Riley Sheehan

I’ve been lucky to work through every era of design since I started: graphic design, the web design years, UX and UI, product design, design engineering, and now AI-native design and engineering. Along the way I’ve typeset books, sent signage to the printer, built full-stack web apps, and run a design team.

I love the part of the job where you make something beautiful, then make it real. I design it and I build it, so every idea is tested in the product itself. That goes for brand, too: I’ve led rebrands, and I drew the mark at the top of this page.

Most of my work now is the kind other people build on: design systems, and the AI-native process around them. I care about systems and I care about feel, and to me they’re the same thing. The details you can’t quite name, like how a motion settles or how a line sits, come from decisions made deep in the system. Keeping one whole while it moves fast is a balance, and it’s the part I like best.

AI is part of every step of how I work. But I’m a human, and I design for humans, and I’m at my best when the people around me are doing their best work.

1. 2026–TogetherworkSenior Product Design Engineer
2. 2023–2026ZelloSenior Design Engineer
3. 2015–2023The Austin StoneMarketing Designer, then Lead Product Designer and Developer, then Design Team Manager

I’m a husband and a father. Our family has a little postcard of a website, with pencil drawings of all of us that you can pull around.

Years of product design and marketing have left me with a curse: I want everything to feel like a polished product. So even the things I make for fun get the full treatment.

• MusicI record and produce instrumental music. It’s on Apple Music and Spotify.
• GinghamIt turns an old tablet or photo frame into a family wall display: our calendar, lists, and photos. I took it from the name to the code, and it’s open source.

Email is the best way to reach me, at hello@rileysheehan.co. I’m also on LinkedIn and GitHub. Thanks for stopping by.