Head of Brand Creative — Portfolio

I make tech's complexity disappear, so the brand feels simple, human, and trusted.

A design practice that started at 16, a creative agency I founded and ran, and a decade directing brand identity, motion and design teams across five crypto companies — translating powerful, sometimes intimidating technology into brand experiences people actually want to use.

Design, content & marketing teams led10+
Full rebrands & comms strategies shipped30+
Video views generated2B+
Creative & marketing budgets managed$10M+
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Brand, Copy & Creative Direction

Strategy is only as good as the thing people actually see. This is the hands-on half of the work.

Rebrand — Biconomy

"Setting Sights on Our New Chapter"

Full visual and identity overhaul aligning brand with a new growth phase.

  • 12+ concept directions before selection
  • Retained "B" heritage mark while refreshing form & type
  • Geometric motifs symbolising interoperability
Read the full feature →
Rebrand — Composable Finance

"The New Face of Composable Finance"

Modular identity system translating infrastructure complexity into coherent simplicity.

  • Visual refresh across web, content and product
  • Messaging recalibrated for clarity and maturity
  • Coordinated rollout across every touchpoint
Read the full story →
Web & Product Design — DogeOS

Live Sites, Creatively Directed

Personally designed and shipped, not briefed to an outside team.

Video Production & Direction

Script to Screen

AI-assisted and traditional production, end to end. Full video log below.

See full video log ↓
Events & Activations

Rooms That Build Trust

In-person moments built from zero, not templated event playbooks.

Field Craft

Out-of-Home & Public Virality

Before crypto — proving a brand can cut through without a nine-figure budget.

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From People Who Reported to Me

Direct reports, not peer endorsements. What it's actually like to work for me.

"I was always impressed by the incredible creative freedom he gave his team, his attentiveness, speed, and genuine creative involvement in every process he led. He takes full responsibility for his team, creating an atmosphere of trust and a powerful drive that pushes everyone to deliver their very best."

Daria Chernoivanenko Art Director, Brand & Visual Design
Reported to Zain directly

"Zain's greatest strength is his natural leadership; he is able to seamlessly guide his team to produce incredible content while keeping an eye on the bigger picture for the company and even steering the entire ship at times. I have always been impressed by Zain's aptitude for design, editorial, events, CSR, and more."

Kimia Khatib-Shahidi Masters Candidate, Public Policy, Sciences Po Paris
Reported to Zain directly

"One of Zain's greatest strengths is his talent for nurturing and developing individuals within our team. He has created systems that not only foster individual growth but also drive measurable returns on investment. Under his guidance, I saw our marketing department evolve into a powerhouse of creativity and efficiency."

Victor Ugochukwu Product Marketing Leader, DevTools & B2B SaaS
Reported to Zain directly

"An expert in marketing, branding and narrative crafting. His exceptional ability to navigate complex situations with finesse has continually impressed me. Zain possesses an innate talent for pushing creative boundaries, transforming challenges into innovative opportunities... He not only leads by example but also encourages a collaborative environment where ideas flourish."

Bestun Gardi Marketing, Project Management, Ops, Web3
Reported to Zain directly

Wider Recognition

"Zain possesses the perfect balance of creativity and entrepreneurism, a rare combination. His passion for the Arts and his altruistic desire to make a change to the world makes him a true asset to any organisation. He has a breadth of experience across several industries, alongside running a family business and executing projects independently."

Taz Latif Global Head of DEI, Educator & Community Builder
Senior colleague, not a direct report
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Marketing & GTM Leadership

Five companies, one pattern: build the function from nothing, own the budget, and make the technical case for adoption.

File 001 — DogeOS & MyDoge Current

Chief Marketing Officer

Oct 2025 — Present · Global
  • Executive marketing partner to the CEO of a Polychain Capital-backed platform, owning strategy across consumer and institutional product lines.
  • Built The Grand Heist from zero — a community-led growth programme driving 50,000+ organic sign-ups with no paid media.
  • Leading go-to-market for institutional stablecoin integrations, including USD1 and PalmFi.
  • Personally run community activation across Telegram, Discord and X — not delegated to a team.
File 002 — Drosera Network / Groom Lake Complete

CMO, Drosera Network & Interim Head of Marketing, Groom Lake

Mar 2024 — Oct 2025 · UK & Global
  • Defined the ICP and built the formal messaging architecture for Drosera's security automation protocol — the "Immune System → Nervous System" narrative that turned an abstract technical primitive into language engineers and executives both trusted.
  • Drosera spun out of Groom Lake, a cybersecurity firm, where I served as Interim Head of Marketing concurrently — building the monthly subscription model and sales pipeline from scratch, and leading GTM for Reaper, a white-label OSINT tool.
  • Hired and trained a marketer with no prior security background to independently run content and performance.
  • Supported 40,000+ product activations ahead of mainnet.
File 003 — Haqq Network Complete

