Interviews met Daniel Klatsidis

Design has always been the way I make sense of the world. I was drawn early to visual communication, technology and the question of why some things feel intuitive while others create friction. I studied Media Design and Media Economy, and have worked in design, digital products and creative business for more than 20 years.

My career began in branding, communication and digital design, but over time I became increasingly focused on product design: creating digital experiences that are not only visually strong, but genuinely useful. I did not initially plan to become “a designer” in the traditional sense. I simply had a strong need to improve things, communicate ideas clearly and turn complexity into something people can understand and enjoy using.

My work sits at the intersection of product strategy, UX/UI design, branding and emerging technology. I have built and led creative teams, run an agency with up to 25 people, and worked with international brands including Google, BMW, Lufthansa and DHL.

Today, I work more selectively on digital products, AI-driven experiences, mobile applications and design systems. I enjoy being involved from the earliest strategic idea through to a finished, scalable product. My focus is not simply on making interfaces beautiful; it is on creating products that have a clear purpose, a strong identity and a real chance of succeeding in the market.

Design is the intentional shaping of experiences. It is how we turn an idea, a problem or a complex system into something people can understand, use and value.

Good design is never decoration alone. It combines empathy, function, business thinking, technology and aesthetics. At its best, it makes difficult things feel simple and gives people confidence.

I enjoy designing products with real complexity behind them: platforms, mobile apps, AI-powered tools and services that need to work for many different people and situations.

The most rewarding projects are those where design can create a measurable difference, whether that means making a difficult process easier, helping a company communicate its value more clearly, or giving users a product they genuinely enjoy returning to.

My favourite designs are usually not single screens or objects. They are complete systems where brand, interaction, technology and user needs all work together naturally.

One project I am particularly proud of is Hypesociety, a platform created to make influencer marketing more intelligent, transparent and accessible. We built it around AI-supported matching between brands and creators, but the real challenge was making a complex process feel simple and human. It required a strong product vision, a coherent design language and a deep understanding of both sides of the marketplace.

One of my earliest professional projects was in branding and communication design. It taught me an important lesson very early: design is not only about making something look good. It has to communicate clearly, solve a business need and work in the real world.

That principle has stayed with me throughout my career.

My favourite platform is digital product design, especially mobile. A smartphone is one of the most personal objects people own, and designing for it requires precision, empathy and restraint.

I am also very interested in AI as a creative and practical technology. Used well, AI can remove repetitive work, unlock new forms of personalisation and help small teams create products that would previously have required much larger resources.

I feel most creative when I understand the real problem clearly, but the solution is still open. That is the moment where research, intuition and experimentation can come together.

I also find that creativity often appears after I have spent enough time away from the screen: walking, travelling, observing people or simply allowing ideas to connect without forcing them.

I focus first on clarity. Can a user understand what this is, what they can do and why it matters?

After that, I focus on flow, hierarchy, emotional tone and consistency. Every detail matters, but the overall experience matters more. A beautiful screen that confuses people is not good design.

Designing is a mix of curiosity, excitement, doubt and determination. The best part is the moment when an unclear idea suddenly becomes visible and starts to make sense.

There is also a certain tension in good design work, because you are constantly balancing user needs, business goals, technical limitations and your own standards.

It is deeply satisfying to see something move from an idea into people’s hands. A design only becomes real when it is used.

The strongest feeling is not pride in the visual outcome alone, but seeing that people understand it, enjoy it and benefit from it. That is when the work has done its job.

A successful design creates value. It solves a real problem, is easy to understand, feels trustworthy and supports the goals of the people or business behind it.

Visual quality is important, but beauty without usefulness does not last. The best designs are both memorable and practical.

I first look at whether it is clear and purposeful. Does it solve the problem it claims to solve? Can people use it without unnecessary explanation?

Then I look at the details: hierarchy, usability, accessibility, consistency, emotional impact and execution quality. Great design is rarely the result of one impressive feature; it is the result of many good decisions working together.

Designers influence behaviour. That creates responsibility.

