Writing from the studio — brand, packaging, web, print, and how we run a small design practice in Nuneaton. New posts roughly once a month.
Most logos solve the wrong problem. Here's a framework for designing marks that pull weight at every scale, every surface and every team meeting after launch.
Read the postThe shelf is a brutal test. Most brands fail it at the first 5-second glance. Five fixes that have nothing to do with the design and everything to do with the read.
The five things every local service business should fix this month, and the four that genuinely won't matter for the first year. What we recommend our clients do.
The case for evolution, not revolution. Three rebrand frameworks ordered from least to most ambitious — and how to choose which one your business actually needs.
Why principal-led studios consistently outperform mid-sized agencies on a particular set of project types — and the trade-offs the model doesn't hide.
The mistakes designers make when packaging is the final asset — judging covers in Figma at 1200px wide and missing what 5 metres away actually shows.
On running a design studio outside London. Why Nuneaton specifically, why the Midlands is underrated, and how that shapes the kind of work we end up doing.
The "three concepts" presentation is a relic of agency theatre. Why two genuinely different routes presented properly beats three safe variations every time.
Discovery happens at 200px wide on a phone. So why do we still design covers at 100% in print spreads? A workflow shift that makes every cover work harder.
Discover, Direction, Develop, Deliver — what each phase actually contains, why it's structured this way, and how to apply the same framework to your own work.
From the homepages we audit during pitches — the five conversion-killers that show up on roughly 80% of UK small business sites, and the cheapest fixes for each.
In an email-first world, the printed letterhead has quietly become a status object. What it signals, who uses it, and why we still design more than we'd expect to.
New posts, project news from the studio, occasionally a piece of work in progress, and the things we're learning along the way. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.