Mike Gowen

Product Designer

I've spent most of my career building creative tools and platforms for artists: scrapbook and photobook editors, a collage tool built around remixing other people's work, and most recently Foundation and Rodeo, marketplaces where artists sell and share their work. In between I co-founded Delighted and led design there for nine years, including three after its acquisition by Qualtrics. Lately I've been designing agent-first AI products and building them in code. I take tangled, complicated experiences and make them feel clean, obvious, and usable.

Experience

Dec 2024 – Present

Lead Designer

Pattern Engine · Remote

  • –Designed the first version of Pico, an agent that helped people discover and collect digital art
  • –Redesigned the Shape website and built LLM-assisted tools to explore the new visual system
  • –Designed the $SHAPE token launch landing page with gamified ticketing

Dec 2023 – Oct 2024

Product Designer

Foundation Labs · Remote

  • –Designed the migration of Foundation, the company's NFT marketplace, onto Base
  • –Co-led design of Rodeo, a more casual and social take on collecting, from early concept through launch and continued product development
  • –Conceived and designed Top 9, which became Rodeo's most-used feature
  • –Ran user research with artists that informed company strategy

Feb 2021 – Dec 2023

Angel Investor & Advisor

Invested in and advised early-stage startups across a range of industries

Apr 2013 – Feb 2022

Co-founder and Chief Design Officer

Delighted · Palo Alto

  • –Designed the entire product and brand as sole designer and co-founder
  • –Continued leading Delighted's design after its 2018 acquisition by Qualtrics and through Qualtrics' acquisition by SAP

Mar 2012 – Apr 2013

Director of Design (Mosaic)

Mixbook · Palo Alto

  • –Led the design of Mosaic end to end across the mobile app, identity, physical book, packaging, manufacturing, and launch
  • –Worked directly with engineers and manufacturers through prototyping, production, and print quality control

Jul 2011 – Mar 2012

Lead Designer

Yobongo · San Francisco

  • –Sole designer for iOS and desktop location-based chat applications. Acquired by Mixbook

Sep 2009 – Jun 2011

Lead Designer

Muzy · Palo Alto

  • –Designed a collage tool where anyone could make elements others could use and remix, with credit and a usage score for creators
  • –Worked with growth expert Andrew Chen on user acquisition design

Sep 2006 – Sep 2009

Lead Designer

Scrapblog · Miami

  • –Designed one of the first web-based creative tools, a canvas editor running in the browser
  • –Won an Adobe MAX award

Earlier

Senior Interactive Designer at Propeller, and Creative Director at Alienware, where I led the "Predator" case design and managed a team of eight. Co-founded Tick, a time-tracking product for creative teams, with colleagues at Propeller

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design

Virginia Tech