EVIDENCE / VERDICT / ARTIFACT / RESTRAINT IS THE AESTHETIC / CULTURAL FORENSICS / STRANGE FINDINGS / NOTHING WITHOUT A FINDING /
EVIDENCE / VERDICT / ARTIFACT / RESTRAINT IS THE AESTHETIC / CULTURAL FORENSICS / STRANGE FINDINGS / NOTHING WITHOUT A FINDING /
A BRAND STRATEGY & DESIGN STUDIO
We find it.
We define it.
We build it.
EST. 2022
THE BELIEF
Your brand already has the strange thing. The specific, uncomfortable, true thing that makes you worth noticing. Most studios help you sand it down. We won't.
THE METHOD
Cultural Forensics
01 / EXCAVATE. Everything is gathered, nothing is judged. Stakeholders, internal materials, audience behavior, cultural context. All of it is admissible.
02 / ANALYZE. The evidence is examined for the pattern that matters: the single truth holding the brand back, or the opportunity it has not seen.
03 / RECORD. The findings become The Record: what was found, what it means, and what to do about it. An intelligence document, not a deck.
04 / ACTIVATE. The Record becomes the work. Identity, design, and expression built directly from the findings, so every artifact traces back to its evidence.
The method runs in public. The case index below is it, working.
THE CASE INDEX / 03 FILES
FILE 001 / MARK / Gallant
Brand Strategy, Identity, Packaging / Wellness
A performance wellness brand built from scratch for a high-profile founder. The CBD category was saturated: overhyped, underperforming, visually indistinguishable. The brief was to cut through without adding to the noise.
THE EVIDENCE: The co-founder himself. Tribal markings, Tulsa roots, the physicality of a career built on discipline.
THE VERDICT: The identity was already drawn. The investigation just had to find it.
FILE 002 / MARK / Bar Capital
Brand Strategy, Identity, Website / Finance
A Wall Street firm with real credibility and a brand that looked like every other player in the space: safe, muted, forgettable. They were built for what comes next in finance. Their brand said nothing of the sort.
THE EVIDENCE: The name itself. A bar is a standard you raise. The firm had been saying its own ambition out loud the whole time.
THE VERDICT: They weren't built for the past of finance. The verdict made that ambition the entire visual language.
FILE 003 / MARK/MAKE / Abuelitos
Naming, Identity, Packaging, Voice, Campaign, Website / Food & Beverage
A founder with a legacy to honor and a product ready for shelves, but no name, no identity, no visual system. Everything built from the ground up.
THE EVIDENCE: The grandfather. A real person, not a mascot. The kitchen, the recipes, the memory of a home that smelled like cooking.
THE VERDICT: The brand wasn't about the sauce. It was about the person who inspired it. The grandfather. The silhouette. The feeling of a kitchen that smelled like home.
Strange Findings
What we notice when we stop looking away
Mar 2026.
No. 01
July 2026.
No. 02
No. 03
Case 002: New Balance 990
Coming.
One issue a month. One uncomfortable truth at the center.
What we offer.
MAKE
Strategy and identity. The brand, built from its foundation.
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Identify Systems & Naming
Website & Mobile Design
MARK
Creative direction and production. The brand, alive in the world.
Campaign & Creative Direction
Package & Label Design
Content & Design Execution
Everything we build starts with an investigation. Small ones are priced. Big ones are scoped. Nothing is designed before something is found.
Door one:
"I want to test the method." The Verdict, $500. One page. One judgment, in writing, inside five business days. Or the Mini Forensic, $2,000. A focused investigation into your brand's cultural position, delivered in ten days. Fixed price, fixed scope, no call required.
Door two:
"I need the brand built." It starts with The Record: the full investigation, scoped per project. Strategy, positioning, identity, naming, and web and mobile design are built from it, never before it.
This is MARK.
Door three:
"The foundation is set. I need it kept alive." Creative direction, campaigns, packaging, and design execution, on retainer.
This is MAKE.
If something
landed,
that's the signal.
The studio takes a limited number of engagements at a time.
We work with clients who want a reason behind every decision.
