Derek Briggs
Also known as PixelJanitor
Principal designer at Shopify; earlier led design at Hypermode and Clerk.
At a glance
Roles
Appearances
Derek Briggs - Scaling craft at Shopify (Dive Club), Derek Briggs - Creating a design culture of craft (Dive Club Ep. 34)
See all 2Connections
Carl Rivera, Cynthia Savard Saucier and 8 others
See all 10
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Derek Briggs is a designer who also writes code, a principal designer at Shopify as of November 2026.
- Before Shopify he was head of design at Hypermode, and before that Director of Design at Clerk.
- At Clerk he built the design team and asked for a dedicated UI engineering team.
- At Shopify he has worked on the new shop.com and built a custom easing system.
Why it matters
- For designers who want to see how craft is argued for and scaled, from a small startup team to a design organisation the size of Shopify's.
Key facts
- Works in
- Design and code, by his GitHub bio3
- Shopify
- Principal designer (as of November 2026)1
- Recruited to Shopify by
- Carl Rivera and Cynthia Savard Saucier, then a VP there, during a short break after Hypermode1
- Work at Shopify
- The new shop.com, including its carousel, and a custom movement and easing system1
- Hypermode
- Head of design, with Kevin Van Gundy; he says the company was acquired1
- Clerk
- Director of Design (as of January 2024); took on the team after contracting there2
- Team at Clerk
- Recruited James McDonald, and hired Alvish on James's suggestion; told Clerk it needed a UI engineering team2
- Tailwind
- Contract work, finishing as he started with Clerk2
- PlanetScale
- Designer4
- Learned from
- Names Mike Coutermarsh at PlanetScale and Brian Lovin among the leaders who shaped how he runs a team2
- Lives in
- Colorado (as of January 2024)2
Roles
Part of
- ShopifyOrganization
Principal designer (as of November 2026) source on Shopify
Appearances
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
-
Derek Briggs - Scaling craft at Shopify (Dive Club) (opens youtube.com)1
The shop.com carousel, his easing system, data pipelines for design, and why he rates design engineers so highly.
-
Derek Briggs - Creating a design culture of craft (Dive Club Ep. 34) (opens youtube.com)2
Building Clerk's design team, the case for UI engineers, and why he doesn't use deadlines.
Connections
Related
- Carl RiveraPersonrecruited him to Shopify
- Cynthia Savard Saucierrecruited him to Shopify
- Hypermodehead of design
- Kevin Van Gundyworked together at Hypermode
- ClerkDirector of Design (as of January 2024)
- James McDonaldrecruited him to Clerk
- Tailwindcontract work before Clerk
- PlanetScaledesigner
- Mike Coutermarshworked for him at PlanetScale
- Dive ClubPodcastinterviewed in January 2024 and November 2026
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.