Resume

Stitch Studio

Timeline
Jun – Oct 2026
Shipped
The first Stitch to every user on Mon 20 Jul 2026; the Studio, a concept, in October
Team
The CEO, an AI lead, front-end and back-end engineers, sales and growth.

The Back Rank Chess Club badge, as flat artwork, is sewn into embroidery: the same artwork in thread, on black cloth, row by row from the top, then seen close up. Stitch stops at the small club line and asks: At 3.5 in, the club line would sew about 2 mm tall, smaller than lettering sews cleanly. Drop the line, or sew it as a thin line.

01The first agent in the product

An agent that comes when you need it, does the work, and leaves.

In July I designed Stitch, the first AI agent in Dynamic Mockups. It turns artwork into embroidery, and shows what it sees and what it decided along the way.

Read why

The question that took longest wasn't what it does, but where it lives. My first version followed the structure of our components and sat inside the editor, and it felt inorganic.

You drop in artwork and notes appear around it on what the agent is looking at; then come the zones, the thread palette and a line on each choice. Then the patch turns like a card from a fresh pack, and you put it on the mockup or refine it in the editor.

The stage we built for Stitch grew into a framework, a layer for agents, and the next one, for generating mockups, was built on it.

The first Stitch, July: the agent's life · swipe to see all of it

02Where embroidery lives

Adding embroidery is an experience, not a dropdown.

Offered where it fits and only there, as a choice you can change later, with a way in people could see from day one.

Read why

It went out with one way in, inside the editor, so the agent shows up in the context people already work in.

Where embroidery lives, as a class diagram · swipe to see all of it

03The turn

It looked like embroidery. The trade needed files that sew.

In September, people who digitize for a living told us the files weren't ready for production. The team rebuilt Stitch as a real digitizer, and the design question changed with it.

Read why

The first Stitch proved that people wanted to see their artwork as thread. But what a customer actually needs isn't a digitizer, it's the file: the product of the work Stitch does.

My part moved to the human side of it: how a person works with an agent that makes something they have to stand behind.

June to October: from a preview to a file · swipe to see all of it

04Who decides

At what point is Stitch the one deciding, and not the person?

That was the most open question, for me and for everyone. My answer wasn't one way of deciding, but three side by side, and a mode for how much Stitch asks.

Read why

Control Freak validates every step. Auto decides, and asks only when it's critical. Bypass asks nothing and goes to the end. And the more decisions a person gives it, the better the result: each answer rules out every other road, the way a move does in chess.

When Stitch asks, and when it decides · swipe to see all of it

05A dialogue, not an editor

Not an editor. A conversation that ends in full control.

Try the sketch: answer what Stitch asks, switch how much it asks, change your mind. The work stays in view, with the part each question is about outlined.

Read why

While it works, it makes the decisions it can, asks when it can't, carries on when you answer, and hands it all back when it's done. The goal is for the wizard to finish as much as possible.

Beside each question: the stitching so far, and the artwork as drawn where it isn't stitched yet.

Stitch Studio · a sketch of the concept

The path

  1. Your brief

    Polo, left chest · 3.5 in · white piqué

  2. The knight

    Stitch is asking

  3. The gold border

    Next

  4. The club line

    Next

Stitch · needs you

The knight

The knight is the biggest shape on the badge. A flat fill, or satin with more shine?

A sketch of the October concept, on fixed data: nothing is sent anywhere, and a description in words is read as the recommended answer.

06Going back

Change your mind without starting over.

Go back to any decision and Stitch keeps everything it knows, redoing only what comes after. The road you've seen stays on the map.

Read why

It's like the fog in Warcraft: you walk a path, the fog lifts, you come back, and you still know what's out there.

Two answers can also live side by side as branches, satin on one and fill on the other, sharing every decision they have in common, until you pick one.

Going back to the knight · swipe to see all of it

07One studio for everyone at the machine

The one who designs, the one who digitizes, the one who sews.

Not only for digitizers, not only for shop owners. It can be one person or three, so everything sits in one place, each with their part.

Read why

It works like a collaborative mode. The sheet carries the size, the fabric, the thread in sew order, and every decision taken on the way.

That's what makes the difference from the software digitizers have today. We weren't building another digitizing program; we were building the whole thing around the file, something different in vision.

One studio, four lanes: the people and Stitch · swipe to see all of it

Stitch Studio · the board

a sketch of the concept

Back Rank Chess Club

Club merch, autumn: one artwork, five products

BriefWho defines the design

  • Tote, front

    8 in · Designer

    Needs the fabric

With StitchWho digitizes

  • Polo, left chest

    3.5 in · Digitizer

    Stitch is asking about the club line

  • Cap, front

    2.25 in · Digitizer

    Stitch is deciding, in Auto

SampleWho sews

  • Hoodie, back

    10 in · Operator

    Sewing the sample on machine 2

ProductionWho sews

  • Beanie, cuff

    2 in · Operator

    Ready to sew

Machine 1 · idleMachine 2 · sewing the hoodie sampleneeds a personStitch is working
The board: each person sees the jobs that are theirs

Stitch Studio · ready to sew

a sketch of the concept

As it will sew, from the file

The machine file is ready

Back Rank, polo left chest

Product
Polo, left chest
Finished size
2.5 × 3.5 in
Fabric
White piqué, tear‑away backing
Machine
6 needles

Thread, in sew order5 colour changes

  1. 01Club maroonthe arch
  2. 02Ivorythe knight
  3. 03Sandthe knight's shading
  4. 04Espressothe knight's lines
  5. 05Old goldthe rank and the border
  6. 06Club maroonthe club's name

Decided on the way

  • The knighta flat fill, by Stitch
  • The gold bordersatin, by Stitch
  • The club linedropped, by you
Ready to sew: the file, and the sheet that goes with it to the machine

08What I'd do differently

Put it in front of the people who sew, sooner.

Looking back from October, three things I'd do earlier.

  • Real artwork first

    Before the launch I worried more about the results than about the bugs.

  • Who, before what

    My first table of who decides was naive: I didn't yet know whether one person does this or three. I'd ask that before drawing a screen.

  • Several digitizers, not one

    Two digitizers don't work the same way: one starts from colours, another from shapes. I'd sit with several before designing for any of them.

What I saw coming

Everything that could stop a design on its way to the machine.

  • Surfaces that can't take it

    On a phone case, embroidery simply isn't there.

  • Lettering too small to sew

    Stitch asks before it starts, with the options in hand, instead of sewing a blur.

  • The preview before the file

    A quick preview first, and the machine file made in the background, so it's ready when it's needed.

  • Artwork that's a vector

    Graphics are often vectors, so Stitch takes SVG as well as images.

  • Help that doesn't nag

    Nothing permanent. A note you can dismiss for now, or tell not to show again.

  • The 3D view on a slow laptop

    The heaviest thing on screen is checked on modest machines, not only on ours.