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Sasha Arfin shared thisCongrats Amy Baryshnik! Really enjoyed working on this with you and the Gev Design team. Estate Kit helps families build a clear estate plan, and the peace of mind that comes with it. This is going to help so many and I am so glad I got to be a part of bringing it to life. 🙏Sasha Arfin shared thisLaunching a startup for the first time is one of the hardest things you can do. Today, Amy Baryshnik did it. Estate Kit is live. Over the past year I contributed across brand, UX, and product, and brought in my fractional team Kenneth Hou, Mathew Krizmanich, Sasha Arfin and Martin Laws to help get the platform to market. If your family has ever dealt with the chaos of stepping into a loved one's affairs unprepared, this is the product that fixes that: https://estatekit.com
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Sasha Arfin reposted thisSasha Arfin reposted thisHiring: Head of Product Design at Shakepay Shakepay is hiring a Head of Product Design. We’re looking for someone who cares deeply about product quality and wants real ownership. This is a senior leadership role. You’ll build the design team and help define how Shakepay ships product over the next several years. You’ll also work with me during the transition. A few important things about the role and company: • Bitcoin-focused (not crypto-adjacent, actual Bitcoin) • Product-led, not growth-hacked • Strong financial position • Design has real influence with the CEO What we’re looking for: • Uses Bitcoin and understands the space (non-negotiable) • Has led design teams before • Works closely with engineers and product • Cares about quality and consistency Canada-based preferred. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, DM me with a portfolio and I can share more details.
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Sasha Arfin reposted thisSasha Arfin reposted thisLooking for Senior Product Designers (10 years experience) I’m looking to connect with product designers who’ve been in the field for a while, often now in manager roles, but are craving a shift back to hands-on IC work and a healthier lifestyle. If you’re someone who wants more freedom, to essentially be your own boss, and to work directly with founders (and hang out with me along the way), this might be a great fit. I’ve helped about 10 designers make this transition already. It’s been genuinely rewarding, and there’s plenty of work out there. This is less “gig work” and more of a long-term partnership and collaboration. You manage your own hours. You get meaningful product problems. You work with great people. And you get space back in your life. If this sounds interesting, feel free to DM me your portfolio. Would love to chat.
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Sasha Arfin shared thisGlowGuide is live! Designing the system and flows wasn’t just about usability — it was about creating clarity and giving people confidence as they move through their treatment and skincare journey. Transformation is personal, and the goal was to make the experience feel supportive, empowering, and affirming every step of the way. Grateful to Gev Marotz, Tara Syed & the GlowGuide team for a fun and thoughtful collaboration.Sasha Arfin shared thisEvery once in a while, a project reminds you why you love design. For me, that’s been GlowGuide. From blank-screen sketches to a full brand, website, product, and tested app we built every layer to bring GlowGuide to life. GlowGuide is the first AI-powered consumer marketplace for medical aesthetics and skincare. It helps you: ✨ Track your progress photos in one place (owned by you) ✨ Get evidence-based recommendations tailored to your goals ✨ Finally know if the dollars you spend are actually worth it The founders, Tara Syed, Wes Duenow, Bob Briski are building something rare: not just another skincare app, but a companion for transformation. A place where you can see progress feel proud of it and share with your closest friends. Huge thanks to Sasha Arfin, Leanne Macaspac, Chelsie Grant, and Casey Millstien, Lauren Hayes See it live → www.glowguide.com
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Sasha Arfin reposted thisSasha Arfin reposted this“When the goal is clarity and speed, you don’t need someone in every meeting.” When startups need design help, they usually consider two options: hire in-house or bring in an agency. Gev Marotz thinks they’re missing a third. Read about why Marotz believes smart tech companies should use fractional design studios like Gev Design to accelerate their brand and product development.Why smart companies are using fractional design studiosWhy smart companies are using fractional design studios
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Sasha Arfin reposted thisSasha Arfin reposted thisThe work is the art. The struggle is the art. The craft is the art. The flow state of toiling and tangling with something but still not being able to help yourself from coming back to it - this is such a human need. It's not going away. We will find new struggles, we always do. I think the brands that are building tools for the new age of creation need to keep this in mind. The artist is looking to lose themselves in the making. Solve for inspiration and access and education, but don't eliminate the struggle. Ask any real creator and they will know this about themselves. Art is about wrestling something from within yourself and showing it to the world. Without the fight, there's no true creative urge.
