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
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