# Royden So

> Royden So is a product and brand designer in New York, studying architecture at The Cooper Union. Analog-first craft, amplified by AI.

- Role: product and brand designer, and architecture student at The Cooper Union
- Based in: New York City (also works with Hong Kong time)
- Availability: Open to internships
- Email: [hello@roydenso.com](mailto:hello@roydenso.com)
- Book a call: [cal.com/royden/20min](https://cal.com/royden/20min)
- Website: [roydenso.com](https://roydenso.com)

## Disciplines
- Brand identity
- Web design
- Product design
- AI product design
- Design systems
- AI-native design systems
- Architecture
- Analog and print craft

## Selected work
- [Phia](https://roydenso.com/phia): Product & web design. Phia believes good finds should be easy to find. Brand pages, scaled from 11K to 400K+. (Series A $35.5M; 1.7M Users)
- [The Current](https://roydenso.com/phia-the-current): Personalised editorial you can shop.
- [Joiner](https://roydenso.com/joiner): A small tool for HUGE collages.
- [Sabotage](https://roydenso.com/sabotage): Front-end development. Sabotage believes a studio should sound like itself. I built its site, store and editor from the designers' file. (Multidisciplinary creative studio, working with Adidas, Nothing, Nike and more)
- [Live Time](https://roydenso.com/live-time): Live Time believes hosting should feel easy. An iOS event flow, one question at a time.
- [Nothing](https://roydenso.com/nothing-make-them-hear-you): A house party series, city to city.

## Elsewhere
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/roydenso)
- [X](https://x.com/roydenso)
- [Instagram](https://instagram.com/roydnso)
- [are.na](https://www.are.na/royden)

## For AI agents
- MCP endpoint (Streamable HTTP): [https://roydenso.com/api/mcp](https://roydenso.com/api/mcp)
- Tools: get_profile, list_projects, get_availability, get_contact
- Portfolio featured on: Framer, Contra, MaxiBestOf

## Awards, talks and workshops
- Outstanding Pearson Learner Award (Highest mark in the world)
- FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge Runner-Up (APAC, top 3 of 4,700+ students, 2025)
- Designathon Winner (Phia x Design Meetup, 48 hours)
- Design-a-thon Workshop Lead (Rice University, annual Design-a-thon)

