3-year+ creative retainer as SmarDex’s first design hire, covering brand identity, product UI, video and social, all from one creative lead.

SmarDex (now Everything.) is a self-funded DeFi protocol known for flipping “Impermanent Loss” into “Impermanent Gain.” I joined as their first design hire and have spent the past three years as their multidisciplinary creative lead, making sure the brand keeps pace with the product, including launches like USDN, the first decentralized delta-neutral token.

Fast-moving startups lose momentum juggling separate designers, editors and managers. SmarDex needed one person who could understand complex financial engineering and turn it into clear, premium visuals, quickly.

What I did: I took ownership of the full creative pipeline. That meant designing intuitive UI/UX for complex products like USDN, producing video marketing and educational content for SmarDex and SmarDex Poker, and running social campaigns that turned technical milestones into content people wanted to share. Drawing on 12+ years of experience, I delivered the output of four specialists through a single, streamlined service.

$150M+ peak market cap

40,000+ followers across social platforms

Tier-1 partnerships including Bitget, Binance and Stake

I created high-converting video ads for SmarDex and SmarDex Poker, from short punchy cuts for social feeds to longer launch videos for major releases. My focus was making complex DeFi concepts feel simple and exciting within the first few seconds, so new users understood the value before they scrolled away. These videos played a central role in how SmarDex communicated with investors during its growth stage.

For SmarDex’s biggest moments, I created hype videos designed to build anticipation before the news dropped. These teasers didn’t explain the product. They set the mood, gave the community the feeling that something big was coming, and got people watching closely. When the announcement landed, that built-up attention turned into momentum. At key launches, this momentum contributed to the market cap rising by millions. The announcements themselves drove the moves, but the hype videos made sure the community was ready and paying attention when they happened.

SmarDex built genuinely new DeFi mechanics, and new mechanics only gain traction when people understand them. I produced explainer videos that walked the community through how SmarDex works, from turning Impermanent Loss into Impermanent Gain to how USDN stays delta-neutral. Each video took a complex idea and broke it into simple, visual steps, so both experienced DeFi users and newcomers could see what made the product different and why it mattered to them. This educational content became a key way SmarDex raised awareness for new launches. It turned curious followers into informed users and helped build an engaged community of 30,000+ followers across platforms.

As SmarDex’s first design hire, I helped shape the brand from an early-stage project into a recognizable DeFi identity. In the beginning, the priority was looking professional enough that people would take the project seriously. Over time, I evolved the identity to keep pace with the product, including its transition toward Everything. The result is a brand that supported a $150M+ peak market cap and earned credibility with Tier-1 partners.

When SmarDex expanded into AI with SmarDex AI, I designed the product’s logo (read use case here) and produced its promotional videos, handling the editing and motion graphics myself. The main challenge was giving the AI product its own clear identity while keeping it unmistakably part of the SmarDex family. I built the logo and visual language on the same foundations as the core brand, so the new product felt fresh and forward-looking without feeling disconnected. The promo videos carried that identity into motion, introducing SmarDex AI to the community with the same polish and energy people already associated with SmarDex. The result was a seamless brand extension that strengthened the overall ecosystem instead of fragmenting it.