Chief Marketing & Growth Officer

Nov 2022 — Mar 2024 · Dubai, UAE & Global
  • Owned a $2.3M annual budget, operating under UAE VARA regulatory requirements.
  • Led launch of HAQQ Wallet and the $ISLM token to 100,000+ activations in its first week.
  • Scaled community and institutional relationships to 300k+ users across MENA, Europe and Asia.
  • Led executive-level crisis communications through a period of direct regulatory scrutiny.
File 004 — Composable Finance Complete

Chief Marketing Officer & Interim COO

May 2021 — Oct 2022 · Portugal & Europe
  • Built go-to-market for Picasso and Centauri, translating cross-chain interoperability into positioning for developers, liquidity providers and institutional partners.
  • Served concurrently as commercial lead for Advanced Blockchain AG through its Frankfurt Stock Exchange listing.
  • Interim COO alongside CMO — owned burn management and headcount planning for a team of 18+.
  • Twice defused a ZachXBT thread in real time by getting ahead of it with a stronger community thesis.
File 005 — Biconomy Complete

Head of Brand & Communications

Oct 2020 — May 2021 · Remote
  • Built commercial positioning for a developer-facing SDK/API product from scratch.
  • Directed the "Setting Sights on Our New Chapter" rebrand — full identity, narrative and public rollout.
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Before Crypto, and Alongside It

A creative practice that predates any marketing title, and never stopped running in parallel.

Origin — Age 16 Foundational

Independent Brand Designer

Local SMEs, UK
  • Designed posters and brand identities for small businesses from age 16, long before any formal marketing title.
Founder Complete

Dervish Creative

Creative Agency, Founder
  • Founded and ran a creative agency, hiring and directing freelance graphic designers to implement brand strategy at scale for clients.
  • Delivered brand identity for The Grand Trunk Project, a UK Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) heritage initiative.
  • Wrote and produced a campaign for M&C Saatchi (2016), including a television-ready commercial.
Ongoing Active

Creative Practitioner & Curator

Public Sector, Exhibitions & Art Curation
  • Sustains a parallel creative practice designing and curating exhibitions, working directly with artists and designers, genuinely multidisciplinary alongside commercial brand work.
"Every claim in the narrative mapped to something the protocol actually did. That's the only version of a security story that survives contact with an engineer."
— On building Drosera's "Immune System → Nervous System" narrative
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Video Production Log

Every entry below is a live, shipped piece, not a showreel cut. Click through to watch.

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Creative Practice, Beyond Work

Poetry, photography and community art in Peterborough — running in parallel to the commercial work above.

Artist Residency — 2025–2026 Complete

The Allama Iqbal Project: To Break the Horizon

Peterborough Presents, with Seyyed Ali Ameem Naqvi
  • Artist residency at the Allama Iqbal Centre, creating a permanent collection of mixed-media artworks and poetry exploring Allama Iqbal's life and philosophy through Peterborough's communities.
  • Exhibited as To Break the Horizon, opening 6 December 2025.
See the exhibition →
Headline Performance Complete

World Poetry Open Mic & Allama Iqbal Weekend

Peterborough Presents
  • Headlined the open mic with new poems written during residence at the Allama Iqbal Centre, inspired by Iqbal and the landscapes of Peterborough.
Event details →
Ongoing Active

Once We Were Too

62 Gladstone Street — Poetry & Photography
  • Ongoing documentation of the first wave of Muslim migrants to Peterborough, predominantly from Azad Kashmir, told through poetry and photography.
View the project →
Collaboration Complete

Creative Late at Peterborough Museum

With poet Charley Genever
  • Co-hosted interactive poetry workshops and creative activities for a special museum event.
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Press & Media Placements

Crafted and managed directly with journalists, agencies and outlets.

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Tools & Systems

AI-native by default — built to compress what a large team does into what one person can drive.

AI & Motion

  • Midjourney — concept & art generation
  • Runway — AI video & compositing
  • Grok
  • Claude / Claude Code
  • ElevenLabs

Creative & Editing

  • Figma
  • Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
  • Premiere Pro, After Effects
  • Final Cut Pro
  • Canva

Core Strengths

  • Brand strategy & narrative design
  • ICP & messaging architecture
  • Press & crisis communications
  • Token & community activation
  • Video & sound direction