About

A designer who ships, an engineer who draws.

I am Maren Okafor, a design engineer in Lisbon. I work with product teams of five to fifty, usually on the part where design and code keep missing each other.

Maren Okafor, Lisbon. I design interfaces and write the code that ships them. Most of the work is in the hyphen.

2026Scroll to open the hyphen

Portrait of Maren Okafor

Maren Okafor, Lisbon. I design interfaces and write the code that ships them. Most of the work is in the hyphen.

2026Scroll to open the hyphen

Portrait of Maren Okafor

Story

I trained as a graphic designer in Porto and learned to program because the developers I worked with were busy. The first thing I shipped on my own was a research tool for two people; it taught me that a drawing is a promise and the build is whether you keep it.

At Portolan I moved the prototypes out of slide decks and into the codebase. At Kettlebank I led the interface for a business bank account and ran its component library for three years, through two rebrands and one regulator.

At Portolan I moved the prototypes out of slide decks and into the codebase. At Kettlebank I led the interface for a business bank account and ran its component library for three years, through two rebrands and one regulator.

Since 2022 I have worked on my own, with two or three teams a year. I take projects where I can do both halves, or sit between the people who do. Outside work I swim in the sea most mornings, which is where Saltline came from.

Since 2022 I have worked on my own, with two or three teams a year. I take projects where I can do both halves, or sit between the people who do. Outside work I swim in the sea most mornings, which is where Saltline came from.

Experience

2022–now

Independent design engineer

Okafor Studio

Lisbon

2019–2022

Senior design engineer

Kettlebank

Lisbon

2017–2019

Design engineer

Portolan

Porto

2016–2017

Product designer

Field Notes Lab

Porto

Principles

Build the hard state first

Build the hard state first

The empty list, the slow network, the name that does not fit. If those work, the happy path is a formality.

The empty list, the slow network, the name that does not fit. If those work, the happy path is a formality.

One source of truth for motion

One source of truth for motion

Three springs, named for what they do, used everywhere. Nobody types a duration by hand.

Three springs, named for what they do, used everywhere. Nobody types a duration by hand.

Leave it easier to change

Leave it easier to change

Every project ends with fewer one-off styles than it started with, and a note on what I would do next.

Every project ends with fewer one-off styles than it started with, and a note on what I would do next.

Process

Where the handoffs would be, there is a hyphen. Three of them, from brief to product.

  1. Brief to Sketch: Week one. A page of boxes, and the three questions that decide the rest.
  1. Brief to Sketch: Week one. A page of boxes, and the three questions that decide the rest.

Kind words

“Maren closed the gap we kept losing a sprint to. The build matched the design because the same person was holding both.”

Inês Carvalhal

Head of product, Saltline

“She asked what the button did while it was loading. Nobody else had asked. That was the first week.”

Tobias Renner

Engineering lead, Kettlebank

“Our component library has a changelog now, and people read it.”

Aiko Brandt

Design director, Portolan

Booking from March 2027. Tell me what you are building and when it needs to exist.

hello@marenokafor.example

The moon in a dark blue sky

Start with a short email

Booking from March 2027. I reply within a day.

hello@marenokafor.example

Booking from March 2027. Tell me what you are building and when it needs to exist.

hello@marenokafor.example

The moon in a dark blue sky

Start with a short email

Booking from March 2027. I reply within a day.

hello@marenokafor.example

Maren Okafor, Lisbon. I design interfaces and write the code that ships them. Most of the work is in the hyphen.

2026

Maren Okafor, Lisbon. I design interfaces and write the code that ships them. Most of the work is in the hyphen.

2026

Design engineer in Lisbon. Booking from March 2027.

Elsewhere

Code

Notes

Feed

Contact

hello@marenokafor.example

Lisbon. Replies within a day.

© 2026 Maren Okafor

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