Airbnb co-founder appoints Peter Arnell as first chief brand architect in the US

Airbnb billionaire co-founder Joe Gebbia is expanding his team at the U.S. National Design Studio, a Trump-backed initiative aimed at improving the government's digital presence. On Monday, Gebbia announced that American designer Peter Arnell has joined the effort as the first U.S. chief brand architect.

Gebbia shared the announcement during The Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" conference on Monday. Arnell will join a group that includes Silicon Valley design and software engineering experts, all working to reshape how users interact with U.S. government websites and digital services.

Across a career spanning more than four decades in branding and marketing, Arnell has collaborated with major companies such as Donna Karan New York, Samsung, Unilever, Pepsi, Reebok, Chrysler, and The Home Depot. In this new role, he will focus on improving the United States' digital identity, which he described as "the greatest brand in the world."

"This is a very special and different perspective on the word 'brand' in the sense that we're not rebranding this country, of course," Arnell said during the WSJ event. "What we're trying to do is, very specifically, have a consistency, [a] unified look-and-feel and experience, so that we start to build trust in the way that the American citizen daily interacts with the government."

He noted that the assignment presents a significant challenge, as the team is working to redesign around 27,000 government websites. To tackle this, they are applying the same design principles used to create leading consumer applications, including platforms like Airbnb.

"There's a spirit of Airbnb here," Gebbia said, explaining that just as Airbnb simplified the process of booking accommodations, the government project is focused on making complex systems easier, safer, and more trustworthy for users.

Gebbia also pointed to progress already made. One example is the redesign of the government's retirement process, which had previously relied on complicated, paper-based steps. The updated version is now web-based and can be completed in minutes, rather than months in some cases. Another workflow being tested has reduced the number of steps from 87 clicks to 12, and can be reduced further to 10.

The broader initiative also aims to fix common frustrations with government websites, such as confusing navigation and session timeouts that cause users to lose their progress.

Gebbia described the current state of many government digital experiences as "one of the da kest UX patterns that you could think of," referring to "design practices that frustrate or mislead users.

"Just the perception of [a government website] being hard precludes you from even engaging in it," he said. "I think we're moving because we're this…this is over. People should feel empowered to get the things done with the government that they need to get done," he added.