Frequently asked questions
1
What is Halaska Studio?
Halaska is a design intelligence studio for startups. We design your brand, product, website and marketing as one thing, then set up Halaska OS, a kit your team and your AI tools build from, so it stays consistent after we step back.
2
What is a design intelligence studio?
A studio that leaves you with the decisions as well as the designs. Alongside the work, we write down the rules, taste and reasoning behind it in a form people and AI tools can both use. The next screen, page or post comes out at the same standard, whoever makes it.
3
Who is Halaska Studio best for?
Funded startups with traction, usually between seed and Series B, mostly in AI and crypto. Our clients tend to have teams already building with AI tools who aren’t happy with how the output looks or holds together. Most come to us ahead of a launch, a major release or a raise.
4
What does Halaska Studio help with?
Four areas: AI strategy and systems, product, brand and story, and web and launch. One team works across all of it, so everything looks and sounds like the same company made it.
5
Who does the work at Halaska?
Chris Halaska directs every engagement. He has 20+ years in product design, including six at Google. Senior designers and engineers deliver the work with him. There are no account managers and no juniors learning on your product.
6
Who has Halaska Studio worked with?
Founders we’ve worked with have raised $400M+, backed by YC, Founders Fund, USV, Framework and Galaxy. Recent work includes Infinex, Ethereal, Pascal, Retell AI and RISE Chain. The case studies are on the Work page.
7
Does Halaska work with crypto and web3 companies?
Yes. It’s where most of our work has come from: exchanges, DeFi apps, Layer 2s, prediction markets and stablecoins. We know the patterns, the users and where standard product design falls short for them.
8
Is Halaska a design agency or a development team?
A design studio that also builds. Design is the core. The same team takes a site or product from design through to working code, in Framer or custom code, so there’s no gap between what you approved and what shipped.
9
Where is Halaska Studio based?
Dubai, working with teams worldwide. We work async by default, with calls when a decision needs one.
10
What is Halaska OS?
Halaska OS is the kit your team and your AI tools build from. It has two layers. Underneath is our foundation: more than 300 product design rules drawn from 20+ years of practice. On top is your layer: your strategy, voice, art direction and product priorities. Where the two disagree, your layer wins.
11
Is Halaska OS a design system?
It includes one, and goes further. A design system covers components and visual values. Halaska OS adds the strategy, the voice, how the product should behave and the reason behind each decision.
12
Which AI tools does Halaska OS work with?
Claude Code, Cursor and Lovable, among others. The kit is plain files, so it isn’t tied to any one tool and there’s no new platform to log into. A new hire can read it on day one.
13
We already have brand guidelines or a design system. Do we start again?
No. What you have goes in at the start. We fill the gaps and put it in a form your team and your AI tools can use.
14
How do you know the kit works?
We test it. A fresh AI agent gets a set of tasks with nothing but your kit to work from. It passes only if the output would ship without edits.
15
What happens to the kit when our company changes?
Changes go through approval and land in a decision log, so nobody quietly undoes a call that was made for a good reason. When we improve the foundation, your kit can move to the new version and your layer stays untouched.
16
Who owns the work and the kit?
You do. Everything we make for you is yours on payment: design files, code and your kit. We maintain the foundation underneath and keep improving it.
17
How does an engagement with Halaska start?
With a call, then a Foundation sprint. We take in your product, documents, website and marketing, plus a walkthrough of the vision from your founders. You end the sprint with a clear direction and the first version of your kit.
18
How do sprints work?
Each sprint takes on one thing: the brand, the website, a part of the product or your marketing. It produces real work and sharpens the kit behind it. Sprints are scoped up front, so you know the total before we start.
19
Can we hire Halaska for just a website, a brand or a product?
Yes. A project can be one thing with a start and an end. We still build it on Halaska OS, so you leave with the finished work and the kit that keeps it consistent.
20
How will we work together day to day?
In your tools: your Slack, your Figma, your codebase. You get clear written updates and recorded walkthroughs, with a call when a decision needs one. Work is shared early, prototyped in code, so you’re reacting to something real.
21
Do you work with our in-house team?
Yes. We work alongside your founders, designers and engineers. The kit is built for them, so they can keep producing work at the same standard without us in the room.
22
Our product looks AI-generated. Can Halaska fix that?
Yes. AI tools are fast, but with nothing to work from they fall back on the average of everything they’ve seen. We design the product properly, then give your tools your own rules and taste to read, so what they produce next looks like yours.
23
What happens when the engagement ends?
You run the kit yourselves, or keep us on to maintain it and produce work through it. Either way you get a clean handover: your design system, components in code and documentation, tested on real work.
How we compare
24
How is Halaska different from a design agency?
Most agencies hand over files and leave. We hand over the work plus the kit that lets your team and AI tools continue it. You also work directly with the senior people doing the work, with no account management layer in between.
25
Should we hire an in-house designer instead?
If you need someone full time in every meeting, hire. We suit the stage before that, or work alongside the designer you have. The kit also gives your next hire everything they need on day one.
26
Our team already uses AI tools. Why would we need Halaska?
Because the tools aren’t the problem. Each person prompts differently, so the output drifts and stops looking like one company. Halaska OS gives every person and every tool the same source to work from.
Pricing and practical
27
How much does Halaska Studio cost?
Every engagement is scoped in sprints around what your product needs, so you know the total before we start. Reach out and you’ll have a number quickly.
28
Do you negotiate on price?
No. Every client is priced the same way. If the budget doesn’t fit, we adjust the scope and tell you honestly what it can cover.
29
Do you take equity or tokens as payment?
No. Cash only. It keeps our advice clean.
30
What is Dash, and how is it different from the studio?
Dash is our separate fixed-price design sprint, built for getting an existing prototype launch-ready. The studio is for bigger work across brand, product, website and marketing. Details and pricing are at dash.halaska.com.