# Carolyn Yocum > Landscape Designer Location: San Anselmo, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/carolynyocum I’m a designer drawn to systems, place, and the ways people interact with the environments around them. My background is in product and UX design. For over a decade I worked in tech designing digital products, conducting user research, and building experiences that balanced business goals with human needs. That work shaped the way I think about design: understanding context, solving complex problems, and creating systems that evolve over time. Landscape design became a natural extension of that thinking. Gardens are living systems. They change with the seasons, respond to their environment, and shape how people gather, rest, and move through a space. I approach landscape design with the same human-centered perspective that guided my work in tech—studying site conditions, understanding how a space will be used, and designing something that feels intuitive and enduring. Today I run Solstice Design, where I design and install residential gardens throughout the Bay Area. My work focuses on naturalistic, drought-tolerant landscapes, cottage gardens, and productive spaces that integrate vegetables, fruit, and flowers. I enjoy working closely with clients to create outdoor spaces that feel relaxed, seasonal, and deeply connected to the landscape around them. When I’m not designing gardens, you’ll likely find me growing vegetables, experimenting with new plants, or spending time outdoors with my two daughters. ## Work Experience ### Founder, Designer @ Solstice Design Collective Jan 2025 – Jan 2026 | San Francisco Bay Area Founder of Solstice Design, a boutique landscape design practice focused on creating thoughtful, enduring gardens for residential spaces across the Bay Area. My work centers on designing landscapes that feel intuitive, seasonal, and deeply connected to place. Drawing on a decade of experience in product and UX design, I approach gardens as living systems—balancing structure, ecology, and the way people move through and experience outdoor space. I lead projects from concept through installation, collaborating closely with clients, contractors, and nurseries to bring each garden to life. Current work includes cottage-style planting schemes, drought-tolerant landscapes, vegetable gardens, and outdoor spaces designed for gathering, play, and everyday use. Responsibilities include: - Landscape design from concept, site analysis, and planting plans through installation - Plant selection tailored to site conditions, climate, and long-term maintenance - Project management and coordination with contractors, irrigation specialists, and nurseries - Installation of residential gardens including soil preparation, planting, and layout - Designing productive gardens including raised beds, fruit trees, and edible landscapes - Creating planting palettes that emphasize seasonality, texture, and ecological resilience ### Senior Product Designer @ Medium Jan 2017 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area For five years at Medium, I worked to deeply understand user needs and build experiences that aligned with the company's mission: empowering creators to publish their best work and connect with their audience. As a design-driven organization, Medium positioned product designers at the core of shaping the product roadmap. My role involved proactively identifying problems, then partnering closely with PMs and engineers to deliver thoughtful, functional experiences that helped users achieve their writing and reading goals. I led design across several product verticals, including Creators and Lifecycle, where I planned and conducted user research and collaborated with data science to inform data-driven design decisions. Additionally, I wrote UX copy and established Design Principles to create organizational alignment. On the Creators team, our focus was supporting writers and enabling them to publish their best work. We explored themes like Creator Reward—how we could reward high-quality creators through reach, money, status, and community—and Education. Key features we shipped included Tipping, Stats, Writer Onboarding, and enhancements to the Partner Program. As part of the Lifecycle team, I worked on Activation (free user growth), Conversion (paid member growth), and Payments, with the mission to seamlessly deliver value to readers. One of the most challenging aspects of this role was balancing business goals with user experience. A significant initiative I led was the redesign of our login and membership purchase flow, which significantly reduced disruptive pop-ups while maintaining strong activation and conversion metrics. ### Product Design Manager @ Medium Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area ### Senior UX Designer @ Townsquared Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area • Led design of core product features including post creation, navigation, feed, groups, events, search, and user onboarding. • Led design research projects to identify user needs. • Collaborated closely with agile teams to bring product features from idea to execution across desktop and mobile platforms. • Addressed both user and business problems by designing experiments to push growth and engagement metrics ### Designer @ Townsquared Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | San Francisco Bay Area ### Visual Campaign Designer (Intern) @ Townsquared Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 ### Product Designer @ Mix and Stir Studio Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area Mix & Stir is an accelerator program for design-led startups, a partner of California College of the Arts. ### User Interface Designer @ Cloud Talk Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | San Francisco Branding & User Interface design for mobile application and website ### Graphic Design Curriculum Development @ Mount Tamalpais School Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Mill Valley, Ca Taught the inaugural Graphic Design course for 8th grade students. ### Freelance Graphic Designer/Production Artist @ The Agency Orange Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 | Berkeley, CA Designed print materials for signage and advertising campaigns. Designed content for website and mobile applications. ## Education ### Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Design Research, User Experience, and Graphic Design California College of the Arts ### Honors Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art; focus on Graphic Design and Combined Media Art Scripps College ### University of Southern California ### The Branson School ### Mt. Tamalpais School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/carolyn-yocum-93937b1a - Portfolio: https://carolyn-yocum-design.squarespace.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/carolynyocum JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/carolynyocum/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13