Artifex Stellarum · MMVIII
The fun part comes after;I BUILD
I design and build digital products — apps, portals, and the strategy behind them. From sketch to launch.
↓Idea, design, develop, test, measure. The whole line.
UX · Product Strategy · Digital Branding
Trusted with the work
Government, banking, film, climate and startups. Nine institutions and companies, three countries.
- 250+
- Citizen reports in the first week of a city app
- 3×
- Citizen turnout after relaunching the state innovation lab
- Years later
- The portals and apps I shipped are still in service
Projects
Judge for yourself
Four projects, told the way they happened: what was broken, what got built, what it changed.
Looking for the job history? It lives on LinkedIn.
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Project 01Government
El Laboratorio 3D · A website you ride through
The state's innovation lab, from zero: I created the LID brand, co-created the OGTIC mother mark that follows its pattern on purpose — facets, colors, arrow — and conceptualized a 3D world where every facet of the lab is a place. Still live.
Live today Years after launch, still online and still rideable
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Project 02Film industry
SEDECINE · One door for an entire industry
The film industry used to deal with the state one office at a time. Now there is a public site that explains, a directory where the industry finds itself, and a backoffice where every request has somewhere to land.
One door An industry that dealt with the state office by office
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Project 03Government
Reportero · A case, not a form
A citizen report with a state, a priority, an institution on the hook, and a conversation thread that stays alive until it closes with proof. I designed the whole app; the research took six months.
Closed with proof A citizen report that comes back answered, not filed
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Project 04City government
The SDE city app · A city in your pocket
Eight city services on one screen — rubbish, asphalt, lighting, drainage and the rest. In its first week of testing, 100+ residents filed 250+ reports, because people love their city when you give them somewhere to put it.
250+ reports Filed by 100+ residents in the first week of testing
Does your case look like any of these?
About me
- Base
- Santo Domingo
- Focus
- Product Design
- Center
- Results
Artifex Stellarum
Short sentences,
long story.
I'm Fran Bencosme, a product designer and strategist from Santo Domingo. Never a straight line: I started in design as a freelancer, spent years building interactive campaigns for global brands — design and code in the same seat — and today I lead products from the first question to the last shipped screen.
I work across UX, branding, product strategy and digital experiences. Not because I couldn't choose. Because the best products are built where those disciplines meet.
Still curious. Less patient with nonsense.
What I can do for you
Four ways to work together
Most engagements start as one of these four. If you are not sure which one yours is, that is exactly what the first conversation is for.
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01
A product from zero
From the first question to the shipped screen: research, service definition, UX, interface, and staying through the build.
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02
A product that is not working
Research with real users, a redesign, and a design system so it stops drifting.
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03
The brand around it
Identity, voice and visual system — so the product and the brand say the same thing.
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04
Staying until it ships
I speak the builders’ language. I stay in the thread until it works in someone’s hands.
How I work
Four things I believe
A few things I no longer argue about. These are the ones that change the work.
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01
Strategy before pixels.
I start with the business and the person using the thing, not the screen. The best design decision is often the one that removes work instead of adding it.
So the first thing I deliver is usually a shorter list.
Read: Saying no is the deliverable -
02
A brand is a promise.
Identity is not decoration. It is what people expect from you before they read a single word, and it has to mean something.
So we write down what it must mean before anyone draws.
Read: A logo is not an opinion -
03
It is not done until it ships.
I speak developer and stay through the build, so what we designed is what people actually get. Not a pretty file nobody uses.
So I stay in the thread while it is built, not after.
Read: Nothing is finished in Figma -
04
AI gives me speed, not judgment.
I use it for research, for testing, for building, and to reach more versions than I could alone. What it does not do is decide. The judgment about what is worth building stays mine.
So you get more options, and still get the reason I picked one.
Process
I understand first
No sacred methodology. Five things I refuse to skip, in order.
- 01
Ask
The uncomfortable question, before anything else.
- 02
Frame
The real problem, not the one the brief describes.
- 03
Cut
Until only what matters is left on the screen.
- 04
Test
With real users, so prototypes are wrong early and cheap.
- 05
Ship
Stay through the build, until it works in someone's hands.
Common questions
Do you work with clients outside the Dominican Republic?
Yes. I am based in Santo Domingo and my work has shipped into thirteen countries, among them the United States, Canada, England, France, Spain, Russia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Costa Rica. Much of that came through Amazon campaigns at Theorem, where a brief could arrive from anywhere and had to work in a language I did not speak. Remote collaboration is the normal case, not the exception.
Do you only design, or do you stay through the build?
I stay. At Theorem I built HTML5 rich media ad units on the Celtra platform: animating them, optimizing them, adapting one campaign across dozens of screen sizes, with some JavaScript for the custom builds. Mostly mobile, some desktop. That is where I learned to speak the builders' language and to stay available while the thing ships. A design is not delivered when the file is approved; it is delivered when someone who does not work on it uses it and gets what they came for.
What do you need from me to start?
The problem as you see it, and access to the people who live with it. Not a specification. The first thing I do is work out whether the problem you described is the problem you actually have, which is why the first step is asking rather than designing.
What kind of projects do you take?
I do not take every project. I take the ones where I can build something that matters: complex problems that need UX, product strategy, branding and digital experiences to be handled as one thing rather than four separate briefs.
How much does a project cost?
There is no list price. Every engagement is tailored to the problem rather than sold as a package, so the figure comes from the work itself. What moves it: the scope, whether you need discovery, delivery or both, and whether I stay through the build. You get a number after the first conversation and before any work starts.
How long does a project take?
It depends on the problem, and I would rather say that than quote a number I have to walk back later. A focused piece of work runs in weeks; a product taken end to end runs in months. We set the timeline together once I understand what we are actually solving, which is the first step of the process above.
Contact
Your move
Thank you for traveling this far.
If you carry a complex problem, the next sentence is yours.