Tony Phillips
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Radford, VA, United States
Toptal member since November 13, 2017
Tony is a product design leader with 22+ years shaping design orgs across AI, SaaS, and fintech. He founded Ozmo's design function from scratch, shipping a Conversational AI assistant and Remote Video product that drove measurable revenue growth. Previously, he led native iOS and Android design at Block.one during hypergrowth. Tony publishes on human-centered AI design, mentors designers globally through ADPList, and brings both strategic vision and hands-on craft to every engagement.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Director of Product Design
Ozmo
- Founded Ozmo's product design org from scratch, growing from 0 to 5 designers with near-zero voluntary attrition across 5 years.
- Shipped a Conversational AI assistant that drove 400% more tech support answers delivered for millions of enterprise end-users.
- Launched Remote Video Support feature that drove 300% agent engagement lift and 30,000+ weekly sessions — opening a net-new revenue vertical contributing to $14.7M ARR.
- Reduced research-to-insight cycle time by 66% by introducing AI-assisted synthesis and a discovery practice that became a company-wide standard.
- Designed API offerings and embeddable components enabling enterprise clients to deploy AI-powered support experiences within their own ecosystems.
- Built and championed a coded design system across multiple product lines, reducing design-to-developer cycle time and ensuring consistency at scale.
- Published thought leadership on human-centered AI design in UX Collective, influencing industry conversation on ethical AI and conversational design.
Product Design Manager
Block.one
- Scaled a multidisciplinary design team from 2 to 7 during hypergrowth from startup to 400+ employees across three simultaneous product lines.
- Led native iOS and Android design for Voice, a blockchain-based consumer social platform, taking it from 0 to 1 and making novel technology feel approachable.
- Directed UX for Bullish, a native crypto exchange app that evolved into a publicly traded company — designing for high-stakes financial interactions at platform scale.
- Built a coded design system across three simultaneous native product lines, reducing design-to-developer cycle time and maintaining visual consistency during rapid growth.
- Introduced data-driven design practices and user validation testing company-wide, improving usability metrics and reducing friction in complex crypto onboarding flows.
- Directed research into identity verification, content moderation, and in-app economies — translating novel blockchain UX challenges into trustworthy user experiences.
- Established a weekly cross-functional teaching culture and internal recognition practices that raised organizational design standards and strengthened team cohesion.
Director of Product Design
Exadel
- Performed a full usability study for a major toll road company — conducting user interviews, building personas, and prototyping with real users to improve transaction speed and efficiency.
- Advocated for and embedded user-centered design practices across Exadel at the executive level, partnering with C-Level leadership to advance design processes company-wide.
- Designed and architected a web experience for a collection of online scientific journals, publishing scientific articles.
Senior Interactive Art Director
Motive
- Led digital projects, driving IA, UX, design, and best practices. Worked with clients such as Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Vans Natural Foods, Amp, Sierra Mist, Tyson, and more.
- Designed a promotional, responsive platform for Gatorade called Sweat With the Best. I was responsible for planning and designing everything from IA to building a fully functional prototype in Axure - which I performed Usability Testing with to iterate. I also handled the Visual Design, working directly with the clients at all times.
- Created a micro-site for Mountain Dew during a promotional engagement with the second Avengers movie. The site focused around the heroes powers and their character details allowing fans to interact with them in a digital environment, collecting powers, and winning prizes.
- Directed and managed the social media design for Vans Natural Foods. Each month we developed a social content calendar, which i designed all posts for. Several categories of branded content existed, meaning I was responsible for maintaining visual interest while continuing consistency.
- Contributed to, and lead, several other projects within the agency, including campaign ideation, brainstorming, conceptual deck construction, and print and display advertising design.
- Redesigned the agency's website, working with all facets of the agency to compile work examples and content, while plotting out architecture and design.
Senior Interactive Art Director
Proof Advertising
- Served as the Lead Digital Designer on the creative team. I contributed and lead all digital projects and worked with clients such as 3M, Huwaei, San Antonio Tourism, Baylor University, and more.
- Designed and architected a new responsive website for Visit San Antonio. The website was poised to do more than the typical tourism site, delving into giving relative context to users as they explored attractions and things to do in San Antonio.
- Created a primarily digital campaign for 3M, exploring the technologies offered in their telecom division. Collaborated with contractors to sketch and direct 3D modeling, and video and audio production of several commercial video segments that would live on 3M's website.
- Continually participated in pitches, designing concept work that drove presentations and won work.
Creative Director
Heyo
- A startup company, Lujure needed to rebrand itself to better match it's product, a Facebook page builder. I led the small company through a rebranding exercise, resulting in a new logo and identity - Heyo.
- During my short time here, I also began building out the Creative Team by interviewing and hiring candidates.
