North Star Creator

Fifty emails and a tangle of spreadsheets to run a single campaign. Built a creator-campaign management platform. The whole campaign, from brief to payment, fits on one calm screen.

• 01User surface

  The whole experience the user sees

  This frame shows the live product: an influencer and creator management platform with a quiet, clean design. Every component is ours · scope, design, code, deploy.

• 02Stack behind the screen

  What's powering it: Next.js, TypeScript

  2 stack components run behind this frame · Next.js, TypeScript drive the visible UI; the rest sit in the data layer. All studio-owned.

• 03What we shipped

  Creator and campaign management in one dashboard

  The whole campaign lifecycle in one place

• 04Status

  Live · northstarcreator.com.

  This isn't a demo · real traffic flows through it, with monitoring + weekly fixes attached.

• 01 · BRIEF

  Map the campaign lifecycle.

  Walked the existing email + Excel workflow with the founding team · 11 hand-offs collapsed to 4 dashboard states (Brief → Accepted → In delivery → Paid).

• 02 · ARCHITECTURE

  Stack decisions before any code.

  Decision doc captured the data flow, Next.js, TypeScript role split, and the failure modes we'd handle in v1 vs defer. Boundaries with the customer's existing infra were pinned so the deploy didn't surprise their ops team.

• 02 · BUILD

  Quiet UI, sharp data.

  Single-line typography rules across the whole product, no chunky cards. Same components serve the brand-side and creator-side dashboards · permissions decide what's visible, the chrome stays the same.

• 04 · POLISH

  Performance, accessibility, and observability.

  PSI / a11y / coverage budgets enforced as launch gates. Logging + metrics wired before cut-over · the team can answer 'is it working?' from a dashboard, not a Slack thread. Threat-model checklist signed off before traffic hits the box.

• 03 · SHIP

  Payouts and tracking integrated.

  Stripe Connect-style payout flow, content-link verification on completion, audit log per campaign · brand-side reporting that doesn't need a CSV export to be useful.

• 01UI

  Quiet, uncluttered dashboard

  Single typography scale, hairline rules, no chunky cards · creator and brand share the same visual register.

• 02Brief flow

  Brief → accepted → delivery

  4-state pipeline replaces the old 11-step email chain · status visible to both sides at all times.

• 03Payouts

  Stripe-style payout flow

  Per-campaign payout breakdown · the creator sees the maths, the brand sees the line items, the platform takes its cut.

• 04Tracking

  Live content link verification

  Posted content links auto-verified · campaign closes only when the deliverable is actually live.

• 
  01Frame

  Philosophy · we create trends, not follow

  Numbered manifesto principles set in display serif · brand positioning is the second thing on the home, before the case studies. The creator-management offer reads as a stance, not a marketplace.

• 
  02Frame

  Closer · 4 differentiators + CTA + footer

  Page closes on a 4-up differentiator strip ('we don't sell you anything', 'localised globally') + 'Let's work together' CTA + the studio's email · no pop-up gimmicks, just one clean exit.

• 
  03Frame

  Service catalog · 10+ disciplines, hairline rows

  Numbered service rows (08 Website, 09 Email + Automation, 10 Business + Revenue Models) with tag chips per row · the creator sees the full toolkit on one screen, the brand sees the production capacity.

• 
  04Frame

  About · 'services for the exceptional'

  About-page headline doubles as positioning · italic display serif claims the studio operates as the talent's team, not as a marketplace. Anchors the rest of the about page underneath.