A Bit More About Me

A Bit More About Me*

I am a designer who loves to make things, build teams, and support others in doing so.

Portrait of Maykel Loomans

I started my career by co-founding Airglow Studios in Maastricht. We saw an opportunity to elevate digital product work in our region, balancing client projects with ambitious experiments.

We pushed technology boundaries – from building single page web apps**, to a browser-based 3D engine in Flash* to creating a Nintendo DS game – always exploring what was possible.

Throughout the lifetime of the studio, we took on clients to pay the bills and worked on crazy ideas to see how far we could push the technologies we had available. This meant that we worked on a wide variety of projects. From creating a 3D engine in Flash*, to single page web applications**, to having an intercom microphone at our office we could speak to website visitors through. This escalated even further when we started experimenting with a Nintendo Wii controller-enabled head-tracking 3D Pong game, to developing a Nintendo DS game, and so many more fascinating little things.

After five years at the studio, I felt the need to strike out on my own and focus purely on design, which led me to work remotely as a contract designer for Instagram. Six months later I was fortunate to experience the life changing experience of moving to San Francisco to work there full-time.

Most recently, I led the digital product and design team at Glossier, where I helped transform the technology organization to become more outcome driven, and lead a full redesign of glossier.com.

After taking a year off in 2020 to recharge and explore new projects, I joined Brex as a Principal Designer and Design Director. Here, I've spanned the gamut of product work from building out our mobile app, to leading various organizations, and now I have returned back to an IC role focused on improving the quality of our products.

Over time, I'll expand on this space*. For a summarized work history, feel free to check out the page below.

Work

Here is a brief history of what I have been up to professionally in the last decade and a half.

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  • Brex

    2021 – Now

    My time at Brex has consistent of a few 'eras', from building out our mobile app, to leading our Platform and Spend Management organizations, and now back to a IC role focused on improving the quality of our products.

  • Hiatus & Exploration

    2020

    In October of 2019 I took a break from being in a full-time role to take some rest, watch some movies, play some video games, and read some books. I did spend a little bit of time on advising, investing, and exploring new projects.

    I dug deeper into modern web technologies, brushing up on over half a decade of new ways of working, and explored photo sharing and photo hosting by building out different iterations of Shoebox.

  • Glossier

    2018 – 2019

    I originally joined Glossier as their Head of Design, but took over the Product role soon after. We moved from a service-oriented organization to one focused on measurable impact and outcomes, establishing clear metrics and accountability for our work.

    This led a full redesign of Glossier.com, based on a new design system and the rebuilding of a couple of key pieces of infrastructure to drive site speed, reliability, and ultimately sales conversion.

  • Facebook

    2014 – 2018

    At Facebook I worked at the intersection of design and product strategy, leading a re-design of the search engine, supporting multiple efforts on the local team (including a prototype of hyperlocal with bluetooth beacons), and leading the product experimentation team.

  • Instagram

    2011 – 2014

    As one of the earliest members of the Instagram team, I worked as a design lead (and sometimes engineer). Some of the most notable projects I got to work on were: completely redesigning instagram.com (including our move to React), re-designing for iOS7, designing the first tools for businesses and kicking off the first data-driven growth projects.

  • Airglow Studios

    2006 – 2011

    As design co-founder, I led all of the design and creative efforts, as well as general company strategy — shifting us through our transformation from a web studio to focus on apps and games across web and mobile.

Colophon

Supporting Services

Technological Nerdy Bits

Designy Bits

Special Thanks

Contact

You can find me on the following networks, or drop me a line at hello@maykelloomans.com.

Hi! Hey! Wow. Fancy finding you here at the bottom of the page. Can't believe you made it this far! Whew. This site is being designed and iterated on in public. If you see something that looks off, please reach out and let me know!

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