PRODUCT DESIGNER
I design products with logic that holds up - in use, at scale, and in the build.
At Super Interactive since 2021.
How I work, and why it holds up
First to last
I'm usually involved before there's anything to design. Someone has to work out what the product should achieve and who it's actually for, and I'd rather be in that conversation than receive the outcome of it. By the time it reaches development, the design has answered most of its own questions.
Designed to be built
A design is done when a developer can build it without asking what I meant. So I settle the awkward parts myself. Empty states, names that run long, connections that fail. Leave those open and someone else decides them under deadline pressure, and that's usually where a product starts drifting away from what was designed.
Constraints are the brief
Budget, legacy systems, five stakeholders with five opinions. I stopped treating those as things that get in the way of the work. They are the work. What I'd make with unlimited time and space isn't interesting to anyone, including me.
Exploration is cheap now
AI runs underneath most of my work now: exploring directions, testing variations, generating what I'd otherwise wait for. It means I’m iterating and conceptualising faster, but what it doesn't do, is decide which direction is right.
This is me
Name:
Martijn Ruitenbeek
Residence:
Italy
languages:
Dutch, english, italian
lunch:
home baked bread
weekends:
outside, reading
winter:
chasing powder
I'm a Dutch product designer, currently based in Italy. I've spent the last six years at Super Interactive designing platforms for political movements, broadcasters and AI companies. That might sound like a strange combination until you notice they all have the same problem: a lot to say, but not enough space to say it in.
Outside of that I co-founded Nightscribe and I create album covers for composer labels; different constraints, same instinct. I’m fluent in English, learning Italian and I’d gladly take on another language.
Side projects
Spoke, Native IOS App
Designed in Claude Design, built with Claude Code
coming soon
Searcher MX, Album Covers
Started with Flora, designed in Figma
coming soon
Solvera, Villa Rental Platform
Documented in Notion, Designed in Figma
coming soon
contact