and the unwritten contracts between products and the people who use them.
I love to set up and run creative projects... and lead the teams who deliver them.
If any of this sounds useful to you, get in touch.
work
A few bits I'm proud of
[There’s various other projects – the one where I nearly got arrested trying to get George Osborne to drive a Dacia, an exhibition in Paris in the year 2062, and the Autographer photographic series from North Korea. But those are probably tales for over a drink.]
Writing
RECOS
Some kind things people have said
"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
"I was asked for designer recommendations by a contact recently that needed more than just design. They needed ownership and someone they could trust with outcomes where cutting edge design was a hygiene factor. This IS Julia." →
Sam Dunford-Baker, Founder, Bird in the Hand
"The VP who manages to best demonstrate the ability to manage a team well, whilst also having personal and team impact on the wider company." →
360 peer review, Dozens
"…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 @ Rapp
While I have a somewhat captive audience, a bit of promotion for a local South London museum that has my heart: Bethlem Museum of the Mind and Gallery. Bethlem is one of the world's oldest psychiatric hospitals. It's museum holds a huge archive of mental health history and the gallery supports artists who have been patients or service users. At weekends I volunteer here, and would be happy to show you around.
Image: © Benji Reid