I'm Josh, a Sydney-based product designer with 10+ years of experience working across early-stage SaaS and established tech companies. Before moving to Australia in 2022, I spent a decade in New York designing at Twitter, Datadog, and Vimeo, plus stretches as the first or sole designer at startups like Fetcher, Apteo and Upollo.
Alongside client work, I design and ship my own products. The most recent is Tabba, a privacy-first browser extension that's live on three browsers. Running my own things keeps me close to the realities of building, which makes my client work sharper.
Currently taking on one new project in July.
I help startups and small product teams take ideas from rough sketches to something shipped and live. Engagements usually involve some mix of brand identity, product design, and marketing website, with the common thread being a founding team that has direction sorted but needs a senior designer to build out the visual and product experience around it.
Where I differ from most independent designers is that I take projects past Figma and into production. I write front-end code, build marketing sites in Astro or Webflow, and use AI-assisted tooling like Cursor to compress what used to require a multi-person handoff into a single pair of hands. For founders this means fewer cooks in the kitchen, less work lost in translation, and a shorter path to something real.
My work usually falls into these areas:
- Brand identity
- Product Design: UI and UX
- Marketing website (design and build)
- Design system foundations
- Embedded design partnership (retainer)
Most of my work is with founders or early product leaders at B2B SaaS startups, somewhere between seed and Series B. They've raised some funding, have a small team, and need senior design help without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. They care about craft, prefer working directly with the person doing the work, and want to move at startup pace.
Companies I've worked with as an employee, contractor, or partner:
- Every project starts with an intro call to walk through your goals, scope, and timeline. From there I send a written proposal with a fixed fee, milestones, and deliverables so you know what you're paying and what you're getting before any work begins.
- Once we kick off, I aim to keep things simple: one weekly sync, regular async updates over Slack or email, and a shared Figma file you can dip into whenever. You'll always know what I'm working on and where things sit against the timeline.
- Most tasks begin with a short exploration phase where I share a few different design directions to find what's working before committing to a single path. From there it's iteration: refining, narrowing, and dialling in until the work lands somewhere we're both happy with.
- For web projects I design and build, I use Astro or Webflow, depending on what fits, then ship the finished site live to your Github repo. For app product design I hand off to your engineering team with annotated specs and a tidy Figma component library. If it's in the scope, I'll QA the project with your team once implementation begins. After launch, I include a 15-day window to catch and fix anything that breaks. If I miss something, I'll fix it.
- Retainers are billed monthly in advance with two weeks' notice to pause or end. Most retainers run for 3–6 months, or longer.
Pricing is typically flat-fee per project, agreed upfront based on scope. No hourly rates, no surprise invoices, no incentive on my end to drag things out.
Most projects land between $8,000 and $30,000 USD depending on what's involved. A focused marketing site for an early-stage startup tends toward the lower end; a full brand and product design engagement runs on the higher end. Retainers start at $4,500 USD per month for part-time partnership and scale up for embedded work.
Scope and pricing are open to a conversation on the intro call.
He took our rough, programmer-built product and turned it into something elegant, intuitive, and a joy to use. The design system he built captured our brand and helped the team move fast.
From my perspective as an engineering lead, the way Josh structures his work is also a huge asset. He establishes sensible frameworks and componentry that map naturally to implementation. A knack for deciding where to innovate versus where to stay conventional facilitates usability and effectively directs resources.
If you've got something in mind, send a short note to joshpindjak@gmail.com. Include what you're building, your rough timeline, and the kind of help you're looking for. I'll get back to you within a day or two.
Where are you based?
Sydney, Australia. Most of my US and EU clients prefer a single weekly sync plus async updates, which works well across timezones. I’ve run multi-month engagements with stakeholders in multiple timezones without issue. I’m also a bit of an early riser which helps the timezone overlap between AEST and EST timezones. When your day ends, mine starts, and you wake up to progress. I’m an American citizen living in Australia with full work rights in both countries.
Do you write production code?
For marketing websites, yes. I use Webflow, or Astro with a simple CSS framework that matches your brand design system. For app product code, no. I design to your stack and hand off Figma with annotated specs. If you want functional prototypes for user testing, I can build those. In certain instances, I may also build a simple prototype (either Figma or live code) for you to test with your users. All deliverables will be decided together before we start working.
Can you work alongside my existing team?
Yes. I’ve worked inside product teams at Upollo, Fetcher, Apteo, and SafeOps. I show up for standups, design reviews, and async on Slack or your preferred channel. I meet with your developers to discuss the technical feasibility of the design, and to ensure that the design is implemented correctly. Post-launch, I'll provide a 15-day bug-fix window and/or QA support for any issues that arise.
What if my scope changes mid-project?
Within reason, I’ll adapt. For meaningful additions, I’ll send a written change order with new pricing and timeline. No surprises.
Do you take equity instead of cash?
It depends on the project and company. Let's talk about it.
What about NDAs and IP?
I'm happy to sign a mutual NDA. Full ownership of the work transfers to you on final payment. I retain the right to show finished work in my portfolio unless we agree otherwise upfront.
What software do you use?
Figma for design artifacts. Cursor for AI-assisted coding. Astro or Webflow for websites. Adobe Illustrator for logo design. All deliverable formats will be decided together before we start working.