How Vev Is Shaping the Future of Digital Publishing and Collaboration

The journey behind Vev, led by CEO and co-founder Tine Karlsen, showcases innovation born from real-world challenges faced by creative teams. Sparked by the need to streamline and enhance digital content creation, Vev bridges the gap between creativity and technology, providing a no-code/low-code platform tailored for both designers and developers.

In this interview with Tine, we explore the inspiration, unique features, and future aspirations that have shaped Vev into a powerful tool for web design. She shares how Vev empowers agencies, marketers, and publishers to bring their most ambitious ideas to life with greater flexibility, ease, and speed.

The Interview

Common Ninja: What inspired the creation of Vev, and how has the platform evolved since its inception?

Tine: Vev was born from watching traditional workflows hold creative professionals back instead of helping them thrive. While no-code tools were starting to gain traction, we wanted to take a unique approach — a no-code/low-code solution that enables creatives to focus on what they do best, while developers can dive into more complex and technical projects and tasks. Initially, we prioritized enterprise-level clients and, over time, opened up the platform more broadly. Now, we’re laser-focused on serving large teams and companies that want to publish ambitious web content at scale, fast, and with less cost.

Common Ninja: What are the unique features of Vev that differentiate it from other web design tools in the market?

Tine: From day one, we’ve been tech-agnostic. Vev is designed to integrate seamlessly into your existing tech stack, rather than locking you in. Whether you're working with a CMS, specific hosting solutions, or security layers, Vev works alongside them. You can create anything from immersive storytelling to annual reports and publish directly to your CMS. Vev complements your setup, rather than disrupting or replacing it. Ultimately, Vev offers a unique way of working — it’s a tool unlike any other.

Common Ninja: Who is Vev’s primary audience? How does the platform cater specifically to the needs of publishers, agencies, and marketers?

Tine: Vev's primary audience includes teams that produce high volumes of content on a weekly and monthly basis and require tools that match their pace, ambition, and scalability. Publishers use Vev to create captivating storytelling and branded content — no coding required. For agencies, Vev speeds up project delivery while ensuring creative control. Marketers benefit from the platform by breaking free from traditional CMS limitations, allowing them to execute their more creative campaigns seamlessly. Vev also serves large enterprises with distributed local marketing teams, providing a unified system for accessing templates and design resources, ensuring ease of content localization and brand consistency across regions, and saving companies millions on agency work.

Common Ninja: What challenges do your core users face in their industries, and how does Vev address these challenges?

Tine: One of the biggest challenges our users face is the rapid evolution of digital content, both in terms of visual appeal and narrative complexity. Vev’s streamlined workflow allows teams to adapt and respond to these shifts quickly, so they’re not merely keeping up—but rather leading the wave.

Common Ninja: Who might Vev not be suitable for, and why?

Tine: Vev may not be the ideal fit for solo creators with little to no design experience who are simply looking to build a basic website. The platform offers extensive creative freedom and an open design canvas, which can be overwhelming for those without a design background. Vev is built for professional teams that want to enhance collaboration and efficiently produce digital content across their organization. While designers can create custom designs for individual projects, they typically focus on developing templates and design libraries that non-designers can use to scale their output, such as landing pages, reports, brochures, digital magazines, and sales materials. Developers, on the other hand, concentrate on building advanced creative features, integrating marketing and analytics tools, and managing publishing setups.

Common Ninja: What advice would you give to someone new to web design and looking to start with Vev?

Tine: For someone new to web design, Vev is an all-in-one platform that empowers you to take an idea from concept to a live website without relying on others. While there is a learning curve similar to tools like Figma, you’ll also need to become familiar with web-specific concepts like responsive design and layout logic, which might come more naturally to those with a design background. However, we don’t just provide a platform — we offer comprehensive onboarding and training to ensure enterprises and their teams are equipped to use Vev effectively. Vev is designed to digitize workflows and empower both creatives and non-creatives, adapting to their individual strengths to streamline production across the organization.

Common Ninja: AI has become a key trend in the web design space. What role does AI play in Vev’s vision for the future?

