On August 21, 2025, Bloomberg News reported that president Donald Trump had signed an executive order establishing the position of chief design officer of the United States and that Trump had appointed Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb who was involved in the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, to the position.[1] The order established the National Design Studio, lead by the chief design officer.[1] The National Design Studio is set to close three years from the signing of the order.[2] Gebbia confirmed his appointment four days later.[3] According to Wired, Gebbia was originally set to join the United States DOGE Service, but sought to have his own office.[4]
Organization
Joe Gebbia, the chief design officer of the United States, was appointed to oversee the National Design Studio.
The National Design Studio operates within the White House Office. Similar to the United States DOGE Service, it contains a temporary organization.[5] The administrator of the office and the temporary organization, a position that was not immediately occupied, reports directly to the White House chief of staff.[6] The National Design Studio operates out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.[7]
According to Wired, the National Design Studio is separate from the Department of Government Efficiency, but employees of the latter organization—including Kaitlyn Koller, a former Senate Committee on Foreign Relations aide—joined the National Design Studio. In addition, the National Design Studio's work includes contracts with private designers and studios.[4] Reuters later reported that Edward Coristine had joined the National Design Studio.[8]
Work with other agencies
Trump's order establishing the National Design Studio required federal agencies to "produce initial results" by July 4, 2026, the United States semiquincentennial. In accordance with the order, the administrator of the General Services Administration must consult with the chief design officer to modify the U.S. Web Design System, and individual agencies must consult with the chief design officer to ensure designs comply with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.[9] According to Reuters, Gebbia's initial focus was at the Internal Revenue Service. An official within the Trump administration described the National Design Studio as an apparent "stripped-down successor" to the Department of Government Efficiency.[6] Gebbia later told Dezeen that the National Design Studio's work would focus on the ten most-visited government websites.[10]
Responsibilities
The National Design Studio was tasked with overseeing online interfaces and physical environments to be "both usable and beautiful",[11] an initiative labeled "America by Design".[9] On X, Gebbia compared the eventual product of the National Design Studio's work to the "satisfying" usability of the Apple Store.[12] According to David Sacks, the special advisor for AI and crypto, Gebbia's responsibilities included the "redesign of roughly 26,000 federal web portals".[13]
The National Design Studio manages several websites, including americabydesign.gov and ndstudio.gov.[14] In October 2025, it began managing techforce.gov.[15] The National Design Studio's design work includes trumpcard.gov,[16]genesis.energy.gov, trumprx.gov,[17] and safedc.gov.[10] The National Design Studio's websites include material generated by artificial intelligence.[17] In December 2025, Fast Company reported that the National Design Studio was using Figma Make, a prototyping tool that uses artificial intelligence.[18]
Responses
Critical reception
The Architect's Newspaper's Elizabeth Goodspeed critiqued the National Design Studio as resolving "a problem no one actually has".[19]
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