ABOUT ME

Ronak Patel is a designer and product management graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Information.

He came to design by way of finance. After earning a B.S. in Finance from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and working as an analyst — evaluating securities, building P&L reporting, leading software rollouts — he pivoted to creative work and refined his craft at the Portfolio Center. That foundation still shapes how he works: strategically, analytically, and with an eye on the business problem underneath the brief.

Over the following decade at McKinney and CYLNDR Studios, Ronak led design for national brands including Sherwin-Williams, Samsung, Popeyes, and Stop & Shop. He built asset systems that scaled a single concept into multiple channel-specific formats, drove agency-wide adoption of new platforms and AI tools, and helped win new business through pitch deck design. Earlier freelance work included social campaigns for Upwork's global rebrand, brand identity for a textile startup Bombyx, and a pending U.S. patent for a child-safe opening mechanism he invented after noticing a gap nobody had solved. His work has been recognized with Gold at the 2025 New York Festivals AI Film Contest and in the 2020 Graphis New Talent Annual.

He's now at Michigan studying product management, drawn to the place where user empathy, design craft, and business rigor meet. He's seeking a summer 2027 product management internship.

Outside of work, he enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and volunteering with local food banks.