Garrett Whisten
Product design engineer. Surfing the internet since 2015.
I have spent a decade in front-end and product design, six of them on design systems. Most recently at MetaMask, where I built components used by 30 million people, and before that at GumGum, where I led the rebuild that six products adopted. I am currently building The1992 and BellSix.
Today
I am building The1992, a desk of free browser tools that run on your own machine, and BellSix, an interval clock for gyms. Alongside them I take on product design engineering work through my studio, 201 Lab. I like the layer where design and engineering actually meet: tokens, component APIs, and the documentation that makes them stick.
Work
- MetaMask Design System2022—2024
Built the component primitives behind the world's most-used crypto wallet: buttons, text, layout, icons, and banners, in front of 30 million people.
- Concrete 2.0 & Ad Manager2018—2022
Led the rebuild of GumGum's core revenue platform and the design system six products adopted.
Projects
- The1992Building
Every tool the internet forgot to give you, on a 1992 desktop. Resize, convert, sign, and make PDFs without uploading a thing.
- BellSixBuilding
An interval training clock for gym walls, phones, and wrists. One timing engine shared across web, iPhone, and Apple Watch.
- Tatanka Goods2026
Brand refresh and booking site for a Bozeman barbershop.
- Bodybag Collective2026
Storefront and build-your-own-bag configurator for a Costa Mesa bag label.
- Arcana UI2025
An experiment in making a design system legible to AI agents: a three-tier token architecture, a machine-readable manifest, and an MCP server. Open source.
- Goodies2024
Online store and in-store point of sale for an LA home-goods shop.
About the Decor
There are three versions of this page, and this is the plain one. The other two are a tiki bar and the web I grew up on. All three render from a single content model, so the work and the numbers are identical whichever door you came through; only the room changes. Have a look at one:
Or use the puck in the bottom-left corner, which switches rooms from anywhere on the site.
Now
Away from a screen I build custom homes, cater pizza as Ricotta Bear, and keep a sourdough starter alive in Orange County. Same attention to detail, different materials.
Contact
Open to design systems and design engineering roles, in Orange County or remote.
MCP If you are reading this with an agent, point it here instead:
claude mcp add --transport http garrettbear https://www.garrettbear.com/api/mcpFive read-only tools over this same content, so an agent gets the facts rather than a scrape of three themed pages. Try it in the browser, no install.