About

A small design practice working across brand identity, print, and web - for clients and as personal study. Āta Studio is my independent design practice - brand, design, wordmarks, illustration, photography, interiors, and website design and development, all built the same way: starting with a conversation, not a mood board. Before I draw a mark, I listen. To the people behind a brand, the stories they carry, the values they want held in view. That korero, that pūrākau becomes the foundation everything else is built on: the typography, the colour, the tone, the way a brand moves across every touchpoint it touches. Āta -to move gently, carefully, deliberately - describes how I work as much as what I call the studio. Art and design made with care and purpose isn't just a line, it's the method. As a solo practice, I take on a limited number of projects at a time, so each one gets my full attention - no handoffs, no layer between the person building the brand and the person shaping it. Claude is part of my toolkit too, and I like building client-specific tools where they genuinely add value to a project. Outside client work, I'm an artist, and I work with my hands as much as I work on a screen. When it's quiet, I turn to painting, ceramics and pottery, drawing onto old tents and canvas (increasingly sewn into bags), furniture making, rug making, and shaping my own surfboards. Working on a computer taught me to go back to the workshop - and that back-and-forth between hand and screen is part of what I bring to a brand: an eye for materiality that comes from actually handling materials, and an instinct for how something is made, not just how it looks. SERVICES Brand Identity Design Wordmarks & Lettering Illustration Photography Interior Design Website Design & Development