About

A studio with a face.

Distinct Vintage is led by Mara Thorsrud, a design leader who uses psychology and systems thinking to reduce complexity and support confident decisions at scale. Her work sits at the intersection of data, human behavior, and business constraints. The focus is always the same: trust and clarity in high-stakes products.

Mara Thorsrud, founder of Distinct Vintage

Where the judgment comes from

Twenty years of leading design in-house, before founding Distinct Vintage.

  1. Estée Lauder Companies

    Director of UX, Brand Experience (consultant)

    Aug 2023 – Apr 2026

  2. Sleep Number Corporation

    Head of UX/Product Design, SleepIQ

    Feb 2022 – Aug 2023

  3. Shutterfly Inc.

    Head of UX Design & Research, Lifetouch

    Sept 2018 – Feb 2022

  4. CaaStle, Inc. (Gwynnie Bee)

    Head of Creative Services, Founding Designer

    Feb 2013 – July 2018

Speaking, teaching & press

One through-line: the psychology driving great experiences.

Speaking

Teaching & advisory

  • University of Minnesota, College of DesignGuest lecturer
  • College of Design mentorship programMentor, 2023–2024
  • Mankato State UniversityAdvisor, Fall 2025 – Spring 2026

Press & podcasts

What people say

From clients

I've worked with Mara on several projects, and she is awesome. She consistently delivered thoughtful, thorough work that helped us unlock product opportunities we would not have seen otherwise. She brings strong design judgment into deep partnership with product, data science, and brand teams, and her work has produced measurable gains in conversion, retention, and brand awareness. Mara is strategic, collaborative, and absolutely worth the investment.

Will O'Hara · Co-Founder & CEO, BillAgent AI

Your work was of a high quality and we're happy to keep you in mind for future work. Cheers!

Peter Curry · Co-Founder & COO, LifeDNA

From colleagues

Mara is smart, diligent, likes to think creatively, is consumer-obsessed, not afraid to challenge the status-quo, and is a great collaborator with product, engineering and partner teams.

Kristin S. · Executive Director of Product

Mara is a designer extraordinaire! Imaginative, collaborative, reliable and inherently talented. She produces beautiful, well-thought-out work. Her contagious enthusiasm brings energy to the workplace. She's a polished presenter whom I'd put in front of a client any (and every) day of the week.

Romelle E. · Program Management & Operations

Mara is a dedicated designer who creates beautiful user experiences. She always goes above and beyond to make sure projects are functional and visually appealing while also working within guidelines.

Shelley G. · Senior Software Engineer

Curious whether we can help?

Scoping a project together costs nothing. That is the honest way to find out.

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