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Sveiki, aš esu Tilo.

Portrait of Tilo Erwin

Design Lead · Design Systems at Enterprise Scale · Brand-to-Product · AI-Native Workflows

About

I’m a design leader with 18+ years building design systems where brand meets product. Eleven years as Design Director at MetaDesign, enterprise work for Alphabet, BMW, Siemens Healthineers, Audi, Volkswagen, most recently AI-native systems at DeepL. My through-line: systems that outlive the project. Hands-on by choice, Bauhaus-trained, currently exploring what AI does to the craft.

How I work: Everything I build is designed to outlive the project. These are the principles that make that possible.

Semantics

Every visual decision carries meaning, from typography to color. I design with the precision of language: nothing decorative, everything saying something.

People

Products only succeed when you understand users from the heart, not just from the data. Empathy is a research method.

Technology

Technology sets the pace. Each shift – from responsive to AI-native – changes what design can be, and I build with the current one, not the last one.

Brand

Brand is the why beneath every interface. It turns a collection of screens into something with purpose and character.

Rebuilding design-systems craft for the AI era

Lead Designer
03/2026

Creative direction at boutique scale — brand-driven systems and team enablement

Creative Director
11/2023 – 05/2025

Deliberate return to hands-on enterprise craft after a decade in leadership

Visual Design Director
07/2019 – 10/2023

Eleven years leading UX – growing designers, owning quality, building brand-driven systems

Design Director
06/2008 – 06/2019

Full Experience on Linkedin

Cases

Selected case study

In a design sprint for an automotive client, we developed a monitoring solution that simplifies IT data through a tangible 3D map, split-screen views, and visual KPI summaries. A lightweight design system brought the concept to life and set the stage for future development.

Contact for more

Let‘s Connect

Linkedin

I’m always open to exciting design challenges, collaborations, or just a good conversation about UX, design systems or technology.