# Nate Amarose Head of Design — product, brand, and AI builder. Stands up products and brands from zero. Takes them from zero to one and beyond — through launch and scale. Unifies product and brand into one system. - Site: https://www.nateamarose.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateamarose/ - Email: nate-web-contact@proton.me - Location: Bay Area, California ## Now Head of Design at Cognichip (the first designer). Owns product design and brand for Artificial Chip Intelligence, a physics-informed foundation model for semiconductor design. Design systems and an AI-native IDE for chip engineers. ## Before - Head of Design, Plume (Palo Alto), 2021–2024. Led design from Series B to unicorn. Team of ~9 designers plus freelancers and agencies. Design systems across web, mobile, email, and brand. Plume rebrand. More WiFi campaign. 4.8-star mobile app. - Head of Brand, Plume, 2016–2021. At Plume overall 2016–2024. - Full Node Design, Jan 2024–Mar 2025. Freelance / studio after Plume. Bitcoin client work plus AI-tool craft. A focused studio practice. ## Work - https://www.nateamarose.com — Head of Design and AI builder. First designer at Cognichip; led Plume design from Series B to unicorn. 0→1 product, brand, and design systems as one system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio — Nineteen case studies by Nate Amarose, Head of Design: product, brand, and design systems, from Cognichip and Plume through earlier 0→1 work. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/cognichip — First designer and Head of Design at Cognichip. Brand, launch film, design system, and agentic UI for an AI chip-design app, built as one system from seed. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/plume-brand — Head of Brand and Head of Design at Plume: identity, packaging, Plume IQ, and a dual consumer/ISP voice, refined across eight years from Series B to unicorn. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/plume-app — Head of Design for Plume's product suites: consumer mesh WiFi app and ISP platform, design systems before Figma, and a 4.8-star app from Series B to unicorn. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/plume-web-dashboards — Head of Design for Plume's web dashboards for ISPs: agent tools, network ops, and monitoring. Dense data and role-based views on one shared design system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/full-node-design — Solo studio after Plume (2024–2025): brand identity, product design, web, and motion for Bitcoin companies and projects, built on AI-builder workflows. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/handle — Product design for Handle, web and mobile: email triage into tasks, calendar, reminders, and voice. An early agentic UX bet; 2nd place at TechCrunch Disrupt. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/boxbee — Product strategy, UX/UI, and a bright yellow brand for Boxbee on-demand storage. Atomic design system where the yellow box is both identity and interface. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/bloomsky — Product, brand, photography, and web for BloomSky, a hyper-local weather station that time-lapses your sky daily. Data UI and product delight in one system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/sparrow-dock — Zero-to-one hardware launch for Sparrow Dock, an origami-inspired MacBook workstation: identity, product story, photography, and crowdfunding creative. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/meow — Logo, identity, UX/UI, and research for Meow, a restaurant waitlist where diners bid to skip the line. Zero-to-one marketplace UX on an early design system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/g-technology — Research, IA, packaging, and brand site for G-Technology pro storage: ambassador-led G Team storytelling and bold color, product and brand as one system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/touro — Brand and web for Touro, G-Technology's consumer drive with cloud backup. A sub-brand that shares parent tokens yet feels its own, simple and trustworthy. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/solutionsoft — End-to-end enterprise rebrand and CMS site for Solution-Soft, trusted by Fortune 500 clients. Visual simplicity and credibility on one cohesive design system. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/ucsf — Brand, IA, photography, and CMS for UCSF Otolaryngology: a clinical yet human presence that stands out among peer departments inside UCSF brand guidelines. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/womens-democracy-network — Ten-year anniversary brand refresh for Women's Democracy Network: a contemporary palette and photography system that sits beside the legacy ribbon mark. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/art-walk — Identity, wayfinding, web, and photography for the monthly Lower Polk Art Walk in San Francisco: 15–20 venues, one event system run with the Mayor's Office. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/north-beach — Art direction, photography, CMS, and print for the North Beach Business Association: one voice for merchants, news, and events in SF's Little Italy. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/user-interface-user-fashion — Years leading UX Speed Dating in San Francisco, a monthly night for testing prototypes on real users, plus UI/UF, its playful sibling for app ideation. - https://www.nateamarose.com/portfolio/photography — Personal photography by Nate Amarose, Head of Design: color, form, and patience. The same attention to framing that keeps design systems coherent. ## How I work - https://www.nateamarose.com/methodology — How Nate Amarose, Head of Design, works: continuous discovery, product thinking with clear bets, and AI action stacks that carry an idea from quote to ship. - https://www.nateamarose.com/methodology/research-notes — A product discovery process built on continuous discovery: weekly customer contact, interview synthesis with the quote attached, discovery beside delivery. - https://www.nateamarose.com/methodology/product-thinking — A design thinking framework as a sequence of verbs: outcomes over outputs, an opportunity solution tree, and product bets with a clear decision rule. - https://www.nateamarose.com/methodology/ai-action-stacks — An AI design workflow and agentic UX pipeline: generative wireframing, Figma to code, a design tokens pipeline, and brand generation under human review. ## Archive - https://www.nateamarose.com/amazed — A long-running visual inspiration archive from Nate Amarose, Head of Design: images that stopped me, collected over years of brand and product work.