Joel Lithgow

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing to express my interest in the UX Visual Designer position for Google Antigravity. As someone who uses AI-powered coding tools every day—Claude Code is central to my workflow—I understand intimately what makes these interfaces work and where they fall short. The opportunity to shape the visual language for a next-generation developer tool is exactly where I want to apply my design practice.

I bring a unique perspective to this role: I'm both a designer and a daily user of the product category you're building. I use agentic development tools to build WebGL shaders, orchestrate complex workflows, and ship prototypes. I've experienced firsthand how visual design choices—typography that scales, color systems that communicate state, spatial relationships that guide attention—make the difference between a tool that feels magical and one that feels frustrating. I want to help Antigravity feel magical.

My career has progressed from QA Specialist to Interaction Designer to UX Designer/Developer at California College of the Arts. That trajectory gave me something valuable: I understand developer workflows because I live them, and I understand visual craft because I've practiced it. I've built design systems that scale across digital properties, established color standards for accessibility, and created visual frameworks that other teams could adopt.

Visual craft matters to me. My WebGL shader playground demonstrates pixel-level attention to detail—every gradient, every animation curve, every interaction is intentional. I approach design systematically, thinking about how individual components compose into coherent experiences. The challenge of creating a 'sophisticated and flexible visual framework that scales for future AI-driven experiences' is exactly the kind of systems thinking I enjoy.

I'm also an accessibility advocate. At CCA, I led a systemic improvement when I identified that our brand colors failed WCAG contrast requirements. I worked cross-functionally to establish new guidelines that ensured accessibility across all digital properties. Beautiful design and accessible design aren't in tension—they reinforce each other.

I'm based in Oakland and would gladly commute or relocate to Mountain View. The opportunity to work at DeepMind, shaping how developers interact with AI, combines my design practice with my daily experience as a user of these tools.

Thank you for considering my application. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my experience as both a visual designer and a daily user of AI development tools could contribute to Google Antigravity.