Mobile App
Social Platform
Community Design
French Girls— Turning a viral idea into a social drawing app loved by millions.
French Girls started as a playful experiment — upload a selfie, get drawn by strangers.
As the founding product designer, I helped shape it into a global creative platform where millions of users exchanged art, humor, and community. I designed and shipped the iOS experience, led rapid iterations, and helped evolve the product from a novelty to a social ecosystem. Over the years, the app was featured across major outlets and became a cult favorite among artists and fans alike.
- Role: Founding Product Designer
- Outcome: Scaled a viral concept into a top-ranked creative app with millions of downloads and a creator ecosystem.
- Timeline: 2012–2018
Challenge
Turn a Viral Sketch App Into a Real Creative Platform
Virality made French Girls famous, but it also broke it. There were thousands of people uploading photos for every one person drawing. Most users never got a portrait back, so they left — while artists burned out from demand.
The app also hadn’t been designed for growth. It lacked structure, hierarchy, and any way to surface great work or build relationships between creators and fans. We needed to make it feel more like a creative network and less like a lottery.
Research & Insights
Listening to What Artists Actually Need
I reached out to our top artists to understand what kept them drawing. They wanted better tools, more visibility, and ways to make their work sustainable — both creatively and financially. Meanwhile, casual users told us they loved the humor and chaos but wanted something to do even when they weren’t being drawn. Those insights pushed me to focus on building structure and community features that served both sides.
The Approach
Supporting Creators Through Tools and Structure
I redesigned the mobile experience to make browsing and drawing smoother and more fun. We introduced artist profiles, galleries, and featured feeds that showcased great work and rewarded active creators. We also experimented with monetization — commissioning, physical prints, and even a “learn to draw” curriculum that taught beginners using a grid-based method I designed. The result was a product that still felt spontaneous and funny, but had a clearer backbone and real creative purpose.
App store screenshots
Simple but mighty! Drawing tools tutorial
Commission an artist flow.
Purchase a physical print of your artwork.
The Results
A Vibrant, Short-lived Creative Movement
French Girls reached over 2.5 million downloads, was featured on Comedy Central’s @Midnight, topped Reddit twice, and was covered by dozens of blogs. It became a cultural moment — a mix of humor, art, and community that burned bright for a few years before fading out. Even after we shut down, the artists kept in touch. Many still say it was one of the most fun creative platforms they’ve been part of.
Reflection
Designing for Creativity at Scale
French Girls taught me that virality isn’t the same as value. Design can make creativity easier and more visible, but it can’t fix a business model imbalance. Still, it showed me how powerful it is to give people tools to express themselves. That has shaped how I think about every product I’ve worked on since.
Mobile App
Social Platform
Community Design
French Girls— Turning a viral idea into a social drawing app loved by millions.
French Girls started as a playful experiment — upload a selfie, get drawn by strangers.
As the founding product designer, I helped shape it into a global creative platform where millions of users exchanged art, humor, and community. I designed and shipped the iOS experience, led rapid iterations, and helped evolve the product from a novelty to a social ecosystem. Over the years, the app was featured across major outlets and became a cult favorite among artists and fans alike.
- Role: Founding Product Designer
- Outcome: Scaled a viral concept into a top-ranked creative app with millions of downloads and a creator ecosystem.
- Timeline: 2012–2018
Challenge
Turn a Viral Sketch App Into a Real Creative Platform
Virality made French Girls famous, but it also broke it. There were thousands of people uploading photos for every one person drawing. Most users never got a portrait back, so they left — while artists burned out from demand.
The app also hadn’t been designed for growth. It lacked structure, hierarchy, and any way to surface great work or build relationships between creators and fans. We needed to make it feel more like a creative network and less like a lottery.
Research & Insights
Listening to What Artists Actually Need
I reached out to our top artists to understand what kept them drawing. They wanted better tools, more visibility, and ways to make their work sustainable — both creatively and financially. Meanwhile, casual users told us they loved the humor and chaos but wanted something to do even when they weren’t being drawn. Those insights pushed me to focus on building structure and community features that served both sides.
