Hello, I’m Ivan—a Dubai-based designer centered on fintech merchandise and branding. I run Moonsight, the place we craft considerate digital experiences and sharp visible identities for monetary corporations all over the world.
Background
My path into design wasn’t a childhood calling—I wasn’t drawing wireframes at age ten or dreaming of Helvetica (are you able to think about XD). I simply knew I didn’t need the standard workplace life. I wished freedom, motion, and a technique to create issues that felt helpful. Design turned out to be the candy spot between independence and impression.
So I studied design at college by day, and took on company work by night time—what you may name the full-stack pupil hustle. That rhythm—examine, work, repeat—taught me self-discipline. I additionally stored studying on the aspect, exploring instruments, developments, and strategies to sharpen my craft.
Finally, I discovered myself gravitating towards fintech.
Why fintech? As a result of it’s actual. It’s private. Everybody interacts with cash. And once you construct one thing that helps them really feel extra in command of it—you’re not simply bettering UX, you’re bettering lives.
You’re designing belief. That’s a duty I take significantly.
From there, I explored either side of the trade: in-house roles at product corporations, and fast-paced company work. Later, I shifted into consultancy—partnering with fintechs throughout Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. That chapter taught me lots—not nearly design, however about individuals, tradition, and the way completely different groups take into consideration belief and cash.
All of that led me to start out Moonsight—an area the place I may deliver all these experiences collectively. At this time, we companion with fintechs and monetary corporations to create sharp, helpful, brand-led digital experiences. And whereas I nonetheless keep hands-on, I’m additionally constructing a staff that’s simply as obsessive about readability, thoughtfulness, and execution as I’m.
Featured Work
Monetto
A game-changer on this planet of freelancing. Designed to simplify and elevate the monetary journey for freelancers, Monetto is extra than simply an app – it’s a holistic answer that empowers creatives like me to handle their funds with confidence.
BlastUp
Blastup’s mission is straightforward—assist customers develop their social media presence, quick. We crafted a daring, dynamic id that displays Blastup’s energetic and pleasant persona as effectively is their web site.
Alinma Financial institution
This challenge for Alinma Financial institution concerned a complete redesign throughout all model touchpoints: the emblem, bodily playing cards, web site, and cell app. The aim was to modernize and streamline the visible id whereas sustaining the financial institution’s core values.
Coinly
Coinly is greater than only a banking app — it’s a full-fledged monetary literacy ecosystem for teenagers, designed to empower the following era with cash expertise that develop with them. Constructed round an interesting coin mascot and a colourful 3D world, Coinly blends gamification, interactive storytelling, and actual monetary instruments.
Design Philosophy
Design must be extremely useful and intuitive, fixing each enterprise and person issues whereas delivering an interesting expertise that customers need to return to.
Design is readability. And readability builds belief.
Particularly in fintech—the place most of my tasks occur—you don’t have the luxurious of obscure. Your design has to work, at the start. It has to really feel good, reliable, clean. When individuals belief your interface, they belief your product. And after they belief your product, they’re extra seemingly to make use of it once more. That’s the place design actually proves its worth.
My job is to make issues helpful first, lovely second. However ideally, each without delay.
The way in which I strategy tasks is structured however adaptable.
I begin with full immersion—understanding the enterprise, the viewers, and the issue we’re fixing. From there, I search for a novel angle, one thing that offers the product or model a definite voice. Then I push that concept so far as I can—visually, functionally, and emotionally.
And no, I don’t consider in reinventing all the pieces 🙂
Use the patterns that work. However when one thing feels off or underwhelming, be daring sufficient to rethink it. That’s the place the actual artistic work lives—not in chaos, however in thought of evolution.
I don’t need to be identified for a mode. I need to be identified for vary.
For each challenge, I attempt to discover a distinct visible language. Which means experimenting—pulling in 3D, movement, illustration—no matter it takes to deliver the idea to life.
