Date {{ liveDate }}
London {{ liveTimeLondon }}
Lisbon {{ liveTimeLisbon }}
Substack
Product design lead & Digital Steward · London and Lisbon

Hi, I'm Kate. I design calm systems for complicated services.

Fifteen-plus years leading product design across telecoms, cyber security, government and consumer platforms — turning ambiguous service problems into shipped, measurable products. Most recently at McAfee, Abnormal AI and Cloudflare.

{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
[ project cover ]
{{ p.tagline }}

{{ p.title }}
01 · Connect ↗

Copy to collaborate

Reach out directly by copying the email below. 

{{ emailAddress }} {{ copyLabel }}

Let's build something calm and purposeful.

Open to new product design leadership roles and select consulting projects.
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
[ project cover ]
{{ p.tagline }}

{{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
[ project cover ]
{{ p.tagline }}

{{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
[ project cover ]
{{ p.tagline }}

{{ p.title }}
02 · Lab ↗

Prompt experiments.

A playground for machines with strange ideas — half sketchbook, half séance.

03 · Musings ↗

Journal.

Illustration and photography, understanding and observation through art.

{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
{{ p.title }} {{ p.title }}
[ project cover ]
{{ p.tagline }}

{{ p.title }}
Fig. 01 — The DispatchA

Notes on design, in letters.

Occasional long-form thinking on service design, craft and process. No spam, no growth-hacking — just thinking out loud once a month.

Read on Substack ↗
Publication
sulphurzine.substack.com
Cadence
Monthly
No.
01
Fig. 02 — Field SurveyComing soonB

Favourite design spots, mapped.

[ drop a world map ]
Casa Luis Barragán — CDMX19.41, -99.19
Vitra Campus — Weil am Rhein47.60, 7.62
21_21 Design Sight — Tokyo35.66, 139.72
Open the atlas ↗
Coming soon
Subject
Built environment
Entries
24
Updated
Ongoing
Service Design◆0→1 Product◆Design Systems◆Design Leadership◆Research◆AI Prototyping◆AI Tooling◆Design Ops◆Design Strategy◆Cross-functional Collaboration◆MA Big Data◆Digital Anthropology◆
Kate Townsend Powell portrait
About

I design services, ship products end-to-end, and use AI to raise the bar on craft — not cut it.

Kate Townsend Powell is a designer focused on creating meaningful user experiences and developing successful products. Over the past fourteen years, her career has been marked by a diverse range of projects encompassing both government and commercial clients, which has honed her skills and given her a unique and versatile skillset.

Having worked on numerous projects for government clients, Kate has cultivated an acute sense of attention to detail and adherence to regulations and compliance standards. This is backed up by her studies in Global Privacy Law at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and her MA in Big Data at King's College. Her experience in this sector has refined her ability to tackle complex challenges and equipped her with a deep understanding of efficient and ethical data practice. After her studies in Global Data Privacy Law and Big Data, she has started to focus her academic work into AI regulation and standards.

In the commercial realm, Kate has collaborated with a wide range of clients, ranging from startups to established companies. This exposure has allowed her to adopt a robust yet flexible creative process to suit varying project scopes, budgets, strategies, and timelines, while consistently delivering outstanding results. In addition, her academic pursuits have given her proficiency in research, data analysis, and data visualisation, enabling her to deliver design outputs that resonate with target audiences.

Her expertise extends across multiple industries including cyber security, civic tech, application performance, data management, healthcare, telecoms, and more. This gives Kate a unique ability to create transformative designs that achieve both innovation and practicality for users. She has been fortunate to work with and be mentored by great creative thinkers. Her goal is to continue to work in collaborative environments where she can contribute to the growth of cross-functional teams.

Beyond her professional design work, Kate is also an accomplished painter, stop motion artist, and filmmaker. These creative pursuits inform her approach to digital design, bringing a distinctive visual sensibility and narrative understanding to her professional projects. Her cross-disciplinary artistic practice enables her to approach user experience challenges with unique perspectives and innovative solutions that bridge the gap between technical requirements and compelling visual storytelling.

{{ s }}
Fig. 03 — ExperienceA
{{ company }}
Fig. 04 — EducationB
{{ ed.program }} {{ ed.note }}
{{ activeProjectData.title }} {{ activeProjectData.title }} {{ activeProjectData.title }} {{ activeProjectData.title }} {{ activeProjectData.title }} {{ activeProjectData.title }}
{{ activeProjectData.tagline }}

{{ activeProjectData.title }}

Role
{{ activeProjectData.role }}
Company
{{ activeProjectData.company }}
Year
{{ activeProjectData.year }}
Discipline
{{ activeProjectData.discipline }}

Overview

{{ activeProjectData.overview }}

The challenge

{{ activeProjectData.challenge }}

Approach

{{ activeProjectData.approach }}

Outcome

{{ activeProjectData.outcome }}

TOBi plate 1
Fig. — Placeholder caption
TOBi plate 2
Fig. — Placeholder caption
TOBi plate 3
Fig. — Placeholder caption
Cloudflare Trace definition
Fig. — Placeholder caption
Cloudflare Trace discovery
Fig. — Placeholder caption
Cyber defence plate 1
Fig. — Placeholder caption
Cyber defence plate 2
Fig. — Placeholder caption
Recent trades and withdrawal status flows
Fig. — Recent trades & withdrawal status flows
Smart Assistant in a live trading conversation
Fig. — Smart Assistant in a live trading conversation
Home dashboard, data and usage
Fig. — Home dashboard, data and usage
Home dashboard, evening state
Fig. — Home dashboard, evening state
User community map, research segments
Fig. — User community map, research segments
[ image ]
Fig. — {{ plate.caption }}
{{ plate.caption }}
Fig. — {{ plate.caption }}
PeopleBase VIP label flow, animated
Fig. — PeopleBase, VIP label add/remove flow (animated)
Next project

{{ nextProjectTitle }}

→
Musings

Illustration & photography, outside the brief.

A running sketchbook of personal image-making — drawings, film photography and visual experiments alongside the product work.

{{ entry.title }}
[ {{ entry.kind }} ]
{{ entry.kind }}
{{ entry.title }}
{{ aiExperimentsHero }}
Get in touch

Let's build something calm and purposeful.

Open to new product design leadership roles and select consulting work. The fastest way to reach me is email — I read everything.

hello@k8townsend.studio