Hi, I’m Mike Ballan, - The Design Hobo.

Creative Digital Design, Branding & Visual Storytelling

I create digital experiences, visual identities, and experimental creative work that blend design, nostalgia, culture, and storytelling into something memorable.

From UI/UX and branding to gaming-inspired artwork and creative concepts, my work explores how design can feel expressive, immersive, and visually distinctive while still remaining functional and accessible.

I’m Mike Ballan, a multidisciplinary designer focused on creating thoughtful digital experiences and visually engaging creative work across branding, UI/UX, web design, and experimental projects.

My approach combines structured design systems with a more expressive and personality-driven creative process, allowing each project to develop its own distinct visual identity while maintaining clarity and usability throughout.

Whether working on client projects, personal concepts, or gaming-inspired artwork, I’m always interested in creating experiences that feel intentional, immersive, and visually memorable.

Read more about me

  1. Featured Projects

    A collection of websites, digital products, and creative builds designed with responsiveness and accessibility in mind, fully adaptable across mobile, tablet, and desktop experiences.

  2. UI, UX & Digital Design

    A selection of interface design, dashboards, branding, and user experience work focused on creating modern, engaging, and user-friendly digital experiences.

  3. Illustration, Artwork & Creative Experiments

    A collection of personal artwork, illustration projects, anime-inspired pieces, experimental design work, and creative explorations created alongside my commercial projects.

Amazium Project

This is a project so close to my heart, I've been working on it for over 4 years and use it with almost every web project. Based on a 12 column grid it has everything you could need to make a site responsive but is as minimal as it could be too.

Visit website

Wearable Creativity

A collection of pop-culture-inspired t-shirt designs created across personal projects and ongoing creative experiments. Many of the designs take inspiration from films, games, retro technology, and nostalgic references, reimagined as vintage logos, fictional brands, and graphic illustrations.

Explore a selection of designs here, or visit my Redbubble and TeePublic stores to browse the full collection.

Redbubble

Teepublic

  1. A retro-inspired t-shirt design based on the iconic Twin Pines Mall from Back to the Future, reimagined as a minimalist vintage logo.

  2. A stylised tribute to the famous noodle bar from Blade Runner, blending cyberpunk aesthetics with bold vintage-inspired branding.

  3. A vintage travel-style design inspired by the fictional town of Hill Valley from Back to the Future, celebrating one of cinema’s most iconic locations.

  4. A mash-up concept combining the Jurassic Park logo with the all-too-familiar “No Internet” error screen for fellow retro and tech fans.

  5. A bold fantasy-inspired logo concept based on Disney’s Hercules, designed in the style of an energetic vintage sports drink brand.

  6. A playful typography-led design inspired by classic web development culture and the evolution of CSS through the years.

  7. A Star Wars-inspired t-shirt design influenced by Mandalorian culture and traditional armoury branding, centred around the legendary Beskar steel.

  8. A weathered vintage-style logo inspired by Quint’s shark fishing business from Jaws, designed to feel like an authentic coastal company brand.

Case studies

A selection of UI/UX, branding, website, and digital design projects spanning client work, creative concepts, and personal experiments. Each case study explores the thinking, process, and visual direction behind the final outcome.

  1. Protegem Dance School

    Elevating movement through bold branding, a seamless website, and community-driven marketing

  2. Dance Boutique

    A modern brand identity and e-commerce experience preserving decades of dance heritage.

  3. Rainbow Pottery

    A playful, community-driven pottery studio reimagined through brand, digital, and spatial design.

  4. Foundation First Tutoring

    Building Strong Foundations for Lifelong Learning

  5. Design Hobo

    Where cinematic creativity meets wearable art

  6. Amazium

    A lightweight CSS framework built for fast, responsive, and flexible web development.

Illustration, Artwork & Creative Experiments

A collection of illustrations, digital artwork, creative experiments, and visual explorations created across personal projects, collaborations, and late-night bursts of inspiration. From playful vector work to stylised graphics and concept pieces, this section showcases the more expressive side of my creative work.

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  1. Vector illustration of me to be used on my "about me" page rather than a real photo.

  2. Vector illustration series for the BCB Group website.

  3. Vector illustration series for the Nimble Pay website.

  4. Rainbow friends - Bow

    This is Bow, Rainbow Pottery's primary mascot and a symbol of creativity and inclusivity.

  5. Anime

    Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop

  6. Game map

    Reimagining classic video game worlds through clean, transit-inspired map design.

  7. Anime

    A-Ko - Project A-Ko

  8. Anime

    C-Ko - Project A-Ko

The Design Hobo

A wearable creativity project inspired by pop culture, nostalgia, retro media, and digital design.

A growing collection of graphic t-shirt designs influenced by films, gaming, anime, sci-fi, pixel art, and internet culture — blending fictional branding, vintage-inspired graphics, and playful visual storytelling.

Visit website

Say hello

I’m currently available for freelance work, collaborations, and creative projects.

If you’d like to talk about working together — or simply connect and say hi — you can find me across the following platforms.