castlelab

castlelab is a design studio I've been leading for the last 3 years.

It was originally a tech startup incubated at the University of British Columbia. During that time, I used it to explore my interests in design and so, when the startup failed, I turned it into a design agency.

Today, we're a small but impactful group of freelancers, made of designers and makers, that approaches product design with a more artistic eye using 3D, illustration and motion.

Origins

2017 - 2018

@castlelab finds its roots in the anonymous and nerdy community of Reddit. One day, I responded to a post from the subreddit of our university and a week later the founding team was sitting at a coffeeshop chatting business plan and market share.

Original reddit post

In short, our startup successfully built and redesigned Canada's Multiple Listings System (MLS) which we then sold to over 40 realtors across Vancouver for a monthly subscription. 

I learnt a lot in that process. I employed some pretty smart marketing tactics to collect emails from all 15,000 realtors in the city; you can read about that here. I also learned a lot about growing a business and a team; read this piece from my design partner Yuki on that topic.

Fast forward to now

2018 - Now

castlelab has grown into a small team made out of our favourite contractors we've had the chance to work with over the last 2-3 years on diverse projects. 

Here's a few client projects we're very proud to have contributed to:

  • Leading the redesign of France's largest guitar e-learning platform.
  • Collaborating with an architect to design a top rated restaurant in Paris.
  • Helping a Canada-wide family business jump into the 21st century. 
  • Go to Client Work for more...