your kind of
in-house
design team
RESEARCH
✦
PRODUCT DESIGN + UX
✦
DESIGN OPS
✦
BRANDING + VISUAL DESIGN
✦
HIRING STRATEGY
✦
RESEARCH ✦ PRODUCT DESIGN + UX ✦ DESIGN OPS ✦ BRANDING + VISUAL DESIGN ✦ HIRING STRATEGY ✦
Design-as-a-service
Empty State Design Co. is your all-in-one design partner. We cover product and UX design, branding, research, design operations, and even hiring strategy. Think of us as your flexible, fractional design team that shows up ready to move and helps your team do the same.
MEETYOUR Designer
Hey, I’m Charlie, the person behind Empty State Design Co.
I’ve spent the last decade leading design at high-growth startups and building teams that don’t just make things look good, but actually work. I’ve designed wearable tech interfaces, built brand systems from scratch, set up design ops that execs engage with, and hired teams that ship fast without burning out.
Empty State is my way of bringing that experience to early and growth-stage teams who need a designer that can do a little (or a lot) of everything. Product design? Absolutely. Branding? Yep. Research, hiring strategy, design operations, team structure, meeting cadence, stakeholder wrangling? All in a day’s work.
I plug into your team like I’ve always been there. No long ramp-up. No hand-holding. Just a flexible, collaborative partner who cares deeply about the details and the big picture.
Stuff we can take off ofyour plate
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We’ve helped shape product experiences from zero to launch to scale.
Whether you’re a team of two or scaling like crazy, we embed like an internal hire and move fast. Design decisions are made in context, not in a vacuum, with user needs, business goals, and tech feasibility all in the mix. From intuitive flows to delightfully nerdy edge cases—we’ve got you.
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You’ve got the talent. Now make it hum.
We’ve built the operational backbone for design orgs from scratch with our Empty State Operations Framework. That means weekly review cycles, async feedback rituals, exec-friendly milestones, and Notion/Figma integrations that bring clarity (not chaos). From team structures to rituals that actually stick, we make design work better—without the meetings overload. -
Brand isn’t just a logo (though we make damn good ones). It’s how your product feels.
Empty State has led rebrands, launched sub-brands, designed marketing campaigns, and built scalable design systems that grow with your company. Think: typography that hits, color palettes that convert, and visuals that turn heads in pitch decks and landing pages.
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Need a designer but don’t know what you’re looking for? We’ve been there and we’ll fix that.
We’ve built hiring plans from scratch, created detailed candidate profiles, written interview packets that filter signal from fluff, and run calibration sessions to align hiring managers around what great looks like. We don’t just drop in, we help you build a team you’ll be proud of
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We don’t guess. We test.
Whether it's usability testing, qualitative interviews, or internal stakeholder alignment, we bring insights that don’t just sit in a slide. They drive decisions. We've crafted interview guides, moderated sessions, and surfaced findings that led to entire product pivots, years or roadmaps, and wins.
Choose a plan
Great for small, quick wins
basic
$4,995/mo.
Simple, focused, fast. One request at a time with no meetings, just clean and efficient design delivered fast. Perfect for smaller projects, focused sprints, or when you just need something done well. Comes with two rounds of revisions.
POPULAR
As embedded as you need
PRO
$7,995/mo.
Juggling multiple priorities? This tier gives you two or more requests at once, unlimited revisions, and access to one meeting a day if needed. It’s the closest thing to having a full-time designer without hiring one. Strategy, systems, and polish.
They said it, not us.
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![A man with short black hair, wearing an olive green crewneck sweatshirt, standing against a plain light gray background.]()
"Charlie brings a mix of flexibility and urgency to get things done, adapting seamlessly to each organization. A true professional who delivers every time.
Frank Chen, Co-founder @ Industry
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![Young woman with dark hair smiling outdoors, wearing a denim jacket.]()
"Empty State impressed us with how quickly they picked up on the nuances of each of our brands, and seamlessly handled projects across multiple brands at once."
Amisha Agarwal, Product @ The Digital Stronghold
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![A smiling man with short brown hair outdoors with autumn leaves in the background.]()
"Charlie is a Winner. He is one of the best design leaders I've ever met who can design, lead, and produce winning products. I will work with him for decades."
Ryan Durkin, AI @ WHOOP