We should avoid creating unnecessary complexity, addiction, waste or exclusion. We should design for accessibility, respect people’s time and attention, and consider the environmental cost of the products and systems we create.

In digital design, this also means being careful with data, privacy and the ethical use of AI. Just because something can be designed does not always mean it should be.

Design is becoming more strategic, more interdisciplinary and more connected to technology. Designers increasingly need to understand business, product, psychology, data and AI, not only visual aesthetics.

AI will change how we work, especially by accelerating research, ideation and production. But human judgement will become even more valuable. The future of design will belong to people who can combine technology with empathy, taste, critical thinking and a strong sense of responsibility.

I am interested in future exhibitions that bring together design, art and technology, especially in international creative hubs such as Dubai, where there is strong energy around innovation, architecture and cultural exchange. I would like the next exhibition to be connected to a meaningful project rather than simply presenting work in isolation.

My inspiration comes from everyday friction, human behaviour, architecture, fashion, art, travel and technology. I pay attention to the moments where people hesitate, get confused or feel delighted. Those moments often reveal the most important design opportunities.

I feed my creativity by staying curious. I look beyond the design industry and follow developments in culture, business, AI, mobility, hospitality and entertainment. Inspiration often comes from connecting ideas across very different fields.

My style is clean, intentional and emotionally considered. I like strong visual hierarchy, confident typography, reduced interfaces and details that create a premium but human feeling.

My approach is always purpose before decoration. I begin with the user, the context and the business goal, then build a visual language that supports those foundations. I believe simplicity is not about removing everything; it is about removing what does not matter.

I live in Dubai and have German and Greek roots. This combination has influenced the way I think about design.

Germany has given me a strong appreciation for clarity, functionality, structure and quality. Greece has influenced my emotional connection to culture, storytelling, beauty and human interaction. Dubai adds another layer: speed, ambition, international perspectives and a constant openness to the future.

The advantage is that I work in a highly diverse environment. The challenge is that global audiences require more sensitivity: what feels intuitive or premium in one culture may not feel the same in another.

I work best as a strategic partner, not simply as an external supplier. I like to understand the business model, target users, competitive landscape, technical realities and long-term ambition before jumping into visual design.

From there, I help companies define priorities, create a product vision, build prototypes, develop design systems and support delivery with their internal teams or external developers.

Companies should involve designers early, not only when they need a screen or presentation to look better. The earlier design is involved, the more value it can create.

When choosing a designer, companies should look beyond portfolios. They should ask: Does this person understand our users? Can they ask the right questions? Can they explain their decisions clearly? Do they understand business and technology? A strong designer should improve the thinking behind the product, not only the appearance of it.

My process usually begins with understanding: the business, the users, the problem, the market and the constraints.

Then I define the product or design strategy, map user journeys, prioritise the most important flows and create early concepts or prototypes. Once the direction is validated, I develop the visual system, interaction patterns and detailed screens or assets.

Throughout the process, I test assumptions, collect feedback and refine. I do not see design as a straight line. It is a process of learning, making decisions and improving continuously.

1. My large-screen television, because it turns a living space into a place for cinema, gaming and shared experiences.

2. My MacBook Pro, because it is the main tool through which ideas become products.

3. Carefully selected lighting, because light can completely change the emotional quality of a space.

4. Artworks and prints, because they create personality and remind us that not everything has to be purely functional.

5. A well-designed sofa or chair, because comfort is one of the most underestimated forms of design quality.

My days are a mixture of strategy, design, communication and problem-solving. I usually begin by reviewing priorities and making sure the team is focused on the right problems.

The day may include product workshops, reviewing designs, speaking with developers, refining user journeys, discussing business decisions or exploring new AI tools. I try to leave room for deep work as well, because good design needs uninterrupted thinking time.

Outside work, I recharge through travel, my dog, art, music, time with people close to me and simply observing the world around me.

Learn to solve problems, not only to use software.

Build taste, but also learn how products work, how businesses make decisions and how people behave. Be curious, ask questions and do not fall in love with your first idea.

Most importantly, protect your standards. Trends will change, tools will change and AI will change the speed of the work. But empathy, judgement, communication and craft will always matter.

