Design studio in Barcelona
We are a design studio in Barcelona that works mostly in English, for companies that are not from here. Some are international businesses opening or selling in Spain. Others are people who moved to the city, started something, and would rather run a project in their own language than through a translation layer.
- More than 10 years of experience
- More than 200 clients
- Barcelona, Miami and London
Who tends to end up here
Two kinds of client, roughly. The first is a company based somewhere else that needs work produced in Spain: a product launching in this market, packaging for a Spanish producer, a site that has to exist in two languages without one of them looking like an afterthought.
The second is closer to home. Barcelona has a large population of people who arrived for one reason and ended up building a business here. They are running a company in a country whose administrative language is not their own, and design is one more thing they would rather not do at one remove.
Neither group is looking for a tour of the city. They want to know whether the work is any good, whether anyone answers in August, and whether the files will arrive in a format their printer accepts.
What the studio does
Four disciplines, and they lean on each other. Almost no brief arrives pure. Whoever asks for a catalogue usually needs the brand tidied first, and whoever asks for a brand wants to see it applied to something before approving it.
- Brand identity, from the symbol through to the guidelines that say how it gets used
- Graphic design for companies: catalogues, product sheets, dossiers and presentations
- Packaging, including wine labels and spirits bottles
- Websites, which run on a different process and have their own page
- Custom illustration when a project needs it, rather than reaching for a stock library
Each of those has its own page in English: branding and brand identity, packaging design and web design. Two of them name a city because that is the market they were written for. The method does not change with the postcode.
Two languages, decided at the start
The studio works in English, Spanish and Catalan. For a brand that has to live in more than one of them, which language leads gets decided in the first week rather than at the end.
That matters more than it sounds. Spanish runs longer than English, often by about a fifth, so a headline that sits comfortably on a pack in one language overflows in the other. Navigation labels, menu structures and anything set inside a fixed box are where it shows up first. Translating finished artwork is how you end up redesigning it.
How a project runs when you are not in the city
Most of it remotely, in scheduled phases with a validation at the end of each one. Nothing in the method depends on the client being in Barcelona, and a good share of the work never has been.
We take on projects for companies in Madrid too, run exactly the same way. There is no office there, and claiming one to look bigger is not worth the two minutes it would buy.
Physical proofs travel. When a printed sample, a label on an actual bottle or a colour proof has to be judged, it gets couriered, or we photograph it properly under controlled light.
What being here actually changes
Two moments, mainly. At the start, understanding a business in a room takes roughly half the time it takes on a call, and people say things standing next to their own shelf that they never say on screen.
At the end, when something goes onto paper, vinyl or glass, there is real value in standing at the press or in the shop and deciding with the object in hand. That is the part remote work handles worst.
Meetings here are by appointment. There is no walk in office, and we would rather say so plainly than have somebody turn up at an address expecting a reception desk.
What we are not
Not the right studio for a media campaign with twenty pieces a week and twenty four hour turnarounds. That needs structure and a rota, and other people have both.
Not the cheapest either. If a decision is going to come down to price on its own, a freelance marketplace wins it, and we would rather say that on the first call than after writing a proposal.
A real example in the city, in the portfolio: the identity for the Eix Comercial del Poblenou, won in an open competition. Also the identity and posters for Encara Lab, a ceramics school.
How we work
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Free consultation
We work out what you need, who it is for and what it has to achieve. You leave with a budget range and a proposal for where to start.
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Scope in writing
The exact pieces, versions, review rounds and dates. You know what you will pay before anything starts.
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Design in stages
Concept, development and final artwork, with an agreed review at the end of each stage and one person at the studio who answers.
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Delivery and follow-up
Production-ready files, the usage rules in writing, and follow-up with the printer whenever print is involved.
Frequent questions
Do you work in English?
Yes, and for clients from outside Spain the whole project usually runs in English: brief, presentations, guidelines and final files. Spanish and Catalan are available on the same project when the brand has to exist in more than one language, which in this city is often.
Is there an office in Barcelona I can visit?
The studio is based in the city and we meet by appointment, but there is no open door office to walk into. We say it plainly because nobody should make a journey for nothing. Once a meeting is arranged, seeing each other in person is easy.
What is the difference between a design studio and a design agency?
The words get used interchangeably in search results and they do not mean the same thing. An agency usually covers strategy, media and production, with the headcount to support it. A freelancer gives you directness and speed, with the risk that one illness stops everything. A studio sits between the two: enough people for sustained judgement over months, not enough to be a department.
Do you work with companies in Madrid?
Yes, remotely, and it is a routine part of the work. There is no office in Madrid. The studio has bases in Barcelona, Miami and London, and everywhere else is served remotely on the same phased process.
Can you do packaging and a website, or only the brand?
All of it, and they are frequently the same project. A brand tends to want to be seen applied before anyone signs it off, so the packaging and the site end up being where it gets tested. Web runs on a different process, which is why it has a page of its own.
Tell us what you are working on
Use the qualification form to tell us what the company does, what exists already, and which language the project needs to run in. We come back with a read on it and a proposed scope. The first call is free.