Sam IbarraProduct designer

About

Sam Ibarra is a product designer in Portland who designs the thing and stays until it works.

Based in
Portland, Oregon
Working with
Teams in US Pacific and Mountain time
Availability
Booking projects from February 2027
Tools
Sketchbooks, Swift, React, and whatever the team already uses
Elsewhere

I design products people use with one hand while doing something else: buying a dresser off a neighbor, catching the 7:40 to Seattle, turning down the heat from the couch.

For eleven years I have worked inside small teams at startups and agencies, usually as the first or only designer. I write the spec, draw the screens, build the prototype, and stay through launch to watch what breaks.

Before software I repaired vintage audio gear in a shop on SE Division. I still think the best interfaces are knobs: obvious, forgiving, and satisfying to turn.

Download CV CV, PDF, 2 pages

Services

  • 01

    Product design

    From a vague brief to shipped screens: flows, interface, the copy on the buttons, and the edge cases nobody listed.

  • 02

    Prototypes you can hold

    Working prototypes in code or on a device, built to answer one question in a week instead of debating it for a month.

  • 03

    Design for hardware

    Small screens, LEDs, dials, and the companion app that has to agree with them.

  • 04

    Design systems, sized right

    Tokens and components for teams of three to thirty, and the audit that tells you which ones you actually use.

Experience

  1. 2022 – nowIndependent product designerPortland, ORClients below
  2. 2019 – 2022Senior product designerFieldnote, PortlandField-service software for 4,000 HVAC crews
  3. 2016 – 2019Product designerPinecone Studio, SeattleAgency work for transit, health, and retail
  4. 2014 – 2016Designer and front-end developerRose City Radio, PortlandApps for a public radio station
  5. 2010 – 2014Audio technicianDivision Street Hi-FiRepaired amplifiers, receivers, and turntables

Selected clients

  • Stoop,
  • Long Wave Audio,
  • Ebb Labs,
  • Alder Credit Union,
  • Margin,
  • Nook Home,
  • Halyard,
  • Cascadia Rail,
  • Fieldnote,
  • Moorage,
  • Pinecone Studio,
  • Rose City Radio

Working on something? Send a note.