Character

Character is a design and technology studio founded in 2024 by Isabel Sá and Ana Moreno. We work with founders and small teams building complex software products, typically as one of the first or only designer embedded in the team.

We are not a traditional agency. We do not run separate agency processes, send over deliverables, or hand things off at the end of a sprint. We set up a shared Slack, join a few of your rituals, share early and often, and keep meetings to a minimum. The work happens inside your team, not alongside it.

Isabel previously led Product Design at Pipe, was Founding Designer at Decipad, and has won a European Design Award (Gold) and a Red Dot Award. Ana previously co-founded POLYGON, which was acquired by Pipe, then worked as Senior Product Designer at Pipe, and did contract work for Segment, Retool, SteelSeries, Patch, and ClearMotion. Both worked at Significa Design Studio before starting Character. Both are ongoing advisors to Owner and Clove.

What we do:

Product Design. We design web apps, SaaS products, and internal tools from early concept through production-ready specs. We build and maintain design systems and hand off directly to engineers.

Product Websites. Marketing sites for software products. Most clients bring us in before or after a fundraising round.

Creative Direction and Visual Design. Brand identity, visual language, and the systems that hold it together as the company grows.

Ideation and Prototyping. Early-stage product thinking with founders who are still working out what they are building.

Who we work with:Founders who want design embedded in the team, not delivered as a deliverable. We work best at seed through Series B, and on projects that require close founder collaboration. We do not take on large-scale execution work or projects where the founder is not involved.

We are based in Porto, Portugal and work globally. Most of our active clients are US-based.