The studio
We make identities and websites for companies that would rather be specific than loud. Strategy, design and build by a small team in one room on Chicago’s Near West Side, with no hand-offs.
Larkmoor City Archive
01 / 04 · Civic culture · 2026
Our part
Larkmoor City Archive · Civic culture · 2026
A public archive with a century of maps and photographs wanted more people to use it. We renamed the collection, drew an identity from its own index cards and built a site where every record reads like a page.
Example measure: monthly archive visits and records opened per visit, tracked from launch
Tessaly Pay · Fintech · 2026
A payments start-up for small studios and shops. We made a quiet identity, a motion system that slows down at the moment you pay, and a product UI kit their team ships with every week.
Example measure: onboarding completion, tracked by the client's team each week
Ferrow & Daughters · Packaged food · 2025
A family maker of dried pasta and grains moving from farmers' markets to grocery shelves. We built a packaging system where the grain itself sets the colour and one bold number sets the cooking time.
Example measure: stores stocking the range, counted a year after launch
Okun Lyle Architects · Architecture · 2025
A small architecture practice whose best work lived in sketchbooks. We built an identity from their line weights and a portfolio site where each project draws itself in as you read.
Example measure: competition shortlists in the year after launch
01
We start with what makes you specific: research, positioning and a name, if you need one.
02
Marks, type, colour and the rules that let your team use them without calling us.
03
Websites and product UI designed and built together, so nothing gets lost at handover.
04
How the brand moves on screen, from a logo sting to the way a page loads.
A typical identity and website takes about twelve weeks. You see work every Friday, and nothing ships without your sign-off.
01 · Weeks 1–2
Interviews with your team and customers, a look at the competition, and one page that says what we are making and why.
You get: A written brief you sign off
02 · Weeks 3–6
Two directions, then one. We test the mark, type and colour on real things: packs, pages, a sign, a slide.
You get: The identity and its rules
03 · Weeks 7–12
Site and product screens designed in the browser with the people who build them, reviewed every Friday.
You get: A working site on your domain
04 · Launch + 30 days
We stay on after launch to fix, tune and train your team, then hand over every file and login.
You get: Files, guidelines and a handover call
Sample notes
Essay
Rules written after six months of real use are the ones a team keeps.
Test
We printed twelve widths and walked past them at shopping pace.
Studio
Fixes, tuning, training, and the day we hand over every login.
