I’m Zane, a creative director and design leader. I’ve spent my career designing and building brands, products, applications, and the teams behind them, for clients from Fortune 500s to startups in almost every industry. I set the direction, build the team, and stay close to the work from first strategy to final detail. I start with the person who’ll actually use the thing, and I love taking big, dense problems and making them clear and usable.
I trained at the Rhode Island School of Design in industrial and graphic design, and cross-registered in computer science and AI at Brown. That mix, making real things while understanding the systems underneath them, still shapes how I work, and it’s why I often build what I design. On my own time I’ve created experimental AI and civic platforms, end to end, that serve the public, and explored my interests in aviation and space by building a free, downloadable widget that makes complex orbital data readable for anyone.
Aside from my wife, I’ve had three big loves in my life. Aviation, photography, and design. Design, I’m lucky enough to get to do every day. The other two keep me inspired. I started flying at fourteen, soloed on my sixteenth birthday, and earned my license at seventeen. I’m not in the cockpit as much these days, but I’m still out shooting just about every day. My photography, from ad campaigns to personal work, has run in The Atlantic, Wired, Leica Fotografie International, The New York Times, and Condé Nast, and it’s how I stay grounded and curious about the world outside the studio. Follow me on Instagram if you like!
How engagements with us typically look.
01
Discovery & Alignment
A 90-minute strategy session maps business goals, current gaps, and the highest-leverage areas for the first 90 days. Enterprise engagements add an executive intake session. You receive a written brief within 48 hours.
02
Workstream Activation
We work inside the tools your team already uses and provide regular status reports. You get full visibility into what’s in motion, in review, and shipped, with every deliverable arriving alongside the reasoning behind it.
03
Ongoing Cadence
Weekly syncs keep alignment sharp. Work flows through Slack or preferred method between calls. Enterprise clients receive a dedicated channel, named team lead, and extended-hours coverage. Priority response is available.
04
reviews & roadmapping
Every 90 days, a formal review of what shipped, what moved the needle, and what the next quarter should prioritize. Enterprise clients receive a full design and brand health audit, presented to leadership.
What we do.
Brand strategy & positioning
Messaging architecture, competitive differentiation, and the narrative that makes everything downstream land harder.
Visual identity & design systems
Logos, design languages, component libraries, and template systems built to scale across teams and time.
Sales enablement
Pitch decks, proposals, one-pagers, and case studies engineered to move deals from first conversation to closed.
Content & campaigns
Long-form editorial, email sequences, social content, and full campaign assets, written and designed together.
Application & product design
End-to-end UX/UI concepting for internal tools and customer-facing products, from first principles to handoff.
C-suite & board communications
Board narratives, investor decks, and vision artifacts designed to move rooms and unlock executive decisions.
Future vision & foresight design
Long-horizon thinking made tangible, with 3–10 year trajectories and visual frameworks that make the future legible.
Experimental & speculative design
Design fiction, concept prototypes, and rapid explorations that stress-test ideas before they become commitments.
High-level design direction
Senior oversight across your org: auditing vendors, directing in-house teams, and resolving design debt at scale.
On-site sprint engagements
We deploy in person for off-sites, pivots, launches, and board weeks. Intensive, focused output, in the room.
Common questions
What is Zane Michael Cooper?
Zane Michael Cooper is an independent branding and design studio based in San Francisco. The studio helps startups through enterprise companies turn strategy into brand identity, campaigns, and product design under a single guiding idea: Design With Purpose.
Where is Zane Michael Cooper located?
The studio is based in San Francisco, California, and works with clients across the United States and internationally, both remotely and through on-site sprint engagements.
Who founded Zane Michael Cooper?
The studio was founded in 2017 by Zane Cooper and Neil Levy.
What services does Zane Michael Cooper offer?
Services include brand strategy and positioning, visual identity and design systems, content and campaigns, application and product design, sales enablement, C-suite and board communications, future vision and foresight design, and high-level design direction. Engagements can run remotely or as on-site sprints.
What does Design With Purpose mean?
Design With Purpose is the studio's standard for the work. It is the test used to separate decoration from impact, making sure every brand, campaign, and product decision drives a meaningful business outcome rather than just looking good.
How do engagements with the studio typically work?
Engagements move through four stages. Discovery and alignment maps goals and the highest-leverage opportunities. Workstream activation runs the work inside the tools a client already uses, with full visibility. An ongoing cadence keeps alignment sharp between calls. Regular reviews and roadmapping set priorities for the next quarter.
What kind of clients does the studio work with?
The studio works with a deliberately limited number of clients at a time, from early-stage startups to enterprise teams, so each engagement gets focused time and attention. This focus is what allows the work to be both memorable and effective.
How can I work with Zane Michael Cooper?
You can reach out through the contact page at zanecooper.com/contact to start a conversation about a project.
Capabilities
What I bring to the work
Disciplines
- Design Leadership
- Design Systems
- Product Design
- UX Design
- Human-Centered Design
- Visual Identity
- Creative Direction
- Art Direction
- Brand Identity
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Management
- Motion Direction
- Editorial Design
- AI Product Design
- Generative AI
- Campaign Development
- Advertising
- Photography
Tools