Tine: Technology in design should support creativity, not replace it. We see AI stepping in to handle the repetitive stuff—like resizing content or generating variations — so designers can focus on the big ideas and explore new directions. If anything, the real power of AI will likely shine in responsive design, with layouts that adapt automatically to different screens. But at Vev, we believe true creativity is something only designers bring to the table. We want AI to take on the tasks that slow us down, not the ones that make them meaningful.

Common Ninja: Vev emphasizes flexibility in design and layout. Can you elaborate on the most popular design capabilities that users appreciate?

Tine: When clients first get into Vev, they’re often struck by the possibilities of a blank canvas — where they can build exactly what they envision. Then they discover our pre-built components, like scrollytelling, horizontal scrolling, and native charts, and realize they can execute advanced interactive features with just a few clicks. But it’s not just about pre-built elements—what users really love is that they’re never limited. With tools like “Interactions”, they have the flexibility to customize everything or even create custom components from scratch, or even better, they can collaborate with their developer to create components via CLI and modify them directly within the canvas.

Common Ninja: SEO is a critical component for online visibility. How does Vev optimize websites for SEO and site performance?

Tine: SEO standards are always shifting, but Vev has the backend essentials to make sure sites perform at their best. We support features like next-gen image compression, server-side rendering, customizable sitemaps, and robots.txt files — all designed to boost search engine visibility.

Common Ninja: How does Vev ensure a collaborative workflow among teams, especially in agency settings?

Tine: Agencies usually spend a lot of time creating static prototypes in tools like Figma, then moving to code, which often leads to multiple rounds of revisions. With Vev, they can build live, interactive prototypes right away that look exactly as they’ll appear on the web. Our collaboration features, like multiplayer editing and comments, keep the review process smooth and fast. Teams can focus on what they do best, and clients see a true-to-life version of the project from the get-go.

Common Ninja: What role do developer tools play in Vev, and how do they empower users to extend the platform’s capabilities?

Tine: With all the no-code tools out there, developers sometimes get sidelined — but Vev isn’t about cutting anyone out. We’re all about playing to everyone’s strengths. With our CLI, developers can craft custom components right in their local setup and deploy them straight into Vev. This means they can forget about the endless, tedious coding cycles and focus on the real challenges — the stuff that pushes creative boundaries.

Common Ninja: How does Vev support the specific needs of publishers, and what unique advantages does it offer for content-rich websites?

Tine: For publishers, timing is everything. They’re often stuck within the limits of their CMS templates, which works fine for daily news, but when it comes to more sophisticated content, planning has to start way in advance. This limits the types of projects they can take on. With Vev, clients are seeing time-to-market reduced by as much as 90%, letting them take on more ambitious projects without the usual constraints.

Common Ninja: Marketers have unique requirements for landing pages and campaigns. How does Vev cater to the dynamic needs of marketing teams?

Tine: For marketers, speed and flexibility are everything. Getting a campaign live is just the first step—what really matters are the quick changes that come after, based on traffic data and testing. With Vev, marketers can launch fast, and when they need to make tweaks, they can jump right into the content editor without worrying about breaking the design. Vev is designed to keep up with their need to experiment and adjust on the fly.

Common Ninja: Where do you see Vev in the next five years, both in terms of product development and market presence?

Tine: Our vision is straightforward: we aim for Vev to become an integral part of any

publishing setup, seamlessly integrating with any CMS or tech stack our clients

use while delivering the most creative and streamlined workflow for web

development. Today, front-end development often demands significant labor and

lacks flexibility. We plan to revolutionize this by providing a no-code solution for

front-end production. Vev will be the visual layer for any CMS, enabling teams to

use Vev's unparalleled creative freedom to craft standout web experiences.

Conclusion

Vev has proven to be more than just a tool; it’s a game-changer that redefines how creative teams approach web development and digital content production. By empowering designers, developers, and marketers with seamless integration, collaborative workflows, and the freedom to push creative boundaries, Vev stands as a beacon for what’s possible in modern web design and content publishing. 

Its comprehensive platform not only accelerates project timelines but also fosters innovation, making it an indispensable asset for any team striving to deliver exceptional web experiences. As the landscape of digital content continues to evolve, Vev is poised to lead the way, reshaping how creative professionals work and collaborate.