About
A small studio with large opinions.
Founded in 2016 by two designers who had spent a decade in big agencies watching good ideas get diluted. We kept the ambition and lost the layers.
The Lisbon studio. London is a desk, a printer and very good coffee.
Who we are
Two partners. No account layer. Both of us on every project.
We bring in a small circle of senior collaborators — photographers, developers, writers — when a project needs them. You will always know who is doing the work.
Inês Ferro
Partner · Strategy & identity
Fifteen years naming things and drawing marks, first at a large London agency and then for the clients who followed her out of it. Believes a brand is a set of decisions, not a set of files.
- Judge, D&AD New Blood
- Collects museum tickets, alphabetically
- Will defend Helvetica but not to the death
Tomás Reis
Partner · Digital & design systems
Designer who codes, or developer who designs, depending on the day. Has shipped storefronts, museum ticketing systems and a lot of very fast marketing sites. Allergic to carousels.
- Speaker, Awwwards Conference
- Former competitive sailor
- Owns one typeface too many
What we believe
We would rather be right than busy.
Every brand we admire made a small number of hard choices early and kept making them. That is what we help you do — then we design the evidence.
- 01
Clarity beats cleverness
If a stranger cannot say what you do in one sentence after seeing the work, the work is not done.
- 02
Decisions, not decoration
A brand is the sum of choices a company makes in public. We design the choices first.
- 03
Senior hands only
Nothing is handed down to a junior you have never met. The people who pitch are the people who make.
- 04
Built to be run
Everything we hand over is designed for the team who inherits it — templates, systems, training.
Who we have worked with
Founders, museums, publishers, festivals.
NORTHSTAR
Halden
ferment&co.
ARBOR
Lumen
TIDE
Marrow Press
OKA·
Work with us
If this sounds like your kind of studio, say hello.
We reply to every inquiry personally, usually within two working days.