Hi, I'm Vlad

I'm a senior product designer, and I've been doing this for about 15 years. Most of that time I've worked on products where a wrong click can cost someone real money: wallets, Bitcoin finance, payments, that kind of thing. I like taking something complicated and making it make sense.

These days I also build what I design, with a lot of help from AI.

Outside of work, I'm a weekend woodworker. I moved to Sweden from Romania two years ago with my better half, our two Lagotto Romagnolos and our cat. We live in Gothenburg now, and the dogs make sure I'm out in the forest every day. I'm also trying to learn Swedish (which is partly why Skouta exists).

I started out in 2009 doing freelance and agency work: websites, web apps and campaigns, for clients like IKEA, Heineken, McDonald's and Desperados. That's where I learned the basics of UX, visual design, and working with clients on tight deadlines.

In 2015 I joined ConsenSys as their second product designer. ConsenSys worked like an incubator, so I got to help launch a lot of early blockchain products (30+ in the end, about 10 of them as the main designer). One of them was MetaMask, where I was the only designer and did its first full UX/UI pass. I also co-founded Ujo Music there.

From 2021 to 2024 I was the only product designer at Taho, a browser-extension wallet. I took it from the first concept to a working product with around 150,000 active users, and looked after the design system and the brand too. Taho case study →

Then I led design at Mezo, a Bitcoin Layer 2, during a points campaign that reached $150M in deposits. Mezo case study →

Since 2025 I've been working independently with early-stage startups, like Thrive Protocol and Peanut. I also co-founded Skouta, a civic alerts app for Sweden, which I designed and built myself. It was one of three finalists for the UX Nordics award at Future Product Days. Skouta case study →

I like owning a problem from the messy beginning to the thing that ships, and working closely with product and engineering along the way. Most of my work has been in startups, where that's usually how it goes anyway.

I use AI a lot, from research to design systems to code, but I don't let it make the product and design decisions. More on how I work with AI →

I'm looking for a product team where I can stay hands-on, owning the product design end to end, building and looking after the design system, and designing and shipping with AI. Fintech and crypto are where most of my experience is, but I'm just as interested in anything complex where clarity and trust matter. I live in Gothenburg, and I've been working remotely for the past 10 years.

If that sounds like your team, get in touch at vlad.todirut@gmail.com, or have a look at my CV.