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HollowTrace

Design & engineering studio

We sketch it.We ship it.

HollowTrace is a design studio and a software studio in one. The people who draw the first sketch of your product are the ones who push it to production.

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$48,210.55CAD

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kestrel
Sam Rivera•••• 4821Metal
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$2,400.00CAD

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  1. Sketch

✕ The problem

Most products are designed in one building and built in another. The details die in between.

The motion gets cut. The edge cases get guessed. Somebody says “that’s not what we designed.” At HollowTrace the same people sketch your product and ship it, so nothing gets lost in translation, because there’s no translation.

design agency → handoff → dev shop

HollowTrace → one team, one repo → shipped

01 Process

One card, four phases, zero handoffs.

  1. kestrel•••• 4821

    Send $2,400

    To Studio rent. Arrives in about a second.

    Confirm transfer✓

    Phase 01

    Sketch

    We get to the real problem fast: goals, constraints, users, and what done looks like. You leave with a plan and a fixed timeline.

  2. kestrel•••• 4821

    Send $2,400

    To Studio rent. Arrives in about a second.

    Confirm transfer✓

    Phase 02

    Shape

    Design moves fast and lands in code early. You click real prototypes instead of imagining slides.

  3. kestrel•••• 4821

    Send $2,400

    To Studio rent. Arrives in about a second.

    Confirm transfer✓

    Phase 03

    Build

    Designers and engineers work the same tickets in the same repo, with weekly demos and a live preview link.

  4. kestrel•••• 4821

    Send $2,400

    To Studio rent. Arrives in about a second.

    Confirm transfer✓
    kestrel.app · live

    Phase 04

    Ship

    We launch, measure, and iterate, then hand over clean code, docs, and a design system your team can own.

02 Services

Everything between the napkin and the app store.

  • 01

    Brand

    • Identity & visual language
    • Type & motion principles
    • Guidelines shipped as design tokens
  • 02

    Product

    • Research & product strategy
    • UX, UI & interaction design
    • Design systems & component libraries
  • 03

    Engineering

    • Web apps in TypeScript & React
    • Native iOS in Swift & SwiftUI
    • APIs, data & LLM-powered features
  • 04

    Launch

    • Marketing sites that convert
    • Interactive & WebGL moments
    • Performance, SEO & analytics

03 Engagements

Three ways in. Pick your pace.

Every engagement is scoped and priced up front. Tell us what you’re building and we’ll come back with a plan and a number.

  • Sprint

    01

    2–4 wks

    One focused problem: a clickable prototype, a brand refresh, a launch page, or a technical spike.

    Best for: Validating an idea before you commit

  • most teams start here ↓

    Launch

    02

    6–12 wks

    Brand, marketing site, and a v1 product, designed and shipped together so they feel like one thing.

    Best for: Newly funded teams heading to market

  • Embedded

    03

    Monthly

    A senior design and engineering pod inside your roadmap, shipping alongside your team every week.

    Best for: Teams scaling past their first version

Not sure which fits? Tell us about the project

04 Proof

You just watched us build this page.

Here’s how it’s running in your browser right now, measured live. No numbers written in by hand.

~/hollowtrace — measure

$ hollowtrace measure --live --this-page

  • …largest paintmeasuring
  • …page weightmeasuring
  • …requestsmeasuring
  • ✓layout shift0.000
  • …frame ratemeasuring

Built with Next.js, TypeScript and a hand-rolled sketch renderer. No UI kit. Machine-readable version.

05 FAQ

Fair questions.

Who do you work with?

Founders and product teams, usually from seed stage through growth, who care how their product looks and how well it’s built.

Do you take design-only or engineering-only projects?

Yes. Both teams are strong on their own. We’re at our best when we hold both, because that’s where nothing gets lost in translation.

What do you build with?

On the web: TypeScript, React, and Next.js. On iOS: Swift and SwiftUI. On the backend: Node, Postgres, Firebase, or whatever your stack already runs on. We choose proven tools for the parts that should be boring.

How long does a project take?

Sprints run two to four weeks. Launch engagements run six to twelve. You get a fixed timeline before any work starts.

How does pricing work?

Every engagement is scoped and priced up front, so there are no surprise invoices. Send us a note and we’ll share a number after a short first call.

What happens after launch?

Some teams keep us on as an embedded pod. Others take it from there with full documentation, a design system, and a codebase their engineers will enjoy.

06 Contact

Got a napkin sketch?

Send it over. Rough is fine: rough is where we start. Tell us what you’re making and when it needs to ship, and we’ll reply within two business days.

hello@hollowtrace.com