Gbemi A. Olugbenle
Founder, design strategist, and researcher at the intersection of systems thinking, policy implementation through design, and design operations.
Disciplines
Entrepreneurship, Service Design, Design Strategy, Research, Creative Ops
Current Position
Founder & Creative Director,
Paintmilk Creative Technologies Ltd.
About Me
Graduate degrees in Engineering & Technology Innovation Management and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Founder of a creative studio building brand voice, messaging and visuals for mission-driven brands and organizations.
With 7 years of experience as a designer, I’ve developed a strong skill set in visual systems, product-service design and strategy, and creative operations.
I founded Paintmilk Studio, a creative practice dedicated to pushing boundaries by blending creativity with precision. I've led the studio through a structural pivot from service delivery to original creative production. This means building operational systems for creative work through which I have helped brands and organizations craft visionary products and experiences that resonate with their audiences and building products (like Lantern, an African word-guessing game) to establish IP frameworks that allow culture to travel.
My research interest extends this practice into the policy domain asking how participatory service design can close the gap between what policy intends and what citizens actually experience.
I host a podcast called Conversation & Colors (and its written form on Substack) where I unpack creativity, process, faith, and the lessons you only learn by doing the work. At my core, I’m always exploring new possibilities in design; whether it’s developing products or creating systems that connect creativity with impact.
On the off chance I’m not creating something, I’m probably sipping tea, curating yet another mood board, collecting references I swear I’ll use later (my unhinged camera roll testifies), half-writing a poem or dreaming.
7+
3
2
YEARS
PRACTICE
ACTIVE
VERTICALS
GRADUATE
DEGREES
Stack
Design
Figma, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, ReadyMag, Framer, Squarespace, Canva, Whimsical, Lovable
Research
Typeform, Tally, Qualtrics, Lyssna, Maze, Usertesting.com, Statista, Semrush
Admin/Ops
Google Suite, Notion, Trello, Jira, Asana, Kit
Writing
Medium, Substack
AI
GPT, Claude, Gemini, Lovable
Domains of Practice
Design Strategy
Translating organizational intent into designed systems, brand architecture, service blueprints, and product roadmaps.
Creative Operations
Building the infrastructure that makes creative work repeatable design workflows, hiring frameworks, IP structures, and studio models for original production.
Entrepreneurship & Ventures
Founding and scaling creative ventures, from zero-to-one product development to positioning for partnerships, licensing, and distribution.
Participatory Design
Co-designing with communities particularly in policy, health, and civic contexts to surface lived experience as a design input and outcome measure.
Systems Thinking
Mapping complex adaptive systems to identify leverage points where design intervention creates durable change.
Research & Synthesis
Qualitative and mixed-methods research oriented toward actionable frameworks and tools practitioners can use.
PHD RESEARCH DIRECTION
Research Direction
A cross-sectoral framework that integrates participatory service design, behavioral science, design operations, and AI-driven business innovation to address the widening gap between what AI-integrated services and products can theoretically do and what people actually experience when they encounter them.
Actively looking for researchers, professors and institutions that value these areas.
Contact
"Open to collaborations, research partnerships, design workshop facilitation and roles where design meets purpose."
Available for mid-level design strategy and user/behavioral research roles, workshop facilitation in design and research collaborations in participatory design, policy, and business innovation.