About RAIKEN.io

Designer.
Builder at heart.

I'm David Zerbe, aka Raiken, a DXP consultant who's been writing code since the mid-'90s. Today I build Figma plugins, Windows apps, and free web tools for your everyday work.

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David Zerbe
David Zerbeaka Raiken

Design meets code

How did I get here?

Nearly 30 years of code and design go into every tool I make.

  1. ~1996

    It started with video games

    As a kid, I wanted to make my own video games, so I started coding. I ended up writing tools that hacked game saves for PlayStation and PC games.

  2. Early web

    Word gets around: I can code

    Friends and family knew I could code and brought me my first real projects on this new thing called the internet. Later, Heschmedia trusted me to build a CRM and CMS that streamlined their whole workflow.

  3. Building for others. Starting my own studio.

    At im-brain, I helped build a contextual search, mostly on the front end. That same year, I founded rStudio.de, my own studio for design and web development.

  4. Code gets boring, design calls

    Early on I built a modular monolith, a modulith before the word was common, so I could reuse most of my code. Coding started to bore me, so I studied advertising psychology and began my career as a designer. Much of that vanilla code still runs raiken.studio and raiken.io today. Others keep an oldtimer in the garage; I have my rCMS.

  5. The clients get bigger

    As a designer in Hamburg and with rStudio, I built for Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Vodafone, ARD, and DEDON.

  6. Art director at Jung von Matt

    I designed digital campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, DHL, Deutsche Post, Sparkasse, Handelsblatt, Joop!, and Universal.

  7. Growing with my team at Spreadshirt

    I joined as a senior interaction designer and became team lead for brand expression before taking on the design manager role. I guided my team through some rough times. I'm proud of every one of them and what they've achieved since.

  8. Day one

    The tools open up. I build.

    I started building plugins as soon as Sketch allowed them, then did the same with Adobe XD and Figma. Most stayed in-house at first, sharpening our process and helping my teams deliver better work before the public releases.

  9. Together, we start uxactly

    I co-founded uxactly, a UX consultancy in Leipzig. We focus on Design Ops and product design for brands like Porsche Experience, BMW Welt, and O2.

  10. Design manager at Staffbase

    As team lead and consultant, I built the design and research team. I set up Design Ops so a fast-growing product still felt like one calm experience.

  11. Every screen speaks the same language

    I shaped design system governance at the PRISMA European Capacity Platform. Shared rules keep every screen speaking the same language.

  12. Behind the chargers at IONITY

    Since 2023, I've looked after backend UX for IONITY, Europe's high-power charging network.

  13. Going public as RAIKEN.io

    My Figma plugins leave the studio and reach the Figma Community. Years of in-house tools, now for everyone.

  14. Today

    Still designing. Still building.

    Today I make Figma plugins, PowerMail for Windows, and free web tools. I also write my German column, “Design trifft auf Code”.

Worked with

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Worked with

  • Radeberger Gruppe
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