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Steven Vanden Heuvel

I make products feel considered, and I build the systems that keep them that way, usually before anyone asks.

Responsive web in B2B publishing before it was standard. Atomic design before it had a name. Most recently, agentic tooling on PayPal checkout.

Four Jesse H. Neal Awards, one for Best Website.

View case studies Jumps down this page to six case studies Resume

Case studies

Jump to a case study

  1. Nobody asked for this one.

    A Figma plugin, built on my own initiative, that cut merchant flow setup from most of a day to 10 to 15 minutes, across the 38-merchant program.

    Product
    Figma plugin, PayPal
    Objective
    Faster merchant flow setup
    Read case study

  2. One shared framework, seven brands.

    Two Pattern Labs, two Storybook builds, a published Figma library, and the checks that keep all of it honest. Still browsable.

    Product
    Design systems, MTG Media Group and PayPal
    Objective
    Keep the quality up after the first version ships
    Read case study

  3. Becoming the default at checkout.

    20+ merchant proposal packages for the one-click program, each with a working prototype, on weekly sprints.

    Product
    One-click checkout, PayPal
    Objective
    One tap in each merchant’s own checkout
    Read case study

  4. One rebuilt, one built from nothing.

    Plate grew from a recipe database into a full content platform and won the 2017 Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Website. Alt-Meat launched from zero in under 8 weeks and reached 22,000 registered users.

    Product
    Plate and Alt-Meat, MTG Media Group
    Objective
    Responsive products on their own design systems
    Read case study

  5. The checkout dead end.

    A saved card stops working, and nothing stops the order until checkout. I mapped the month leading up to it for senior leadership, marking where it could have been resolved instead. It became the team’s template.

    Product
    PayPal consumer checkout
    Objective
    Show leadership where the dead end starts
    Read case study

  6. A brand, from the letterform out.

    A full identity for an art and eyewear shop in Door County: a custom wordmark, a stacked monogram in six colorways, printed cards, and 11.2 ft double-sided street flags. The guidelines are published.

    Product
    The Artistic Eye, Steven Design Services
    Objective
    One brand two printers cannot split
    Read case study

On the record.

  1. A rare “doer,” someone who can help you not only build the plan but then execute on it.

    Publisher, Plate

  2. Proactive in experimenting with AI tooling to speed up the design process.

    Senior Design Program Manager, PayPal

  3. He used AI tools to work faster, but traditional know-how and design excellence to deliver a product-wide audit and analysis that was shown to the c-suite and directly affected the company’s roadmap.

    Content Designer, PayPal

  4. He is one of those uncommon designers who can move fluidly between strategy, design, prototyping, and code.

    Product Designer, PayPal

  5. Early on, he found, learned and implemented responsive design for all our web-based products. This saved an incredible amount of time and money.

    President and Owner, MTG Media Group

  6. He has been an invaluable resource in my growth as a designer and a mentor throughout my career.

    Art Director, Meatingplace and Alt-Meat

  7. Steve took the initiative to learn many new website design programs and built our first responsive design website when it was cutting edge technology.

    Executive Vice President and Publisher, Meatingplace and Alt-Meat

  8. He was in charge of the Plate website and newsletter designs, and was always thinking of ways to improve and update both platforms, making our digital products as beautiful as the print ones.

    Editor-in-Chief, Plate

  9. His talent for designing beautiful, cohesive, impactful promotional materials elevated our marketing communications and branding efforts to new heights.

    Marketing Strategist, MTG Media Group

  10. His ability to listen, adapt, and guide with a clear design vision makes him an invaluable member of any team.

    Interactive Strategist, EndeavorB2B

  11. Steve brings a rare combination of strategic thinking, artistic vision, and hands-on execution to every project he leads.

    VP Creative and Operations, Putman Media

  12. He’s always asking smart questions, thinking a few steps ahead, and pushing creative in ways that make it sharper and more effective. He doesn’t just make things look good. He makes them work harder.

    Content Strategist, MTG Media Group

How I work

The tools got me to the real problem faster. They did not have the idea.

  • Figma

    Where the work happens, and now something I build on top of rather than only inside. I write plugins against the plugin API and pull from the REST API.

  • Claude Code and Cursor

    The other half of the day. I build tooling around my own process, and read, debug, and extend front-end code so I can check how something will behave. I direct them and review what comes back.

  • Storybook

    Where there is a component layer worth keeping honest. Two live conversions of my Pattern Labs, and a proof of concept at PayPal that treated a product string as a token.

  • Creative Cloud

    Where the brand and print side of the record lives: magazine covers and features, the Alt-Meat identity, and the photography and illustration direction the systems had to hold.

Recognition

What the awards actually are.

  • 4 Jesse H. Neal Awards

    The Neals are the top national awards for business-to-business journalism, judged across reporting, design, and whole publications. The trade press treats them the way consumer media treats the Pulitzers.

  • 6 Neal finalists

    Shortlisted in a category and named publicly, without taking the win that year. Six separate times.

  • 1 Grand Neal finalist

    The Grand Neal is best in show. It is chosen from that year’s category winners across every B2B title that entered, so reaching the final group puts the work in the top four in the country.

  • Folio Ozzie, honorable mention

    The Ozzies are Folio’s awards for magazine design and art direction. An honorable mention is a named placement below the win, for the art direction of a magazine rather than for a website.

  • ASBPE awards

    The American Society of Business Publication Editors runs the other main awards program in trade publishing, covering editorial and design. These came from the Putman Media years, before MTG.

  • Medill guest speaker

    Not an award. An invitation to speak to students at Northwestern’s Medill School, which I am listing here because it is the same kind of outside signal.
Steven Vanden Heuvel

About

Where the habits come from.

I design product flows end to end, and I build the design systems and tools that keep the quality up after the first version ships. Most of the time nobody asked me to build them.

Eighteen years as VP and Creative Director at MTG Media Group is where the product habits come from. I ran the content strategy workshop that set Plate’s taxonomy, built the Pattern Lab one level at a time so the room approved atoms before pages, themed the Drupal site myself, tested it on UserTesting.com before launch, and directed the photography, video, and illustration the system had to hold.

What I am looking for: a seat where one person holds the whole flow, design systems are part of the job rather than the whole job, and tooling is wanted. Product design and creative direction both fit that, and the title matters less to me than the scope. In house, remote or Chicago.

Outside of work you can find me on the trail, at a football game, at live performances, in a museum, or hanging out with my family.

Let's talk.

Aurora, IL · Chicago area · Open to remote