About

Kirsten Townsend is a Los Angeles–based Creative working across brand, product, visual design and marketing. She’s currently on contract at Apple on the Apple Services Team.

She partners with teams to create distinctive visual systems, brand experiences, and design frameworks that bring clarity, consistency, and meaning to complex products and ideas. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy and craft, helping brands express themselves across product, marketing, culture, and emerging technology.

Over the course of her career, Kirsten has collaborated with organizations including Apple, Meta, Adobe, VSCO, MasterClass, and Google, leading projects that range from global brand identities and product launches to scalable design systems and creative direction. She is driven by a belief that strong design should feel both purposeful and human.

Originally from South Africa and now based in Los Angeles, Kirsten brings a global perspective shaped by experience across agencies, startups, editorial publishing, and in-house creative teams. She is particularly interested in the evolving role of design in technology and the ways visual systems can create connection, understanding, and impact at scale.

Outside of client work, Kirsten mentors emerging creatives, reviews portfolios, and explores the evolving relationship between design, technology, and culture. When she’s not judging New York Festivals or perfecting her commercial design work you’ll find her exhibiting the art pieces and bespoke rugs she designs across Europe.

All work is copyright of Studio Kirsten LLC and respective clients.

Awards and notables

2025 Adobe, Portfolio Review Panel 2024 Adobe, Portfolio Review Panel 2020 Grand Jury, New York Festivals Advertising Awards 2018 Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2017 Exhibition, Vienna Design Week, Austria | Exhibition Le BHV Marais, Paris 2016 Bronze Loerie Award | Craft Loerie Award | 1 of 100 Beautiful Things, South Africa 2014 Grand Prix Loerie Award | Bronze Loerie Award | Bronze Loerie Award | 8th Best Designer in South Africa 2013 Silver Loerie Award 2012 Clio Award Shortlist | One Show Design Shortlist | Bronze Loerie Award | Bronze Loerie Award 2011 Gold Loerie Award 2010 Loerie Shortlist 2009 Student Loerie Shortlist | Student Loerie Shortlist

Clients and brands

Apple, Meta, VSCO, Adobe, Google, ELLE Magazine, WPP, TBWA\, BBDO, Wunderman, Grid Worldwide, Microsoft, Design Indaba, Woolworths, Rand Merchant Bank, First National Bank, Central Bank of Africa, Alexander Forbes, Liberty Life, Metropolitan Life, Telkom, MTN, Mercedes Benz, Sasol, Anglo American, Mastercard, Arts & Culture Trust of South Africa + more.