A radio station without a frequency.

An independent audio publisher, rebuilt around a distinct sonic and visual grammar.

We began with a week of listening. Field Notes FM arrived with a strong point of view but a diffuse expression — the language had matured faster than the visuals, and the two were beginning to speak past each other. Our discovery focused less on aesthetic references and more on the sentences the team already used with their most loyal audience.

From that grounding, the studio drafted three directions in parallel. Rather than pitching a single winner, we treated the review as a shared editing pass — narrowing on one direction and folding the strongest instincts from the others into it. The result was quieter than any of the initial sketches, and more assured for it.

“The most considered studio we've worked with in a decade of building publications.”

The design decisions that followed all descend from a single premise: give the reader room. That meant a restrained type system carrying most of the personality, imagery treated as punctuation rather than wallpaper, and a colour palette that reads first as a mood and only later as a scheme. Every layout in the system passes a simple test — can it be scanned in five seconds and still reward five minutes.

We shipped the work in three phases across 8 weeks, with weekly reviews and a single point of contact throughout. Post-launch, the studio stayed on for a light retainer to steward the first three months of application — the phase where new systems either take root or drift.

The approach

The measurable outcomes have been quietly encouraging: the art direction work now anchors the brand's clearest surfaces, and the internal team has begun using it as a reference document for adjacent decisions. The system has aged into its role rather than performed it — which is exactly the register we aim for.

More than the numbers, the piece we're proudest of is the internal shift. Field Notes FM's team writes and briefs with more confidence now that the visual language matches the editorial one. That kind of alignment is difficult to design directly; it tends to be the by-product of getting the earlier work right.