About Alec Kunkel

Alec Kunkel is a design technologist (the role some companies call a design engineer or creative technologist): he designs products and campaigns, then builds them himself in production code. He is US Lead Design Technologist at Amazon’s Brand Innovation Lab, and was previously a Creative Technologist at McKinney.

I’m a designer who codes, or a developer who designs, depending on the day. I build the real thing, not just the mockup, and I try to make it feel like a person made it.

What I do: I design the thing, then I build it. Usually in React, sometimes in 3D, once out of cardboard.
How I work: Prototype early, put it in front of people, and cut whatever isn’t working. I’d rather ship one sharp idea than five safe ones.
Off the clock: Side projects, mostly silly ones. In 2019 I made a piece of art every day for a year, which I don’t necessarily recommend.

The job

Design technologist: The person who closes the gap between what a team designs and what it ships. I sketch the idea, prototype it in code, and build the production version, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.
Design engineer: Same job, different company. It’s a designer who writes production front-end, or an engineer with a designer’s eye for type, motion, and detail. The title changes; the work doesn’t.
Creative technologist: The agency version, which is where I started at McKinney. Less about product, more about working out what new tech (AR, WebGL, generative AI) can do for a brand before anyone else has tried it.
What good looks like: Taste and range in equal measure. You can defend a type choice and a caching strategy in the same meeting, you prototype instead of arguing, and what you ship is fast, accessible, and feels like a person made it.

Experience

Amazon, Brand Innovation Lab

US Lead Design Technologist (2026 to Now): I set the technical direction for the lab’s brand work, which mostly means figuring out how to build things Amazon hasn’t done before.
Senior Design Technologist (2024 to 2026): Ran the tech strategy and development for our interactive campaigns, and helped work out how the lab uses AI globally.
Design Technologist (2022 to 2024): Researched, prototyped, and built new kinds of campaigns for global brands, working closely with designers, engineers, and the business side.

McKinney, Durham, NC

Creative Technologist (2020 to 2022): Helped start the agency’s creative-technology practice, prototyping AR, WebGL, and whatever new tech clients wanted to try.
Digital Generalist (2018 to 2020): A bit of everything digital across the studio: websites, video, animation, and motion.

Skills

Frontend: React, TypeScript, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Zustand, Vite, Framer Motion
Design: Product design, Design systems, Prototyping, Figma, Typography, Motion, Accessibility (WCAG)
Creative technology: WebGL, React Three Fiber, Three.js, GLSL shaders, AR, Generative AI
Backend: Node.js, REST APIs, GraphQL, Python, Serverless
Cloud & infrastructure: AWS, CDK, Lambda, S3, CloudFront, API Gateway, DynamoDB
Workflow: Git, CI/CD, Pipelines, Testing, Performance