To hire me, email squidbuchanan@gmail.com

Fractional Creative Director

Senior brand + product leadership, without the full-time hire.

Ideal for Seed to Series B startups needing high-level creative direction.

- 1–2 days/week of hands-on brand and product support

- Help with design systems, product reviews, and team alignment

- Strategy and execution across brand, product, and pitch

- Rolling monthly engagement, limited availability

For funded teams scaling fast without a full creative team.

MVP Brand Sprint

Get your brand launch-ready in 10 days.

A quick-turn, high-impact design sprint for early-stage startups.

- Logo, colors, typography, and mini brand guide

- Landing page or pitch-ready deck slides

- Optional: light product UI cleanup

- Fixed price, fast delivery

For pre-seed or pre-launch founders who want to appear beyond their years.

Pitch Polish

Tighten your story and upgrade your deck.

Brand-first storytelling and design for investor-facing materials.

- Full redesign of your pitch deck (visual + narrative)

- Brand refinement: fonts, tone, color tweaks

Optional: 1-pager or Notion-style summary

Delivered in 3–5 days, flat rate

For startups raising or repositioning.

EngagespurseBOOTIPlutoTVHighFiveHighFiveThe Chronic CoChargeSLICCandidCBDEEverbNoCapSocial Blue BookBIG SummitsCommunityAll Things GoodDada Base

I’m Squid (or, as my mother prefers, Michael). A creative leader with partner-level experience across 120+ early and growth stage companies — building products, brands, and ideas that, at best, make the world better and, at worst, just look cool.

As an artist, I've walked the stage at Carnegie Hall.

As a designer, I've been to the White House by invitation.

As a creative leader I've rung the bell at Nasdaq.

Creative Leadership

Colab
Branding
Messaging
Web Design
Web Development
UI/UX Design
Digital strategy
As 12-year Chief Creative Officer of Colab, I've served as the creative leader for over 120 early-stage companies since 2013. Colab has been featured as a top 10 venture studio globally in several online publications since 2019. I founded Colab with long time friend and business partner Jon Bradford.
Less Than Local
Branding
Apparel Design
Skateboard Design
Site Design
Site Development
Less Than Local is a skateboard company and the brainchild of myself and best bud / fellow creative, Andrew Meredith. Since 2015, Less Than Local has been repeatedly featured in major publications such as Thrasher Magazine, Transworld Skateboarding, The Berrics, etc. and has been fashioned and promoted by the likes of Lil' Wayne and Fred Durst (we didn't pay them, they just bought our stuff).
Payaway
Branding
Messaging
Site Design
Site Development
UI/UX Design
Led the creative top-to-bottom for this innovative fintech venture.
HIghfive
Branding
Messaging
Site Design
Web Development
UI/UX Design
Marketing Execution
I've spent the last two years as the fractional Chief Creative Officer at Highfive, during which we transformed the company's entire creative approach from the name and logo to the interface and experience of their digital products.
Tattoos.com
Branding
Messaging
UI/UX Design
I designed, concepted, launched, helped managed the team that built tattoos.com

Digital Products

Synqabl

Web and mobile applications
Creative Direction
Branding
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping

I led product and brand design for Synqabl, an AI music licensing platform. Positioned to supercharge the sync licensing business, Synqabl empowers musicians, songwriters, and producers to effortlessly upload, tag, and organize their catalogs while providing music supervisors and content creators with an intuitive search and discovery experience, all powered by AI.
Payaway

Consumer, lender, and merchant desktop and mobile applications
Creative Direction
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping

The Payaway product was designed to ensure a seamless, intuitive experience for both consumers and lenders, while addressing the unique needs of modern shoppers and their preferences for transparent and competitive financing solutions. Payaway is revolutionizing Buy Now, Pay Later technology by creating a marketplace where lenders compete to offer point-of-sale consumer loans, giving shoppers access to better rates and more flexible financing options.
Influur
‍‍

Arist and music supervisor web and mobile apps
Creative Direction
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Interaction Design

I was assigned by Influur to create a next-gen dashboard so that influencer marketing campaigns could be created, simulated, and managed to the extent that digital media buys are currently overseen.
Sweetn

Consumer mobile and web app
Iterative Branding
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Interaction Design
Sweetn is a mental wellness app designed to guide singles through the complexities of modern dating while fostering emotional resilience and self-awareness. Built in partnership with mental health experts and shaped by deep insights from user research, Sweetn provides tools and resources that help individuals approach dating with confidence, form genuine connections, and maintain a focus on their overall well-being.
NoCap
‍‍

Desktop and mobile apps
Creative Direction
Branding
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Interaction Design
I led the design across every major product surface from browsing, to ticketing, to livestream. In 2020, NoCap paid out over $6M to artists including Foo Fighters, Weezer, Machine Gun Kelly and more. One single show brought in over $800K in revenue between tickets and merch for one artist.
Highfive


Teacher mobile and desktop app + school administrator web app
Creative Direction
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Interaction Design
Designed in collaboration with a dedicated team of educators and informed by extensive qualitative and quantitative research, the Highfive team and I crafted a valuable resource designed to support teachers and enhance classroom dynamics. The Highfive Classroom app is a powerful behavior management and tracking tool that helps teachers implement effective social-emotional discipline strategies in the classroom.

Logos

Consumer Goods

I was the creative lead for all of these food & beverage projects--this included developing the naming, branding, and packaging design, as well as pitching the creative vision to prospective partners and investors.. Created in partnership with VO/D, a talent-focused venture studio that connects disruptive CPG brands with iconic talent such as Odell Beckham Jr., Saquon Barkley, Adam Waheed, and more.

squidbuchanan@gmail.com