Maximillian Piras, Design Portfolio

1989 - Y2K

First steps to first login

My fascination with the web began on our family computer through a dial-up connection. The first website I hacked together was a showcase for videos of me & my friends skateboarding since YouTube had yet to be invented.

2007 - 2011

Graphic Design BFA

To avoid becoming a starving artist, I attended CSULB where I unexpectedly fell in love with design. While there were no UX classes when I entered school, upon my exit it became obvious that I could combine my graphic skills with my technical experience to design for the web.

2012 - 2014

Agency life

I began my career working as a Digital Designer at a creative agency that contracted out to companies such as Yelp, Microsoft, Chevrolet, & Choice Hotels. I never got permission to share this work but it was mostly banner ads anyways so perhaps it's best left on my hard drive.

2014 - 2018

UIUX @ 8tracks

I jumped over to San Francisco to help millions of music lovers connect with each other through new tracks. I began work with the marketing team & eventually found myself leading the Product Design efforts until the company met its unfortunate conclusion.

2015 - 2018

Founder @ Lost Cat™

In the early days of the e-commerce craze, I spent nights & weekends experimenting with my first long-term side project by building a niche streetwear brand. It began selling at a local NYC skateshop called Labor & eventually found its way onto the racks at the New Museum's gift shop. Despite the humble success, I decided to close up the e-shop to focus on things more fulfilling than fashion logistics.

2017 - 2018

Freelance animator

After regaining my nights & weekends, I began exploring animation by sharing my progress each week on Instagram. It caught the attention of some musicians who began hiring me for freelance projects. While the highlight of this era was creating a music video for Ryuichi Sakamoto, I found it hard to justify taking on more contracts because in some ways software is much more fun to work on (& tends to pay much better).

2018 - 2024

Design Lead @ Headliner

My animation contracts highlighted a problem many audio creators face sharing their content across a web primarily designed for visual discovery, so I joined Headliner's effort to help podcasters easily share their work by automating supportive asset creation. This was my first experience designing around AI, forcing me to understand the abilities & constraints of NLP, LLMs, & generative image/video models.

2025

AI UX

I'm convinced that Generative AI will unrecognizably change software, which tends to subsequently change the world, so I'm building off my work at Headliner by diving into AI UX. It began with a series of articles published in the likes of Smashing Magazine & UX Mag. Then a series of side projects, such as CC-1 Concept Calculator. Now I'm working on something new at Yutori. I'll be sharing many updates on X this year!

Maximillian AI