About
Design is functional, not decorative.
I'm Artur Parutkin, a brand designer in Hamburg. I've spent roughly two decades making things people can use — and the one lesson that survived all of it: without a strategy, there is no reason for design.
What I believe about startup brands
A startup is a spearhead, not an offer for everyone. Big brands are drifting toward faceless minimalism — safe, interchangeable, forgettable. That's your opening: an early-stage company wins by having character, a sharp point of view that tells the right people "this is yours" and politely tells everyone else it isn't. In a feed drowning in AI-generated sameness, that character is what still cuts through.
A brand is the feeling people repeat. Tesla and SpaceX mean innovation. Apple is the Mercedes of smartphones. Coca-Cola is stability and nostalgia. Nobody recites features — they retell a feeling. My job is to decide, deliberately, what feeling your company installs and to build every touchpoint so it says the same thing.
Positioning is a business decision, not an art project. I go where most designers won't: into your business model, your pricing, who you want to belong to your brand and why they'd care. Because those answers — not taste — determine how the brand must look, sound and behave.
Why founders work with me
I've sat on both sides of the table. I founded and run PrivatAI, an EU-hosted AI platform — so I know what it means when the brand budget is your own runway, and I design accordingly: fixed prices, shipped outcomes, no theater. I also build what I design (the website is part of the brand, and I write the code), which means nothing gets lost between the deck and the deployed product.
The results are in the work: an AI startup built on trust, a web3 platform that made compensation feel safe, a stylist repositioned until global brands felt proud to book her.
The shorter story
The kid who wanted to build his own smartwatch became the teenager winning an audience award at a 48-hour film contest, became a designer with twenty years of logos, identities and websites behind him — across tech, architecture, coaching and fashion. Influences, for those who read the credits: Rams, Rand, Neumeier, Geismar & Chermayeff, and a well-worn copy of Logo Modernism.
Practical things
- Based in Hamburg, Germany · working remotely with startups worldwide
- English & German
- Typical engagement 2–9 weeks — see packages