Dana Steffe
 

I’m a creative leader focused systems that scale, aesthetics that endure, and teams that thrive. I write about creative leadership, nonlinear thinking, systems, and the strange alchemy of building good work inside big organizations.

 
 
 

Google

Senior Staff UX Manager

+ Google Maps (Current)
Lead creative work across Geo spanning navigation, immersive environments, cartography, and design systems that reach over a 1B+ users. I manage a team of multidisciplinary designers across visual, motion, and 3D who shape how people see and move through the world.

+ Material Design
Material is a design system, open-source code and suite of tools that makes building products faster and more accessible. 

+ Jigsaw
Jigsaw builds technology to keep people safer – from online censorship to digital attacks against journalists. 

 

Freelance & Consulting

Freelance design across various mediums from user interface & experience design to brand strategy & identity work.  

 

Google[x]

Ongoing work with a focus on branding, storytelling and user experience design across all early stage [x] products. Worked onsite with the [x]UX team predominantly focused on [x]'s new health initiative, Iris, Loon and Makani.

 

Cuban Council

Visual Designer & Brand Director
Led creative team on development of brands and products for clients around the globe with a strong focus on early-stage tech companies, web products and brand strategy.

 

Sunset City

Partner
Sunset City is a strategic design studio specializing in branding, UI/UX design and design strategy with a focus on future-leaning companies. 

 

Karta

Co-founder
Social mapping tool focused on improving the way people share collections of places. From things like 'Best Coffee in Gothenburg' to 'Murals in Bombay', users created dynamic, themed maps all over over the world with their friends.

+ NEA Studio
+ FirstGrowth Venture Network

 

The Academy of Art

Adjunct Faculty
Led senior-level design course focused on client rebrands. Students were led through creative process over a 15 week period developing new identity systems, collateral & marketing campaigns.

Project M

Addressed clean water rights in America raising over $38,000 for residents of Hale County, Alabama. 'Buy a Meter' was the inaugural group of 8 designers in Greensboro, AL.

+ Future Partners—ongoing collaborating / designer on Future’s rapid ingenuity projects.

 
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