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Sasha Arfin shared thisThank you, Gev Marotz, for the mentorship and for bringing me on to this project! And thanks to Brian Elliott and Sid Pardeshi for trusting our vision and for being a dream to work with! Excited to see Blitzy continue to transform how software gets built ✨Sasha Arfin shared thisWe designed the Blitzy product to make AI feel effortless. Here’s how. First design review: "Let’s make onboarding fast" The first approach? A long, boring form. Nope. We scrapped it. Rebuilt from scratch. Made it feel like Notion, not paperwork. Because real users don’t want to fill out a survey. They want to write, edit, and generate seamlessly. Blitzy (blitzy.com) is changing how software gets built. AI that writes 80% of your code. Weeks of work, done in days. But AI doesn’t make itself useful. That’s where we came in. Our team designed the full Blitzy product experience. Every screen, flow, and interaction. The challenge? Make AI feel like magic, not machinery. That meant: No friction, every step designed to move as fast as the devs using it No over-complication, AI that’s actually helpful, not another thing to babysit No waiting, real-time responses over fancy loading screens We fought for every detail. Tweaked. Scrapped. Rebuilt. Now? It’s live. Real teams are using it. And it actually works. Couldn’t have done it without Sasha Arfin. The client said it best: "Sasha is world-class. As good as the best I’ve worked with in Silicon Valley. Unlike most, she’s humble, no ego, and just gets it. Silicon Valley talent. Canadian ego. Best of all worlds." See for yourself! Huge thanks to Brian Elliott and Sid Pardeshi for trusting to us to push beyond the obvious solutions, ditching the typical form, rethinking AI interactions, and making something that actually feels good. #ProductDesign #UX #AI #Startups
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Sasha Arfin shared thisI get to work with the coolest teams. Keep an eye 👁️ and an ear out for the movers and shakers at Gigi. They’re changing the game for agencies and brands looking to launch streaming TV ads on platforms like Amazon Prime. Special shoutout to Kyra Petticrew (the content queen), Gloria Steiner (data & product visionary), Lee Rosenberg (full-stack strategist) and Adam Epstein for giving me the opportunity to work with such a stellar team these past couple months. It has been a true honour! #AdTech #CanadianStartups #AmazonPrime #AWS #STVcampaigns #FractionalDesignSasha Arfin shared thisIntroducing our new series: what we shipped 🚢 Each week, we’ll be sharing what we shipped here at Gigi to help improve your STV buying experience. This week: Unified UI and Audience creation features to make launching your Streaming TV campaigns even easier 👀 ✍️ New line item creation flow and the ability to edit audiences ☑ Collapsible line item UI to better navigate order creation flow
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Sasha Arfin shared thisFun fact: This was me talking about Gev Marotz. Thank you Thijs Kraan for introducing me to Fractional Design and to Gev! 🙌Sasha Arfin shared thisI'm often unaware of how my content impacts people. You often forget that there is a real person behind every view, like, or comment. And every now and then, you get a message like this that shows me why everyone should share expertise, insights, or work. Because you never know who you're inspiring.