The biggest positive is that design gives you the opportunity to improve people’s everyday lives. You can turn uncertainty into clarity and create things that people genuinely enjoy using.

The challenge is that design is often misunderstood as a matter of personal taste. Designers need to defend good decisions with evidence, empathy and clear reasoning. It can also be demanding because there is always another version, another improvement and another detail to consider.

Make it clear before you make it clever.

A design should never force users to admire the designer’s intelligence. It should help people achieve what they came to do with confidence and ease.

Empathy, curiosity, communication and critical thinking are essential.

Technical skills are important, but they can be learned and will evolve. The deeper skills are understanding people, framing problems, making decisions, collaborating with others and knowing when to simplify.

My toolbox changes depending on the project, but it usually includes Figma for interface and product design, prototyping tools, AI tools for exploration and production, presentation tools, analytics platforms and collaborative tools for workshops and documentation.

Hardware matters as well. I work primarily on a MacBook Pro and use mobile devices constantly for testing real product experiences.

Beyond software, the most important tools are observation, conversation, research, sketching, reference collections and the ability to turn feedback into better decisions.

I manage time through priorities, not by trying to do everything at once. I identify what will create the biggest impact, define clear decisions early and avoid spending too much time polishing work before the direction is validated.

I also separate strategic thinking from execution. Some decisions require deep focus; others should be made quickly. Good time management in design means knowing the difference.

It depends entirely on the scope. A focused feature or interface flow may take days or weeks. A complete digital product can take several months, especially when research, testing, development and iteration are included.

The important point is that design does not end when a screen is handed over. The best products continue to evolve after launch through real user feedback.

A common question is: “Can you make it look more premium?”

My answer is usually that premium is not one visual style. It comes from clarity, quality, consistency, confidence and attention to detail. A product feels premium when every part of the experience feels intentional.

Building and leading my own creative agency was one of the most important experiences of my career. It taught me how to balance creative ambition with commercial responsibility, team leadership, client relationships and delivery pressure.

It also showed me that great work is rarely created alone. The strongest outcomes come from bringing together different perspectives around a shared goal.

Over the years, I have worked with and contributed to projects for international brands including Google, BMW, Lufthansa and DHL, as well as startups, technology companies and digital platforms.

I value working with clients who are open to challenging assumptions and building something meaningful rather than simply following what already exists.

I enjoy product design most, especially when it combines strategy, UX, brand and technology. It is rewarding because the work does not stop at a visual outcome. You can shape how a business works, how users feel and how a product grows over time.

My focus is on building and supporting products that use AI in practical, human-centred ways. I am especially interested in tools that help businesses work more efficiently while still creating better experiences for their customers.

I also want to continue working across product design, technology and creative direction, while developing projects that can create long-term value rather than only short-term campaigns.

Both. I am very hands-on and enjoy developing core concepts, product direction and key design work myself.

At the same time, I strongly believe in collaboration. The best outcomes happen when designers, developers, product owners, strategists and clients work together with trust and clarity. Design improves when different expertise is involved early.

I am currently exploring several AI-driven product concepts, particularly tools that help businesses transform complex or time-consuming workflows into simple, high-quality digital experiences.

What interests me most is not using AI for novelty alone, but using it where it can genuinely save time, improve decisions and make services more accessible.

People can contact me through my website www.weareepic.studio, Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-klatsidis).

One important lesson I would share with other designers is to leave ego outside the room. Design is not about proving that you are the most creative person in the meeting or making every project look like your personal portfolio.

Our role is to understand the real goal of the client, the needs of the users and the limitations of the business, then create the strongest possible solution within that context.

A designer should have strong opinions and high standards, but also the maturity to listen, adapt and let go of ideas when they do not serve the project. The best design is not always the one that gets the most attention. It is the one that helps the client succeed and makes life easier for the people using it.

