# 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.

Alec Kunkel is a working example of the design technologist role: one person who takes an idea from concept and design through to shipped, production code. His work spans AI-powered brand experiences, custom Amazon Brand Stores, WebGL and 3D, and internal AI tooling, built mostly in React, TypeScript, and AWS.

- Current role: US Lead Design Technologist, Amazon Brand Innovation Lab (2026 to now); Senior Design Technologist (2024 to 2026); Design Technologist (2022 to 2024).
- Previously: Creative Technologist (2020 to 2022) and Digital Generalist (2018 to 2020) at McKinney, Durham, NC.
- Also known as: Design Technologist, Design Engineer, Creative Technologist.
- Contact: iamkunkel@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleckunkel/

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.aleckunkel.com/index.md): Who Alec Kunkel is and selected work
- [About](https://www.aleckunkel.com/about.md): Background, what the design technologist job is, experience, and skills
- [Work](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work.md): Every project, grouped by category

## Work

- [Protect Playtime](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/petarmor-protect-playtime.md): Nobody gets excited about flea and tick meds, so we sold them as a reason to go outside. Pop-up dog parks and catios shipped in an Amazon box, plus an AI pet finder that matches you with adoptable pets from a plain description.
- [Vertuo World Coffee Curator](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/nespresso-coffee-curator.md): An AI Brand Store that looks at your Prime Video history and picks a Nespresso Vertuo pod to match.
- [Kelce Clubhouse](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/kelce-clubhouse.md): An Amazon storefront for the New Heights podcast, with exclusive merch, episodes, and shopping in one place.
- [Smith](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/smith-ai-assistant.md): An internal AI assistant that drafts campaigns, builds prototypes, and helps brainstorm. Setup that used to take days now takes minutes.
- [The Mind Set](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/the-mind-set.md): An Ad Council campaign where Olympic athletes tell their mental-health stories through personal objects, with support resources showing up wherever people already are on Amazon.
- [Beast Games](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/jack-links-beast-games.md): A Prime Video sweepstakes for Beast Games season two, built around the limited-edition Jack Link’s x MrBeast snacks.
- [Louder Than Cancer](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/louder-than-cancer.md): A World Cancer Day campaign with Amazon Music. Scientists recorded the sound of cancer cells being destroyed, and we turned it into an anthem to drive donations.
- [Brand Launches on Amazon](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/brand-launches.md): The first Amazon storefronts for Nike, Coach, and Drake, each one built around the brand: an editorial store for Nike, a 3D store for Coach, and an animated warehouse for Drake’s Iceman era.
- [Brand Campaigns](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/brand-campaigns.md): Campaigns for OLLY, Tide, and MaryRuth’s that follow shoppers from first look to checkout, across Alexa, Prime Video, Fire TV, and the Brand Store.
- [Dog Review Interpreter](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/greenies-dog-interpreter.md): Point your phone at your dog while it eats, and generative AI (Amazon Bedrock and Rekognition) turns its reaction into an Amazon review.
- [’Tis the Season of Sharing](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/coca-cola-holiday.md): A holiday Fire TV activation: send someone a Prime Video credit, and you get one too.
- [The Grilling Hall of Flavor](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/kraft-heinz-grilling-hall.md): A shoppable Brand Store with four themed galleries full of recipes, quizzes, and hidden animations.
- [What’s Chester Watching?](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/cheetos-whats-chester-watching.md): Chester Cheetah picks the movie. A Fire TV, Alexa, and Brand Store program with rewarded ads and hands-off viewing for cheesy fingers.
- [Mani Try-On](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/modelones-mani-try-on.md): A try-on in the Brand Store so people could see press-on nails on their own hands.
- [The Duster & Recipe Hub](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/cheetos-duster.md): A Fire TV and Brand Store hub for the Cheetos Duster, which turns Cheetos dust into something you cook with.
- [The Wind Down Club](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/club-crisps-wind-down-club.md): A Brand Store and Fire TV hub that pairs Club Crisps with evening streaming, music, and two rewarded-ad experiences.
- [Consumer Electronics](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/consumer-electronics.md): Work for Samsung, Anker, Nebula, and Microsoft: virtual showrooms, launch pages, and tools that help people pick the right device.
- [Daily Art](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/daily-art.md): In 2019 I made one thing every day for a year: an image, an animation, or a photo.
- [Let's House Durham](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/lets-house-durham.md): A campaign site with a simple pitch: if everyone in Durham chipped in a little, it would end homelessness in the city for a year.
- [The Gigapizza](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/gigapizza.md): A billion-pixel pizza with a secret code hidden somewhere in it. Little Caesars’ way of letting people unlock pretzel crust early.
- [Experiments & Prototypes](https://www.aleckunkel.com/work/experiments.md): Everything else: finance games, ML art, AR filters, Twitter bots, a cardboard arcade cabinet, and every old portfolio.

## Optional

- [Full text](https://www.aleckunkel.com/llms-full.txt): Every page above in one file
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleckunkel/): Professional profile