Interactive Art Director
Modea
- Served in a variety of roles from managing a team of production designers to an Interactive Art Director. While here, I worked with clients such as Verizon, Chiquita, Levelor, Graco, Advance Auto, and more.
- Designed a promotional micro site for Chiquita, focused around their Healthy Snacks products - packaged, sliced apples and other fruits. This website needed to look and feel fresh, and attractive - winning over potential new customers as they're introduced to this new product line.
- Architected and designed an interactive campaign, bringing awareness to Chiquita's offering of avocados. The concept was mainly a game, where each participant could move the avocado 'Football Player' down the field to score coupons and other potential prizes through sharing and other game mechanics.
- Concepted and designed the winning pitch idea and presentation to bring Chiquita through the door. We knew we needed to focus on moms and their kids' lunches, so I centered the pitch around a character brought to life in the form of a Brown (lunch) Bag named Baggy Marón.
- Iterated and improved a how-to experience for Verizon wireless users. This interactive tool, primarily built in Flash, offered simulations on how to navigate and operate features within any potential phone.
Adjunct Faculty
Virginia Tech
- Taught a Senior-level course at Virginia Tech on Web Design. Led the class through a typical UX workflow of an interactive project, educating them on the proper steps of IA, UX, usability, and design.
Education
Master of Art Degree in Interactive Design
Savannah College of Art and Design - Savannah, GA
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design
Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, Virginia
Certifications
Claude Cowork for Design Leaders
CDO
Designing for AI: New Techniques
Rosenfeld
Strategic UX and Design in an AI World
Maven | Jared Spool
How to Elevate the User Experience of AI with Design Patterns
Interaction Design Foundation
Conversation Design: Practical Tips for AI Design
Interaction Design Foundation
Human-Centered Design for AI
Interaction Design Foundation
Skills
Tools
Adobe, InVision, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Brackets, Acrobat Pro CC, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, Axure RP Pro, Mailchimp, Figma Make, Figma Slides, MURAL, Atlassian Suite, FigJam, Adobe Dreamweaver, Balsamiq, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Claude, Slack, Skype, Apple Keynote, Zeplin
Languages
HTML, CSS, HTML5, JavaScript
Platforms
MacOS, Figma, Adobe Suite, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Productboard, Axure, Microsoft, EOS
Other
UI Design, Prototyping, Promotional Websites, Conceptual Design, UI Branding, Brand Guidelines, Mobile Design, Creative Design, Information Architecture (IA), UX Prototyping, UX Process, Concept Testing, Modular Design, Responsive, Gestalt Laws, Front-end, Pitch Decks, Brand Building, Software Branding, Ideation, Ideation Workshops, Rapid Prototyping, IA Strategy, Icon Design, User Requirements, Business Requirements, Human-centered Design (HCD), Creative Direction, Digital Creative Direction, UX Direction, Art Direction, Apps, UX Analysis, Presentation Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Requirements, User Stories, Startup Consulting, Startups, Visual Identity, Presentations, Pitch Presentations, Sales Presentations, Research & Investigation, App UX, Enterprise Systems, Website Redesign, Websites, Banner Ads, UI Motion, User Experience (UX), FTP, UX Flows, User Needs, User Flows, Usability, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Responsive UX Design, HTML Email, CSS3 Animation, Lean UX, Wireframing, UX Research, Design Sprints, User Personas, User Research, Qualitative Research, Quantitative User Research, User-centered Design (UCD), Brainstorming, Usability Testing, Agile UX, Task Flows, Product Branding, Product Packaging, Package Design, Branding, Identity, Identity Design, Visual Design, UX Design, Advertising Design, Ad Design, Email Design, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Gemini, Notebook LM, Interactive UX, Product Design, Digital Product Design, Strategic Design Thinking, Design Thinking, Graphic Design, Strategy, AI Product Strategy, AI Design, UX Strategy, Design Leadership, AI-powered Product Design, Conversational AI, Conversational UX, Conversational Design, Conversational UI Design, Conversational UI, Leadership, Product Management, Product Discovery, Product Strategy, Product Leadership, Business Research, Print Design, Illustration, HTML5 Banners, Blockchain, Agentic AI, AI Agents, Internationalization, Promotional Material Design, Video Direction, Typography, Interactive Design, Critical Design, Conferencing UX, Streaming UX, Product Design Direction
Experience
- User Experience (UX) - 20 years
- Visual Design - 20 years
- Creative Direction - 20 years
- Adobe Photoshop - 20 years
- Usability - 15 years
- Branding - 15 years
- Axure RP Pro - 10 years
- InVision - 7 years
Tools
- InVision
- Adobe Photoshop
- Axure RP Pro
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