And I hardly ever do it alone.
I collaborate carefully with animators, builders, movement designers, illustrators—the sort of people that not solely help the imaginative and prescient, however increase it. When everybody brings their strengths to the desk, the result’s all the time richer, sharper, extra memorable.
What issues most is that the top consequence has presence. That it feels alive, intentional, and constructed with care.
And I care deeply about how work is offered. Each challenge—consumer or private—is framed with context, rationale, and craft. As a result of good design solves issues, however nice design tells a narrative.
Course of In Bits
My course of is structured, however not inflexible. Normally, it seems one thing like this:
Polish and current
Clear storytelling. Clear handoff. Assured rationale.
Perceive the enterprise
What’s damaged? What’s wanted? What are we actually fixing?
Perceive the person
What do they count on? What’s acquainted to them? What do they worry?
Discover the visible angle
Moodboards, movement cues, structure patterns, surprising instructions
Construct and iterate
Quick suggestions loops with purchasers and the staff
One benchmark I take advantage of: if I don’t perceive what I designed, how can I count on a person to?
For me, good design begins with intention. Each display screen, each button, each microinteraction—there must be a purpose it exists. So when a characteristic’s constructed, I stroll by it in my head as if I’ve by no means seen it earlier than. What would I click on? What would I count on subsequent? Can I clarify what every half does with out second-guessing?
After engaged on monetary interfaces for thus lengthy, you begin to internalize these flows—you virtually know them by muscle reminiscence. However that doesn’t imply you skip the take a look at. You continue to undergo every stage. You continue to assume nothing.
Generally, the very best insights come from a teammate asking, “Wait, what does this do?” That’s your cue to look nearer.
And in terms of working with purchasers?
I stroll purchasers by each stage—from moodboards to microinteractions—so there are not any surprises and no last-minute pivots.
It’s about mutual belief: they belief my course of, and I belief their imaginative and prescient.
This construction helps me handle expectations, stop scope drift, and ship considerate work—on time, with out the drama.
What retains me impressed? Wanting exterior the bubble.
I don’t have a listing of designers I religiously comply with. What conjures up me is nice work—wherever it lives. Generally it’s a slick piece of internet design, typically a brutalist poster on the road, artwork type from a online game, or the typography on a jazz document sleeve.
Music performs an enormous function in my artistic life—I sing a bit, and I feel that form of rhythm and construction naturally finds its means into how I construct interfaces.
I’m additionally an enormous gamer, and I’m fascinated by how sport mechanics affect person habits. There’s lots designers can study from how video games information, reward, and shock customers.
Generally I’ll see a cool impact, a personality design, and even only a movement element and instantly assume:
That might be the anchor for an entire expertise
Not essentially for the challenge I’m engaged on within the second, however one thing I’d like to construct round later. So I kind, I gather, I sketch.
I’m typically on the lookout for inspiration for one challenge, however bookmarking concepts for 2 or three others. It’s not simply moodboarding—it’s sample recognition, and planting seeds for future ideas.
Inspiration can come from anyplace—however provided that you retain your eyes open.
What’s Subsequent
Proper now, I’m totally centered on constructing Moonsight right into a studio identified for daring, strategic fintech design—particularly throughout the MENA area.
On my private radar:
- Grasp 3D
- Launch my very own product
- Converse at extra design occasions
- Make Moonsight’s design Convention in Dubai occur
- Be a part of awwwards jury panel
- Do extra significant work
- Principally? Simply develop. As a designer, a founder, and a artistic
Parting Ideas
If I may give one piece of recommendation to youthful designers, it might be this:
Discover what excites you. Keep obsessive about it. And don’t waste time evaluating your self to others.
We’re overexposed to one another’s work nowadays. It’s simple to really feel behind.
However your solely competitors is your self a yr in the past. That’s the place development lives.
This trade strikes quick. However should you transfer with intent, your work will all the time discover its place.
