Independent brand & product studio
Mara Ridge is a small senior team. We take on a handful of engagements at a time and stay on them from the first workshop to the day the work is live.
Naming, identity and the written rules that keep it consistent once we hand it over.
Interface design and front-end direction for websites, portals and onboarding flows.
The story, the assets and the sequence for putting something new in front of people.
What we take on
Most studios list everything. We run three lanes because they are the ones we can staff with senior people from start to finish. If your work sits outside them, we will say so in the first reply.
Best for a studio, practice or product company that has outgrown a logo made in a hurry.
We start with the words. Name, positioning line and the three sentences your team will repeat in every meeting — then the visual system that has to survive being used by people who were not in the room.
Best when the site or app is the product, and the next release is already scoped.
Design that arrives as components rather than pictures of screens. We work against your stack, pair with whoever builds it, and leave behind something your developers can extend without calling us.
Best when the thing is finished and the date is fixed, but the story is not written.
One narrative, then every asset cut from it. We plan the sequence backwards from launch day so your team knows what ships in which week, and what can be dropped if time runs short.
Selected work
Three recent engagements, described by what was made and what it had to solve. Client names are held back until a project is publicly launched.
Fifteen years of one-off marks across stamps, labels and the shopfront. We settled on a single wordmark, a two-weight type scale and a glaze-derived palette, then wrote rules simple enough for a two-person team to apply themselves.
New accounts stalled before the first useful action. We mapped every state, cut the sign-up to three screens, and delivered a component library the in-house team now ships from without design sitting in the loop.
Eleven weeks from brief to open. One narrative about where the coffee actually comes from, then a landing page, an eight-part email sequence and a shoot direction the roaster's own photographer could keep running afterwards.
How we work
Projects slip when the studio is waiting on something nobody named. So we name it up front: every step below lists the decision or material we need from your side to keep moving.
A call and a short written summary of what we understood. If we think the work belongs somewhere else, this is where we say it.
From youAnything you already have — decks, analytics, old guidelines.A workshop, then a written scope: what ships, what does not, the sequence and the dates either side depends on.
From youOne decision-maker in the room for the full session.Two review points, not a drip of screenshots. Directions are shown in context, and we bring a recommendation rather than three equal options.
From youConsolidated feedback within three working days.Files, sources and a walkthrough recorded for whoever joins later. Thirty days of questions answered at no extra cost.
From youThe team who will own the work after we step back.Ways to work together
Every engagement is quoted as a fixed fee against a written scope, billed in stages. The shape below mostly decides how long you have us and how the work is sequenced.
For teams who are not sure whether the problem is the brand, the product or the message. Ends with a written recommendation you can act on with or without us.
The usual shape. A single lane, start to finish, with the two review points and a fixed handover date agreed before we begin.
For in-house teams who need senior design hands on a regular rhythm rather than one large push. Limited to two retainers at a time.
Before you write
A fixed fee against a written scope, agreed before any design starts and billed in stages across the engagement. We quote from the scope rather than from hours, so a faster team does not cost you more. If the scope changes mid-project we re-quote the difference in writing before we do the work.
The people you meet in the read-in call. We are a small senior team and we do not pass projects to juniors after the pitch. When a project needs a specialist we do not have — motion, photography, copy in another language — we bring in a collaborator we have worked with before and name them to you first.
Yes. Full ownership of the final work transfers to you on final payment, including editable source files, fonts we licensed on your behalf and any components we built. We keep the right to show the work publicly once it has launched, and we will wait if you ask us to.
Often that is the better arrangement. We will work in your tools, join your stand-ups if it helps, and structure the handover so your team can carry the work forward. What we ask for is one person on your side who can make decisions without convening a committee each time.
Usually four to eight weeks, because we cap how many projects run at once. If your date is fixed and close, tell us in the brief — occasionally a diagnostic sprint fits in a gap while a larger slot opens up later in the quarter.
Work where the deadline cannot accommodate a definition step, competitive pitches done on spec, and projects in a lane we do not run. We would rather say no in the first reply than take a brief we cannot do well. Where we can, we point you towards someone better suited.
Start a brief
A few lines is enough to begin. We read every brief ourselves and reply either with times for a read-in call or with an honest no.