Gunvor, a $135bn global commodities trading company, has engaged me as a fractional Design Director over several years to bring a design-led perspective to their rapidly evolving digital ecosystem.

With dozens of teams across trading, risk, credit, and back-office operations, the goal was to improve usability, efficiency, and coherence across a suite of complex internal tools.

As the only designer within the organisation, I operate as both strategist and practitioner - defining design direction, user experience strategy, and systems architecture.

Footnote: Global app icon design exploration.

I partner directly with senior stakeholders, traders, and engineering teams to establish the foundations for new products and drive continuous UX improvements across existing platforms.

Gunvor’s systems have grown organically over time, resulting in fragmented workflows, inconsistent interfaces, and manual processes that slowed productivity.

Each department operated independently, and digital tools were often built in isolation without shared standards or a cohesive user experience strategy.

I embedded design thinking within technology teams operating in agile cycles, introducing structure and standards to improve both design quality and delivery velocity.

Every new project begins with direct collaboration between myself, traders, and support staff to uncover pain points, define workflows, and align business goals with user needs.

I then established atomic, component-based design frameworks that enabled consistency and scalability across systems — from commodities trading platforms and risk management tools to credit and contract systems.

Today, design at Gunvor is on it's way to being recognised as a strategic function — connecting teams, optimising performance, and driving the next generation of intelligent trading tools.

• Introduced a cohesive, component-driven design system across multiple internal products.
• Reduced complexity and improved speed in high-stakes trading and risk workflows.
• Strengthened communication and alignment between trading, back-office, and technology teams.
• Embedded a design-led culture that values simplicity, automation, and continuous improvement.