The main design philosophy behind Hypesociety was to make a technically complex marketing process feel like a simple, guided decision. Influencer marketing usually involves many disconnected steps: briefing, creator research, audience checks, negotiations, approvals, pricing, and campaign setup. Our goal was to compress this into a flow that feels calm and understandable, without making the user feel that they are operating a complicated AI system.We intentionally avoided showing too much technical depth at once. The interface focuses on the few decisions that matter most to the brand: campaign goal, content direction, budget, and launch confirmation. The more complex logic, such as creator matching, audience analysis, pricing support, and automation, works in the background. The user sees the result as clear recommendations and structured choices rather than raw data.From a design perspective, we treated simplicity not as the removal of intelligence, but as the organization of intelligence. Every screen had to answer one question: “What does the user need to decide now?” If something did not help that decision, it was reduced, postponed, or hidden behind progressive disclosure. This allowed the product to feel minimal while still being powered by a deep matching and automation layer.

The research with brands and creators strongly influenced the interaction design because it showed us that both sides were frustrated by the same thing: unnecessary friction. Brands often felt that influencer marketing was too slow, too unclear, and too difficult to predict. Creators, on the other hand, were tired of unclear briefs, long waiting times, and campaign requests that did not match their audience or content style.The most important insight was that both sides wanted more structure, not more communication. At first, we assumed that better collaboration tools or more detailed messaging would solve the problem. But the interviews showed that the real need was a system that reduces the amount of negotiation before a campaign can even start. This changed the product direction significantly.Instead of building another platform where users manually search, contact, and manage creators, we focused on a repost campaign format with a much more direct workflow. The brand can launch faster, and the creator can receive opportunities that are already more relevant. That insight shaped the entire product: less back-and-forth, fewer open questions, clearer decisions, and a much stronger emphasis on automation as a way to remove operational noise.

Trust in AI recommendations was one of the most important design challenges. We did not want users to feel that the system was making mysterious decisions on their behalf. At the same time, we also did not want to overwhelm them with technical explanations, raw scoring models, or algorithmic details that would slow down the workflow.The solution was to communicate the reasoning behind creator suggestions in a practical and human-readable way. Instead of saying only “this creator is a good match,” the interface gives users signals that explain why: audience fit, content relevance, engagement quality, location, demographic alignment, and campaign suitability. The user does not need to understand the full AI model, but they should understand the logic behind the recommendation.We designed the matching layer as decision support, not as a black box. The AI helps reduce complexity and surface stronger options, but the interface keeps the user in control. This balance was important: the product should feel intelligent, but not intimidating. Confidence comes from showing enough reasoning to build trust, while keeping the experience focused on action.

Winning the Iron A’ Design Award in the Digital Product category is meaningful because it recognizes not only the visual design of the product, but also the strategic and functional design decisions behind it. Hypesociety App was designed to solve a real problem in marketing technology: influencer campaigns are often fragmented, slow, and difficult to manage, especially for brands that do not have large internal marketing teams.What distinguished the product was the combination of AI-driven matching, a simplified campaign launch process, and a mobile-first interface that makes a complex workflow feel accessible. The platform was not designed to impress users with complexity. It was designed to remove complexity from their daily work.For brands, this recognition creates credibility because it shows that the product has been evaluated from a design and usability perspective, not only as a marketing tool. In a crowded technology market, independent design validation helps communicate that Hypesociety is not just another influencer platform. It is a carefully designed product experience that focuses on efficiency, clarity, and practical business value.

The biggest pivot was moving from a broader influencer marketing platform idea toward a much more focused repost marketing product. In the beginning, the vision was larger and more open-ended, with many possible campaign formats and interaction models. Over time, through testing, feedback, and technical learning, it became clear that the strongest value was not in offering many features, but in solving one specific problem extremely well.The repost format became the core because it allowed us to reduce friction for both brands and creators. It made the campaign process faster, easier to understand, and easier to automate. That focus helped us remove unnecessary complexity from the product and concentrate the design around speed, trust, and clear decision-making.The long development journey also taught us that simplicity takes time. Early versions can easily become overloaded because every stakeholder wants to add more options. The final product became stronger because we were willing to remove features, redesign flows, and question assumptions. The result was a more focused platform that reflects what users actually need, rather than what a technology product could theoretically include.

