We designed brands from inside a SaaS company before we built a studio around it

Brand identity and marketing sites for B2B SaaS companies at the inflection point. Five people. East Austin, Texas. Independent since 2022.

2022

Year we went independent

5

People. Intentionally.

$28M

Raised by clients post-engagement

2–3

New projects per quarter. That’s it.

Marcus and Priya met as the first two in-house designers at Meridian,

a B2B project management platform for commercial construction. They built the brand from scratch, ran the marketing site through three full redesigns, and watched the company grow from 40 employees to nearly 300 before its Series C.

What they learned in those five years: most design agencies — even good ones — don’t actually understand how a SaaS company works. They’d come in, produce beautiful deliverables, and hand off a brand that had no relationship to the product, the sales process, or the investor narrative. Marcus and Priya would spend months translating that work into something operationally useful.

“We went independent in 2022 specifically to be the studio we wished Meridian had hired.”

They opened a shared studio on East 6th Street in Austin.

They’ve agreed not to grow beyond seven or eight people. Not because they can’t, but because they’ve seen what happens when studios scale past the point where founders are still doing the work.

Every engagement follows the same six-phase structure. No exceptions.

Phase 1

Fit Call

Marcus or Priya joins—never both. Before the call, we ask three questions: What stage is your company in? What is your rough timeline? What specifically prompted you to reach out now?

That last question tells us more than anything else.
Every call ends with a clear next step or a clear reason why it is not the right moment. If it is a fit, a one-page proposal follows within 48 hours.

Deliverables

Three qualification questions answered upfront

15-minute call with a co-founder

Positioning statement + messaging hierarchy

One-page scope and investment proposal within 48 hours
Phase 2

Discovery Sprint

Priya leads every project with a structured discovery sprint before any design work begins. This is where we figure out what’s actually true about the company — not the pitch deck version, the real version. What the product does that nothing else does. What the founding team believes. Who the buyer actually is and what makes them trust something.

The output is a Strategic Brief that every subsequent decision points back to. It’s not a mood board exercise — it’s a positioning document.

Deliverables

Stakeholder interviews (founders, sales, 2–3 customers)

Competitive landscape audit

Positioning statement + messaging hierarchy

Strategic Brief (shared Notion doc)
Phase 3

Creative Direction

Before a single mark is drawn, Marcus presents two distinct visual directions—not variations, but actual alternatives. Each direction includes:
— A mood board
— A strategic rationale
— Two or three sample applications

We walk through both directions via Loom first, giving you time to sit with the work. We then hold a 60-minute live review. You choose one direction. The other is archived. No hybrids.

Deliverables

Two distinct directions with mood boards and rationales

Loom walkthrough and 60-minute live review call

One direction selected and locked
Phase 4

Identity System

With a direction locked, Marcus builds out the full brand system. We approach every mark from the inside out, grounding it in what is actually true about the company rather than what currently looks popular in the category.

The result is almost always more distinctive because it has something real to be distinctive about. Two rounds of revisions are included. A third round is billed at a day rate.

Deliverables

Primary mark and variations

Loom Colour system and typography and 60-minute live review call

Secondary elements and iconography direction

Brand guidelines in Notion and PDF formats
Phase 5

Web Design

Sam leads web design, running parallel to the identity work when the timeline allows.
Every site starts with wireframes. We establish structure and hierarchy before aesthetics.
Pages are presented in order of importance:
— Homepage
— Primary conversion page
— About page

Two rounds of design revisions are included.
Everything is designed in Figma, from wireframes through full-fidelity designs, before Dani writes a line of code.

Deliverables

Wireframes for all pages in Figma

Full-fidelity designs presented page by page

Responsive specifications and component notes

Full Figma file for your team to keep
Phase 5

Build & Launch

Dani builds the site from the approved Figma files in WordPress using the Kadence suite.
It is the platform she knows best, and “best” means faster, cleaner, and easier to hand off than the alternatives.

Every site includes a 30-day post-launch window for fixes, along with a handoff call so your team knows how to update its own content.

Deliverables

WordPress and Kadence build

Rank Math SEO and Gravity Forms setup

Quality assurance, DNS transfer, and launch

Handoff call

30-day post-launch warranty for bug fixes