Product, brand and systems for ambitious AI companies.
Placeholder is a senior design collective. No account layer, no hand-offs — the people you meet are the people who do the work.
More people can build software now. Good design is still hard.
We work with AI companies that want their product and brand to stand out, and see design as a core competitive advantage in today’s world. We significantly raise the bar on design for your product and site, then build the systems that help the team keep producing strong work as the company grows.
Product design sprint
From $10k
From definition to shipped interface — strategy, interaction design, prototyping, and the parts most teams skip: model behaviour, controls and failure states.
4–8 weeks
Brand & website sprint
From $10k
Positioning, identity and launch expression that make it obvious what you do and why it matters — in a category that rewards clarity over noise.
4–6 weeks
AI-native design system
From $10k
Tokens, components, documentation and guardrails written so both people and machines can create with them — and stay on brand.
4–8 weeks
Full case studies on request.
Questions, answered.
How does an engagement start?
A thirty-minute intro call on what you’re building and where it’s stuck — no deck, no pitch. Within a week you get a proposal with scope, team, timeline and price, and one accountable lead named. If it’s a match, we’re working within two weeks.
How do you work?
AI-assisted, partner-led. We use AI tools throughout — to go from brief to working prototypes in days, and to explore far more directions than a traditional process allows — while every judgment call stays with the partners you hired. You see real progress continuously, not at big reveals.
How does pricing work?
Fixed-scope offers are priced upfront — the number on the card is the number on the invoice. Ongoing partnerships run monthly, and you can pause or stop at the end of any month. No estimates, no surprises.
Can you work inside our existing design system and codebase?
Yes — that’s often the fastest kind of engagement. Share what exists and we work inside those rails. And if the system itself is the problem, making it AI-native is one of our offers.