Studio · Brand & Web · Design System
The App Chefs
The AI-native design & development studio I co-founded: brand, website, and a design system for founders who build.
Role
Co-Founder · Design Lead
Scope
Brand · Web · Design System
Built with
Claude Code
Year
2024–Present
The challenge
The App Chefs needed an identity that felt as modern as the work: an AI-native studio shipping high-quality web, mobile, and WordPress products for startups and founders.
I led the brand and site end to end (voice, visual language, and a reusable system), so the studio could move fast without ever looking off-brand.
What I did
Defined a confident, playful brand voice and a distinctive visual language: dark, electric, and clearly “AI-native,” so the identity itself signals what the studio actually does.
Designed and shipped the marketing site, building with Claude Code from concept to production, using the same AI-native workflow the studio sells to clients.
Created a scalable design system so pages and case studies stay consistent as we grow and ship new work every week.
Wove AI into the workflow itself for faster iterations and a tighter design-to-dev handoff: the site itself doubles as a working demo of the process.
How someone actually uses it
01 · Discovery
AI-accelerated research cuts weeks of discovery into days, with goals, users, and constraints defined from day one.
02 · Design Thinking
Wireframes, flows, and pixel-perfect UI in Figma: AI generation combined with senior Design Thinking craft.
03 · AI-Accelerated Build
React, Next.js, and WordPress built with Cursor and Claude Code, then reviewed by senior engineers for production quality.
Key screens
01 · Frame the right problem
The studio needed to look as modern as the work.
An AI-native positioning only feels credible when the identity, process and shipped work make that difference visible.
Select a stage to inspect the thinking
Observed behavior
“What does AI-native mean here?”Three tracks, one studio
AI Studio Services, Agency Plans, or ongoing care: priced and named plainly on the page itself, so a founder can tell in seconds which track fits without booking a call first.
The process, in the open
The studio's own three-step process (Discovery, Design Thinking, AI-Accelerated Build) presented as plainly as the work itself, next to a real photo of the process in progress.
Workflow automation that thinks
A hub of the tools an AI agent actually orchestrates (WordPress, Gmail, HubSpot, Notion, Stripe, Calendar), making “AI-native” a visible, specific claim instead of a buzzword.
A look at what we cooked
Recent work (VestMap, SmartPlant®) shown in the same browser-chrome mockup style as this portfolio, so the studio's own site doubles as proof of the craft it sells.
Real numbers, real users.
0×
Faster than traditional agencies
0+
Products shipped globally
0%
Client satisfaction rate
“Ash, Maryl and team don't just become your Dev/Design partner, but also your friend. They are 110% committed to the success of your web, app, or software launch.”
Weston Woodward
Founder · Woodward Media