Artifex Stellarum · MMVIII
The fun part comes after;I BUILD
I design and build digital products end to end. I created the brand of the Dominican state's innovation lab, and co-created the one OGTIC still uses today.
↓Idea, design, develop, test, measure. The whole line.
UX · Product strategy · Digital branding
LegBetelgeuseProofWho trusted it, and what it moved
Trusted with the work
Eight institutions and companies, across government, film, policing and public works. Most of what I have built is public: you can go and use it.
- 250+
- citizen reports in the first week of the Santo Domingo Este city app
- 3×
- the citizen turnout at the state innovation lab's events, after we relaunched it
- 200+
- officers tested Reportero, after 20+ days of field research across the country
- Today
- the OGTIC mark I co-created is still the one the office uses — go and see
I have been working with Francifelly for nearly two years now as his PM, and he is one of the most dedicated designers I have worked with. Creative, user-oriented, always striving to create beautiful and useful experiences. During research is where you can really see his creativity at play.
LegProofSaiphFive projects, and where to go and see them
The work
Judge for yourself
Five projects, told the way they happened: what was broken, what got built, what changed — and where to go and see it.
Looking for the job history? It lives on LinkedIn.
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Project 01Government · Brand4
Two living marks, one pattern. LID was born first; the OGTIC mother mark follows it deliberately. The marks of a state · Two brands, one family
The state's digital innovation lab did not have a name people could picture. I created it. Later, when OPTIC became OGTIC, I co-created the institutional mark — and built it on the lab's pattern on purpose, so the office would read as the parent of the lab citizens already knew.
The mark, and the four treatments it had to survive. 
Who started showing up once the lab looked like somewhere you could show up. Still in service The OGTIC mark I co-created is the one the office uses today
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Project 02Government · Product6
The lab, as a place. The projects are billboards you ride past. El Laboratorio 3D · A website you ride through
First a site that had to earn a ministry's trust. Then the bet: not a page but a place, where every facet of the lab is somewhere you arrive on a scooter. It started as pencil in a notebook. It is still online.
The world before the world. These are the actual notebook pages. 
Creating the 3D site for the lab: from references and grey boxes to characters and the finished town. 
The site the world sat next to: pillars, projects, calls, methodologies. Still rideable Years after launch, the world is still online — the link is on the page
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Project 03Government · App5
The real dashboard: institutions, open cases, resolution rate. Not a mockup. Reportero · A case, not a form
A citizen report with a state, a priority, an institution on the hook and a conversation thread that stays alive until it closes with proof. I designed the whole app. The part that decided it was the twenty days spent in police stations, before drawing anything.
200+ officers tested it, after 20+ days of field research across the country
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Project 04Film industry2
The identity and the portal on a phone. Built to be handed over, not babysat. SEDECINE · One door for an entire industry
The Dominican film industry used to deal with the state one office at a time. Now there is a public site that explains, a directory where the industry finds itself, and a backoffice where every request has somewhere to land.
One door for an industry that dealt with the state office by office
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Project 05City government3
The four screens that matter: home, services, claim, history. The SDE city app · A city in your pocket
Eight city services on one screen. In its first week of testing, 100+ users filed 250+ reports.
250+ reports created in the first week of testing, by 100+ users
Also shipped
- Catálogo Patrimonial Nacional The national heritage catalogue, desktop and mobile, for the Dominican state.
- Registro Único de Mejora Regulatoria A government dashboard for regulations, public consultations and the regulatory agenda.
- Prácticas Prometedoras A platform for CONEP and the UN Development Programme, built at Redviver.
- Empresas por el Clima A climate portal for companies measuring and cutting their emissions.
- Aceleración 2030 · Seguros Inclusivos A full production landing for an inclusive-insurance acceleration programme.
- Hablemos Sin Filtro A mobile card game — UX and interface for a product people play for fun.
- Aditude Ad-tech for publishers, in English, for an international client.
- Theorem · Amazon, Audible, Volvo, Warner Years of HTML5 rich-media campaigns on Celtra: design and code in the same seat.
Does your case look like any of these?
LegSaiphMeissaWhat has to be true before any of it works
The idea
Nobody has to use it
A bank has customers. A ministry has citizens — no alternative, and no patience. A portal for a creative industry has neither: close the tab and nothing happens to you. Every project like that is a persuasion problem wearing an interface, and it is the problem I have spent my career on. Four things I no longer argue about, and the decision each one came from.
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01
Strategy before pixels.
I start with the business and the person using the thing, not the screen. The best design decision is often the one that removes work instead of adding it.