Choosing a cross-platform development framework had a strong influence on the design process. It forced us to think very carefully about consistency, performance, and scalability across different devices and operating systems. For a product like Hypesociety Repost Marketing App, the experience needed to feel smooth and native, even though it was built with a shared technical foundation.This decision influenced the visual language because we had to design components that could work reliably across platforms without losing quality. We focused on clean layouts, reusable interface patterns, simple navigation, and strong visual hierarchy. The goal was not to create something visually complicated, but something that feels stable, fast, and familiar to users.The most demanding moments came when the design ambition met technical limitations. Small interaction details, loading states, transitions, and data-heavy screens can quickly become challenging in a cross-platform environment. In those moments, we had to decide what truly improved the user experience and what was only visual decoration. That discipline made the product better, because it forced us to prioritize clarity, performance, and usability over unnecessary complexity.

ooking ahead, I believe the repost format can become even more relevant because social platforms are becoming more fragmented and algorithm-driven. Brands need campaign models that are faster, more adaptive, and less dependent on manual creator discovery. At the same time, creators need opportunities that fit their audience and content style without requiring long negotiation processes.For Hypesociety, the key challenge will be to continuously improve the matching and automation logic as platforms, content formats, and creator behavior change. The product has to stay flexible enough to react to new social ecosystems, new performance signals, and new categories of creators. That means the design system also has to support more complexity over time without making the product feel heavier.As the platform scales, I expect the interaction design to rely even more on progressive disclosure, smart recommendations, and contextual guidance. Larger budgets and more creator categories create more variables, but users should not feel that complexity directly. The interface must continue to protect the user from operational overload while still giving them confidence, transparency, and control.

We intend to use the Iron A’ Design Award recognition as an independent credibility signal in our communication with brands, partners, and investors. In marketing technology, trust is very important because companies are not only buying software; they are trusting a platform to influence brand visibility, campaign spending, and creator relationships.The award helps open conversations because it validates that the product has been judged not only by its business idea, but also by its design quality, usability, and innovation. This is especially valuable when speaking with brands that may be cautious about adopting new AI-driven tools. It gives them a reason to look more closely and understand that the product was built with serious attention to user experience.For potential partners and investors, the recognition also supports the broader story of Hypesociety. It shows that the platform has international design relevance and that the product direction is not only technically interesting, but also professionally evaluated. In that sense, the award becomes more than a badge. It becomes a trust-building asset that strengthens positioning, sales conversations, and long-term brand perception.

The highest-stakes moment in the product is the campaign launch, especially when the user confirms the budget. At that point, speed alone is not enough. The interface has to make the user feel that they understand what they are buying, why the recommendation makes sense, and what will happen next.To balance momentum with trust, we designed the flow to build confidence step by step before the final confirmation. The user is not suddenly asked to launch a campaign without context. They have already moved through a structured process where the campaign setup, creator matching logic, and budget framing are presented in a controlled way. By the time they reach the final step, the decision should feel natural rather than rushed.At the confirmation point, the interface must be especially clear. The budget, campaign action, and next steps need to be visible and easy to understand. We wanted the launch moment to feel decisive but not aggressive. Good speed in a product like this does not mean pushing the user faster than they are comfortable with. It means removing unnecessary hesitation by giving them the right information at the right time.

The most difficult design challenge was deciding how much information to show and when to show it. AI-driven workflow products often contain many variables, and there is always a temptation to display more data in order to prove that the system is intelligent. But too much information can reduce trust instead of increasing it, especially for non-technical users.Typography, spacing, and hierarchy were used to create a calm rhythm throughout the product. Important decisions had to stand out clearly, while supporting information had to remain available without dominating the screen. We used progressive disclosure to separate primary actions from secondary explanations. This helped keep the interface approachable while still allowing users to understand the reasoning behind recommendations when they needed it.My advice to other interaction designers is to design for confidence, not for complexity. Users do not need to see every variable in an automated system. They need to understand the decision, the reason behind it, and the consequence of their action. If the interface can communicate those three things clearly, even a very complex AI product can feel transparent, trustworthy, and easy to navigate.