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Sasha Arfin liked thisSasha Arfin liked thisStop centering text in your UI Good UI needs strong alignment anchors Centered text breaks them When everything aligns Everything feels intentional — Design better with my AI design skills https://lnkd.in/eX3hUNwe #ux #ui #design #ai #productdesign #designengineer #career #designer #designsystems
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on thisAI is helping me build all the cool little things I wished software could do but didn’t 🥲
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Sasha Arfin liked thisSasha Arfin liked thisBig news! I've joined Gamma as Head of Brand & Creative! I've had the pleasure of advising with the Gamma team since earlier this year, and I fell HARD for the team, what they're building, and who they're building it for. One of my mandates as an advisor was to help the team hire their next brand and creative leader, and we looked far and wide for months... In June I caught up with Kristin Fracchia about the search, and she mentioned it was taking longer than expected since they had very specific criteria in mind: someone who can lead but also be hands-on, who's obsessed with AI, creative, and also product, and who's expansive across different types of creative work... As she was talking, the largest light bulb in the world turned on. WAIT. This is me! From then on, I just knew I had to be building alongside this incredible team on their mission to give visual communication superpowers to everyone. Thanks to the following folks for making the decision to join the easiest one I've ever had to make: Grant Lee Jean Ellen Cowgill Rohit Padmakumar Kelsey Wu Kristin Fracchia alison bemis 🐷 Matt Brown Olivia Frenkel Karen Krause Danny Cheng Nadia Bhimla Elise Cappadona Ravish Agrawal Fiona Turko and so many more! Let's do this thing! 🚀
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Sasha Arfin liked thisSasha Arfin liked thisI built a map of Toronto's tech scene. 675 companies as of today. Free, no signup: https://lnkd.in/gbyJMnyd If you're a recruiter, sourcer or founder looking for talent, every company links straight to its LinkedIn people page. Filter by sector, size or stage and you've got a talent pool in a couple of clicks. If you're job hunting, it works for you too. A green HIRING pill means that company has roles open in Toronto right now. Set Location to "Hiring in Toronto" to see only those. Spot something wrong, or want to be added? Let me know
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on this"When one door closes, another one opens." You hear this sometimes when things don't work out, and I get it, it's meant to encourage you. But sometimes a door closes, and that's it. It feels awful. You don't know where to go next because that's not how we've been trained our whole lives. Since birth we've always had "another door" open, one after another. Kindergarten → Elementary → Middle School → High School, etc. Then you hit your 20s, 30s, and find out shit ain't linear like that. So what are you supposed to do? I felt this hard at the end of August and I lost my job. My company had become insolvent, and I didn't want talk about it then because I didn't know what value I could share in the middle of feeling like a complete fraud, with all the apprehension around design as a career path, personally and societally. Luckily, I have a great community around me of kind people, that kept correcting that imposter's syndrome-fueled self-perception. I felt like shit the whole time, but I did the dirty work anyway, applying, interviewing, getting rejected, repeating the process until something finally broke loose. I'm happy to share now that after brute-forcing my way through a pile of automated rejections, misaligned fits, and people straight up not liking me, I'm starting a new chapter. Spoiler alert, it's my dream job. At 37, I never thought this was still something I could aspire to, let alone get. It's never too late. Don't listen to the evil voice in your head. Surround yourself with good people who tell you what you need to hear, and lock the fuck in. Happy Thursday!
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on thisDesign is not dead! (but the process is sure changing 😄) Some love for Figma, made with Opus 5.5 ♥️
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on thisReally proud to share this one! Our latest at Lookout. A :30 spot for Betty.ca. We shot it over two days in Mexico City, and the spot pushed us into some ambitious VFX territory that I'm really happy with how it turned out. Lookout turns 10 this year, and projects like this are exactly why we love doing it. Grateful for the team and the trust from Betty to let us bring this to life. Andrea Stodart Cj Bosco #commercial #production #vfx #advertising #lookoutcontent
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on thisThis week my son Teddy turns 5 (mad) and for years I’ve kept notes of the funny things he says and taken pics of his scrappy doodles but hardly ever go back and look at them. So I’ve made a simple iOS app to store them all, with a widget that spits a different one out multiple times a day and tests my emotional fragility. 😅 For the quotes I created a font using Ted’s handwriting, found on those scrappy bits of paper, collecting as many variations as possible and refining each character so they feel written by the same pen. (Also used his scribbles for icons and loading states.) And the doodles get cleaned up when uploaded, so they appear as if drawn directly onto the widget but retain the original pen markings so they’re still all him. A bit of fun to dust off the cobwebs as I near the end of mat leave with son number 2.
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Sasha Arfin reacted on thisSasha Arfin reacted on thisBIG NEWS! Our brand new mymind iOS app (v4.0) is now LIVE for everyone! — It's 100% LOCAL and OFFLINE. This is a massive change for us. All files and saves are synced to your device. You can search, save, whatever you want, wherever you want. — We have completely re-worked the iOS app from scratch with a native first approach, you will feel the difference. Its truly blazing fast now, even with big minds. — Dozens of new quality of life features, beautiful new reading mode, native note taking with better editor functions, bulk editing, direct sharing from a card, Serendipity for Spaces, Research Labs for Mastermind members.... Honestly there is so much, it will take me a couple weeks to tell you all about the new things (: But the best part is: This finally sets us up to do all the things we've dreamed of! Expect a lot more to come, on a regular basis now. I hope you love it 🧡
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Dave Draper
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