About Midosu Studio
One person, and the nine years that make four weeks possible.
Midosu Studio is me, Milan. I design the marketing site, I design the product interface, and I write the code for both. There is no team behind this page and no agency behind me. That is not a limitation I am apologising for. It is the entire reason a build takes four weeks instead of fourteen.
The numbers that matter here
9years
designing and building software interfaces
13companies
whose products I have designed, built or both
1project
at a time, from kickoff to live
0handoffs
between the design and the code
Who you are actually hiring
Milan. Designer who ships his own code.
I started in the agency and enterprise end of this work, which is where I learned exactly how a four month project becomes a seven month project. It is almost never the difficulty of the work. It is the strategist handing to the designer, the designer handing to the developer, and every handoff costing days and losing detail.
So I stopped handing over. I design the screen and then I write the front end for it, in React, Next.js and Tailwind, in the framework your engineers already use. One head holds the whole thing, which means nothing has to be explained to anyone, and nothing gets lost in the explaining.
- Based
- Netherlands. Remote, across European hours.
- Builds in
- React, Next.js, Tailwind. Handed over as clean components.
- Worked with
- Adidas, McDonald's, Royal Canin, Rabobank, Rebels, LDU.
- Runs
- One sprint at a time. Never two.
I was really impressed with Milan and can only compliment him. He made really interesting designs, always showing good reasoning.
Maxim M.Technical Director at RebelsThe nine years
How a four week sprint stops being a stunt.
Four weeks only sounds reckless if you have not already made the mistakes somewhere with a bigger budget. I made them at agencies, then in house, then on my own. This is where they happened.
[[2016 to 2018]]
Agency and enterprise
- Adidas
- McDonald's
- Royal Canin
Design work inside big process, for brands where a page goes through six people before it exists. I learned what an enterprise interface has to survive, and I learned that almost none of the calendar is spent making the thing.
The delay is the handoffs, not the work.
[[2018 to 2021]]
In house, on product teams
- Rebels
- Robidus
- Q Group
Sitting with the engineers instead of throwing files at them. I started drawing wireframes in the shape of the HTML and CSS that would have to render them, and then writing that front end myself rather than describing it.
A design is not finished until it is code.
[[2021 to 2024]]
Freelance, design and build
- Daily Paper
- Oqium
- In Gold We Trust
- Circular Pioneers
Marketing sites and product interfaces, scoped and shipped end to end by one person. This is where the four week shape actually appeared: not as a promise, but as what the calendar kept saying once nothing had to be handed to anyone.
One person end to end is faster, and better.
[[2024 to now]]
Midosu Studio
- LDU
- My Active Age
- Qonnections
The same work, but with the scope, the price and the date fixed before anything starts, and a written guarantee behind the date. One project at a time, because the guarantee is only worth something if there is nothing else on the calendar to lose it to.
Fixed scope is what makes a fixed date honest.
Companies I have designed and built for
How I work
Four rules, and the one thing I will not do.
One person, start to live.
The person who scopes the work is the person who designs it and the person who writes the code. Nothing is handed over, so nothing is translated and nothing is lost. Every other rule on this page exists to protect that one.
0handoffs
Code is the deliverable.
Not a folder of PNGs for someone else to interpret. Real front end, in your framework, handed over as components your team keeps using after I leave.
Scope is decided on day one.
The exact page list and the exact screen list are agreed in week 1 and do not change. Projects rarely run late because the work is hard. They run late because the list keeps growing.
One strong direction, not five.
You get a decision and the reasoning behind it, not a mood board to choose from. Two rounds of changes, in writing. That is what four weeks buys and it is a real trade.
And I will tell you when I am the wrong call.
Some work does not belong in a four week sprint, and pretending otherwise costs you more than a no does. If you are in this list I will say so on the first call rather than in week three.
- Logos, brand books and naming. I do not do those.
- Five rounds of stakeholder review. Four weeks does not survive it.
- Research and user interviews first. Budget three months with an agency.
- Someone in your standups daily. I am not an employee.
Start here
Tell me what you are building.
Eight short questions, one at a time. Most people are through it before their coffee gets cold.
- About 2 minutes.
- Nothing shared, nothing stored beyond my inbox.
- A reply within one working day, or nothing at all.
Next start date: 6 October. One project at a time.
Milan. It is me asking, not a form.
What do you need built?