Principal Designer
Steven
Vanden Heuvel
Principal Designer. Most recently at PayPal, designing checkout and payment experiences for top global merchants.
Payments. Design systems. B2B product.
About
Most recently a Principal Designer at PayPal, on the Merchant Enablement team through August 2026. In my first six months I shipped 20+ merchant proposal packages on weekly sprint cycles for top global brands including Home Depot, Nintendo, Target, Best Buy, TikTok Shop, Chewy, and Microsoft. The work fed PayPal's top priority of growing TPV through greater checkout prominence.
I build with agentic tooling, Claude Code and Cursor, every day. That work shows up in the product, not just in my own workflow. On a recent PayPal project I used Claude Code to build the structure of a design board that went to senior leadership.
Before PayPal I spent 18 years at MTG Media Group, growing from Senior Art Director to VP and Creative Director. I initiated the rebuilds of MTG's brand sites and introduced mobile-first responsive design, Figma, and Atomic Design to the company. I led a 6 person team and built responsive web products and design systems for 7 brands serving 128,000+ B2B professionals. Plate, the website I rebuilt as a responsive product, won the 2017 Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Website. Four-time Neal Award winner overall.
Through Steven Design Services LLC I also take on select design work, focused on design systems, responsive web products, and product strategy.
Selected Work
Case studies
Merchant Flow Builder
Browser brief form and Figma plugin, built on my own initiative. A merchant's full set of checkout flows goes from most of a day to 10 to 15 minutes.
Read case study →
Becoming the Default at Checkout
PayPal's prominence at checkout varied by merchant. I shipped per-merchant proposals to make it consistent and grow TPV.
Read case study →
The checkout dead end
I used Claude Code to turn a director's diagram into the structure of the Figma board, then designed into it. The work was presented to senior leadership, and the team now reuses the board to map the next flows.
Read case study →
Plate: Website Redesign
Building the digital platform for chefs and foodservice professionals. Won the 2017 Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Website.
Read case study →
Project Blackbird
An interactive oral history of the restaurant that transformed Chicago's dining. Grand Jesse H. Neal Finalist, top 4 nationally.
Read case study →
Alt-Meat
Brand identity, magazine, and responsive news site for MTG's alternative protein property. Designed in under 8 weeks.
Read case study →
Meatingplace
Responsive rebuild of MTG's flagship daily news site for U.S. meat and poultry professionals. Served the largest audience across MTG's 7-brand portfolio.
Read case study →Recognition
Awarded work, on record.
- 4Jesse H. Neal Awards
- 6Neal Finalist Recognitions
- 1Grand Neal Finalist (top 4 nationally)
- Folio Ozzie Honoree
- Multiple ASBPE Awards
- Northwestern Medill Guest Speaker
What I Do
Design Systems · Responsive Web Products · Product Strategy.
The design systems work has its own page, with the Pattern Lab, Figma and Storybook libraries still browsable. See the practice →
- Design Systems
- Service Blueprints
- UX and UI Design
- Prototyping
- Wireframing
- Accessibility
- AI Assisted Workflows (Claude Code, Cursor)
- Figma
Let's talk.
Aurora, IL · Chicago area · Open to remote