## Case studies (Markdown)
- [Sabotage](https://roydenso.com/sabotage.md): Sabotage believes a studio should sound like itself. I built its site, store and editor from the designers' file. Role: Front-end development; ~3 seconds from Publish to the live site; 24 days first commit to last, one developer; 100+ fields the studio edits on its own. Decisions written up: Studio, Pages.
- [Phia](https://roydenso.com/phia.md): Phia believes good finds should be easy to find. Brand pages, scaled from 11K to 400K+. Role: Product & web design; 11K to 400K+ brand pages from one template; 54% deal click-through on the redesigned sales calendar; 305K clicks a month from about 1,700 editorial pages. Decisions written up: Brand pages and editorials, The sandbox, In-app browser and partner page, Notifications.
- [Live Time](https://roydenso.com/live-time.md): Live Time believes hosting should feel easy. An iOS event flow, one question at a time. Role: Product design, coded prototype; 6 sections for all 43 kinds of event, one question per screen; 4 of 18 sample events left in an awkward category, against 6 to 8 for the other lists; ~3 weeks from kickoff to a handoff engineering was already building from. Decisions written up: Guided creation, Brand partnerships, The live event.
- [Joiner](https://roydenso.com/joiner.md): A small tool for HUGE collages. Role: Design and build; Year: 2026. Decisions written up: Cut.
- [The Current: Designathon winner](https://roydenso.com/phia-the-current.md): The Current, a personalised editorial feature for the Phia app, designed solo in 48 hours at the Phia x Design Meetup Designathon, where it won. Role: Product design, solo; Year: 2026. Decisions written up: Calibration.
- [Nothing: Make Them Hear You](https://roydenso.com/nothing-make-them-hear-you.md): Make Them Hear You, a brand strategy for Nothing: a house party series across London, Tokyo and Mumbai, and Glyph Sound, a free web tool. Role: Brand strategy & campaign design; Year: 2026. Decisions written up: Campaign.
- [OB-1 brand identity and website](https://roydenso.com/ob-1.md): Brand identity and website for OB-1 by Open Block Labs, a multi-model coding agent that runs in the terminal. Role: Brand identity & web design; Client: Open Block Labs; Year: 2026.
- [Twix: Both Yours campaign](https://roydenso.com/twix.md): Both Yours, a brand strategy for Twix: zero-irony LinkedIn milestone posts about eating both bars, and out-of-home posters. Role: Brand strategy & campaign design; Year: 2026.
- [Fields Framer template](https://roydenso.com/fields.md): Fields, a Framer portfolio template for agencies who value clean aesthetics, with every project managed in Framer's CMS. Role: Web design; Year: 2025.
- [MeeOpp EdTech brand refresh](https://roydenso.com/meeopp.md): Brand refresh for MeeOpp, an EdTech company for personalised learning: a new wordmark, a family of shapes, a mascot, a deck and a website. Role: Brand identity; Client: MeeOpp; Year: 2024.
- [Archer Framer portfolio template](https://roydenso.com/archer.md): Archer, a photo-first Framer portfolio template for creatives and photographers, and the Geoff Mau site built on it. Role: Web design; Year: 2024.
- [Shazoom F1 in Schools identity](https://roydenso.com/shazoom.md): Brand identity for Shazoom, a Hong Kong F1 in Schools team: a red wedge mark that reads as an S, a Z and a flag. Role: Brand identity; Client: Shazoom, F1 in Schools team; Year: 2024.
- [Class of 2024 graduation identity](https://roydenso.com/graduation-ceremony.md): Visual identity for Sha Tin College's Class of 2024 Graduation Ceremony, ESF Hong Kong: an interlocking gold 2024 monogram and programme. Role: Visual identity; Client: Sha Tin College, ESF; Year: 2024.
- [The Explorer yearbook cover](https://roydenso.com/the-explorer.md): Cover design for The Explorer 2022–2023, Sha Tin College's yearbook: the school's students in a grid of diamonds, and an arrow for progress. Role: Editorial design; Client: Sha Tin College, ESF; Year: 2023.
- [Coaction furniture identity and shoe bench](https://roydenso.com/coaction.md): Coaction, a self-initiated furniture brand for my design technology course: an identity system and its first piece, a plywood shoe bench. Role: Brand identity & product design; Year: 2023.
- [Morph Site Engineering identity](https://roydenso.com/morph.md): Brand identity for Morph Site Engineering, a civil engineering and design firm: a constructed M, a site palette, packing tape and hi-vis. Role: Brand identity; Client: Morph Site Engineering; Year: 2022.
- [Foamo body wash packaging](https://roydenso.com/foamo.md): Brand identity and packaging for Foamo, a foaming gel body wash in five fruity scents, from the bottles to the order inserts. Role: Brand identity & packaging; Year: 2022.
- [Terra bakery brand identity](https://roydenso.com/terra.md): Visual identity for Terra, a French gluten-free boulangerie and pâtisserie: a speckled terracotta mark, boxes, aprons and opening posters. Role: Brand identity; Client: Terra; Year: 2022.
- [Go Green campaign for UMAG](https://roydenso.com/go-green.md): Go Green, a low-carbon lifestyle campaign for UMAG at the University of Hong Kong: posters, billboards, a shipping container and totes. Role: Campaign & poster design; Year: 2022.
- [AFLE French competition posters](https://roydenso.com/afle-posters.md): Posters for AFLE's three annual French events, the Speech Competition, Le Concours d'affiches and La Dictée, as one illustrated series. Role: Poster design & illustration; Client: AFLE; Year: 2023.
- [Metamorphosis IB art exhibition](https://roydenso.com/metamorphosis.md): Metamorphosis, my IBDP Visual Arts exhibition: papercut, ink, bamboo and balsa works on the tension and harmony between digital and analogue. Role: Artist; Year: 2025.

## Optional
- [About, in full](https://roydenso.com/about.md)
- [Everything above in one file](https://roydenso.com/llms-full.txt): the profile, About and every case study in full