WHO WE ARE
Signal337 is a design consultancy and publishing imprint founded by Tim McKenna, a designer, strategist, and builder with over two decades of experience helping organizations of every size find their signal and amplify it.
We offer strategic design, research, and advisory services. We also publish books, tools, games, and resources that extend the Signal337 ethos into the hands of creators and thinkers who want more from their work.
This isn’t a faceless agency. It’s one person who has spent a career doing this work seriously and built Signal 337 to do it on his own terms.
THE APPROACH
You’re going to get a real interaction here.
No carefully managed messaging. No telling you what you want to hear. The most valuable thing a design partner can offer isn’t polish—it’s honesty. What’s working. What isn’t. What your business actually needs to grow.
That directness comes through empathy, not without it.
Every engagement starts from a genuine desire to see you succeed. Do great work for the people you serve; help them grow, and the rest takes care of itself. That reciprocal loop is the only way this practice operates. Your goals become the goal. Your success is the measure.
THE WORK
Signal337 exists to help teams turn messy, real-world challenges into brands, products, and services that everyday people can actually use and trust. From first questions to shipped experiences, I work at the intersection of research, design, and business strategy.
I start by listening: to customers, to staff, to the constraints of the organization and the communities it serves. Through interviews, workshops, and evidence-based research, we clarify what’s really happening, where people are struggling, and where the strongest opportunities lie.
From there, we design brand systems that feel coherent and honest, product experiences that are intuitive and accessible, and service journeys that respect people’s time, attention, and context. This includes naming and messaging, visual identity, UX and interaction design, and the connective tissue that ties them all together.
Finally, we make it operational. Strategy is only useful if it can be implemented, measured, and iterated. I partner with leaders and delivery teams to align roadmaps, define success metrics, and build the habits that keep design decisions grounded in reality—whether you’re a startup shipping a first product or an established organization modernizing legacy systems.
The work is holistic: brand, product, and service design informed by research and guided by clear business intent. It’s also pragmatic, shaped by two decades of experience across direct-to-consumer, B2B, and government technology—always with an eye toward durability, sustainability, and human impact in everyday life.
ON PUBLISHING
Tim’s career in design started at a publisher. That origin has never left the work.
Every organization is a publishing organization, whether they understand it or not.
Every website, report, social post, and piece of signage is an act of publishing — a statement about who you are and whether you’re worth paying attention to. Signal337 helps organizations understand and harness that power.
Signal337 also publishes its own work—products, tools, games, and resources built with the same design rigor that runs through every client engagement. The best design practices aren’t just something to sell. They’re something to live for.
WHAT’S IN THE NAME
Signal337 began as The podcast for the innately curious and creative—built on the idea of signal cutting through noise. The name stuck because the idea never stopped being true. The number 337 is personal. A reminder that the things worth paying attention to are often hidden in plain sight—waiting for someone curious enough to tune in.
Find the signal. Cut the noise. Do work that matters.