The Approach
Supporting Creators Through Tools and Structure
I redesigned the mobile experience to make browsing and drawing smoother and more fun. We introduced artist profiles, galleries, and featured feeds that showcased great work and rewarded active creators. We also experimented with monetization — commissioning, physical prints, and even a “learn to draw” curriculum that taught beginners using a grid-based method I designed. The result was a product that still felt spontaneous and funny, but had a clearer backbone and real creative purpose.
App store screenshots
Simple but mighty! Drawing tools tutorial
Commission an artist flow.
Purchase a physical print of your artwork.
The Results
A Vibrant, Short-lived Creative Movement
French Girls reached over 2.5 million downloads, was featured on Comedy Central’s @Midnight, topped Reddit twice, and was covered by dozens of blogs. It became a cultural moment — a mix of humor, art, and community that burned bright for a few years before fading out. Even after we shut down, the artists kept in touch. Many still say it was one of the most fun creative platforms they’ve been part of.
Reflection
Designing for Creativity at Scale
French Girls taught me that virality isn’t the same as value. Design can make creativity easier and more visible, but it can’t fix a business model imbalance. Still, it showed me how powerful it is to give people tools to express themselves. That hs shaped how I think about every product I’ve worked on since.
Reflection
Designing for Creativity at Scale
French Girls taught me that virality isn’t the same as value. Design can make creativity easier and more visible, but it can’t fix a business model imbalance. Still, it showed me how powerful it is to give people tools to express themselves. That has shaped how I think about every product I’ve worked on since.
Mobile App
Social Platform
Community Design
French Girls— Turning a viral idea into a social drawing app loved by millions.
French Girls started as a playful experiment — upload a selfie, get drawn by strangers.
As the founding product designer, I helped shape it into a global creative platform where millions of users exchanged art, humor, and community. I designed and shipped the iOS experience, led rapid iterations, and helped evolve the product from a novelty to a social ecosystem. Over the years, the app was featured across major outlets and became a cult favorite among artists and fans alike.
- Role: Founding Product Designer
- Outcome: Scaled a viral concept into a top-ranked creative app with millions of downloads and a creator ecosystem.
- Timeline: 2012–2018
Challenge
Turn a Viral Sketch App Into a Real Creative Platform
Going viral made French Girls famous, but it also broke it. There were thousands of people uploading photos for every one person drawing. Most users never got a portrait back, so they left — while artists burned out from demand.
The app also hadn’t been designed for growth. It lacked structure, hierarchy, and any way to surface great work or build relationships between creators and fans. We needed to make it feel more like a creative network and less like a lottery.
Research & Insights
Listening to What Artists Actually Need
I reached out to our top artists to understand what kept them drawing. They wanted better tools, more visibility, and ways to make their work sustainable — both creatively and financially. Meanwhile, casual users told us they loved the humor and chaos but wanted something to do even when they weren’t being drawn. Those insights pushed me to focus on building structure and community features that served both sides.
The Approach
Supporting Creators Through Tools and Structure
I redesigned the mobile experience to make browsing and drawing smoother and more fun. We introduced artist profiles, galleries, and featured feeds that showcased great work and rewarded active creators. We also experimented with monetization — commissioning, physical prints, and even a “learn to draw” curriculum that taught beginners using a grid-based method I designed. The result was a product that still felt spontaneous and funny, but had a clearer backbone and real creative purpose.
App store screenshots
Simple but mighty! Drawing tools tutorial
Commission an artist flow.
Purchase a physical print of your artwork.
The Results
A Vibrant, Short-lived Creative Movement
French Girls reached over 2.5 million downloads, was featured on Comedy Central’s @Midnight, topped Reddit twice, and was covered by dozens of blogs. It became a cultural moment — a mix of humor, art, and community that burned bright for a few years before fading out. Even after we shut down, the artists kept in touch. Many still say it was one of the most fun creative platforms they’ve been part of.
Reflection
Designing for Creativity at Scale
French Girls taught me that virality isn’t the same as value. Design can make creativity easier and more visible, but it can’t fix a business model imbalance. Still, it showed me how powerful it is to give people tools to express themselves. That has shaped how I think about every product I’ve worked on since.
Fun and Games
Design as Art
French Girls ws not the typical startup. I had a crazy amount of freedom to communicate and experiment in new ways.