Where that came from: On Reportero we spent 20+ days meeting the officers who would use it, in their own stations, across the country, before a single screen was drawn. The average user turned out to be over 40. That one fact rewrote the interface.
Read: Saying no is the deliverable -
02
A brand is a promise.
Identity is not decoration. It is what people expect from you before they read a single word, and it has to mean something.
Where that came from: When OPTIC became OGTIC, we built the new institutional mark on the pattern of the lab's brand on purpose — facets, colours, arrow — so citizens would read the office as the parent of the lab they already knew. That mark is still the one in service.
Read: A logo is not an opinion -
03
It is not done until it ships.
I speak developer and stay through the build, so what we designed is what people actually get. Not a pretty file nobody uses.
Where that came from: The lab's 3D world went from pencil on paper to a government site you can ride through. I stayed from the sketch to the launch — and it is still online.
Read: Nothing is finished in Figma -
04
AI gives me speed, not judgment.
I use it for research, for testing, for building, and to reach more versions than I could alone. What it does not do is decide. The judgment about what is worth building stays mine.
Where that came from: It is the same rule as every tool before it. A faster pencil is still a pencil: it does not know which drawing is the right one.
LegMeissaAlnitakThe person behind it, and how the work goes
Who and how
- Base
- Santo Domingo
- Focus
- Product design
- Center
- Results
Artifex Stellarum
Short sentences,
long story.
I'm Fran Bencosme, a product designer and strategist from Santo Domingo. Never a straight line: I started freelance, spent years at Theorem building interactive campaigns for Amazon, Audible and Volvo — design and code in the same seat — and then went into government, where I made brands and products for the state.
Today I lead products from the first question to the last shipped screen, and I'm cofounder and General Manager of Redviver in Santo Domingo.
Still curious. Less patient with nonsense.
What I can do for you
Four ways to work together
Most engagements start as one of these four. Each one names a project on this page, so you can check the claim before you write.
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01
A product from zero
From the first question to the shipped screen: field research, service definition, UX, interface, and staying through the build.
Proof Reportero, six months end to end. The city app, three.
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02
A product that stopped working
Research with real users, a redesign, and a system so it stops drifting once I am gone.
Proof The lab’s site: citizen turnout tripled after the relaunch.
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03
The brand around it
Identity, voice and visual system — so the product and the brand say the same thing to the same person.
Proof I created the LID mark and co-created the one OGTIC still uses.
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04
Something nobody has to use
Public services, industry portals, anything a visitor can simply close. It is what I am best at, and the hardest thing to buy off a shelf.
Proof SEDECINE: one door for an entire film industry.
How the work goes
- 01
Ask
The uncomfortable question, before anything else.
- 02
Frame
The real problem, not the one the brief describes.
- 03
Cut
Until only what matters is left on the screen.
- 04
Test
With real users, so prototypes are wrong early and cheap.
- 05
Ship
Stay through the build, until it works in someone's hands.
LegAlnitakQuestionsCost, timing, remote work, and what he needs from you
Common questions
Do you work with clients outside the Dominican Republic?
Yes. I am based in Santo Domingo and my work has shipped into more than a dozen countries. Much of that came through Amazon campaigns at Theorem, where a brief could arrive from anywhere and had to work in a language I did not speak. Remote collaboration is the normal case, not the exception.
Do you only design, or do you stay through the build?
I stay. At Theorem I built HTML5 rich media ad units on the Celtra platform — animating them, optimizing them, adapting one campaign across dozens of screen sizes, with JavaScript for the custom builds. That is where I learned to speak the builders' language. A design is not delivered when the file is approved; it is delivered when someone who does not work on it uses it and gets what they came for.
What do you need from me to start?
The problem as you see it, and access to the people who live with it. Not a specification. The first thing I do is work out whether the problem you described is the problem you actually have, which is why the first step is asking rather than designing.
What kind of projects do you take?
The ones where UX, product strategy and branding have to be handled as one thing rather than three separate briefs. I am best where the users are not obliged to show up — public services, industry portals, anything where someone can simply close the tab.
How much does a project cost?
There is no list price. Every engagement is tailored to the problem rather than sold as a package, so the figure comes from the work itself. What moves it: the scope, whether you need discovery, delivery or both, and whether I stay through the build. You get a number after the first conversation and before any work starts.
How long does a project take?
It depends on the problem, and I would rather say that than quote a number I have to walk back later. For scale: the city app took three months, the citizen reporting app six, and the lab's brand, site and 3D world seven between them. We set the timeline together once I understand what we are actually solving.
LegQuestionsRigelThe end of the journey is a conversation
Contact
Your move
Thank you for travelling this far.
If you carry a complex problem, the next sentence is yours.