Raft Design

Raft Design is an AI-native product studio partnering with companies in the U.S. and Japan on AI product design, brand strategy, product design, and design through build.

We help companies at critical moments: launching an AI product, scaling a platform, creating coherence across a brand system, entering a new market, or resolving competing product and business needs. Our work spans AI product design, agentic interfaces, conversational UI, UX, design systems, brand identity, product strategy, web and mobile experiences, and rapid prototyping through working code.

Raft combines strategic direction with deeply hands-on design and build. We work alongside product and engineering teams to shape the vision, design the system, prototype the experience, and move toward a shipped product without a traditional handoff.

Founded by Lance Shields, Mujun draws on more than twenty years of brand, product, and platform work, including design leadership at Adobe and Walmart and work with LegalOn, Visa, Hitachi, Red Bull, and other global companies.

Awards:

• Webby Award: AI-first All-in-One App Content Creation App

• Webby Award: Best Nonprofit Website for Thatsnotcool.com
• Webby Award: "I Am a Witness"​ Campaign in Advertising & Media Activism Category
• W3 Award for Red Bull Branded Game

• Silver Award for B2B Branding for Yokogawa Electric - Japan Marketing Association

• Good Design Award: Hitachi.com global website design

FAQ:

What does "AI-native studio" mean?
It means AI is part of how the work gets made, not just what it's about. Strategy forms in conversation with language models, design and prototype move together, and working software gets built without the usual handoff between design and engineering.

How do engagements work?
Three ways, depending on what a team needs. We take on projects like a traditional studio, from brand and product design to shipped experiences. We embed as fractional design leadership when a team is scaling and needs senior direction.