We love design. For us, design is not a commodity, it’s an act of imagination. It’s a way of thinking, a medium for cultural and technological change. We love design for what it is at its core: the intersection of art and problem-solving, a space where creativity becomes practical and ideas take shape.
We love the optimism of design. Design is, at its best, the act of envisioning a better future and then working to make it real. This optimism is central to our process. We love the messiness of creation—the play, the experimentation, the failures, and the eventual breakthroughs. When we approach problems from multiple perspectives and explore new territories, we are rewarded with the possibility of bringing something truly novel into the world.
Radically open collaboration is our secret sauce
We want to do ambitious, innovative work—and that requires a different kind of relationship. We’re not interested in short-term, transactional exchanges or rigidly scoped engagements. Instead, we seek long-term creative partnerships rooted in trust, openness, and shared ownership. When we have the opportunity to work closely and collaboratively with partners over time, we gain a deep understanding of the domain, the goals, and the constraints. This understanding allows us to contribute meaningfully and push together toward the best possible outcome.
We’ve learned that our best work emerges in relationships where divergent thinking is not only possible but expected—where exploration, uncertainty, and even contradiction are welcomed. Unfortunately, the traditional agency-client model is structured in ways that suppress exactly this kind of thinking.
The traditional engagement model is broken
The traditional engagement model—with fixed scopes and fees—almost always sets up a transactional relationship that misaligns incentives. Studios are incentivized to cut corners and minimize time spent; clients are incentivized to extract as much as possible for a set fee. It’s a lose-lose situation. This dynamic pits each side against the other, rewarding speed over excellence and predictability over innovation. Worse, it creates rigidity. If we discover a better solution mid-project—something outside the original scope—there’s little room to pivot. New approaches are likely to be ignored, as they’re contractually incompatible with the existing scope and not worth the change orders, fee negotiations, and bureaucratic friction required to make them happen. As a result, great ideas are left on the table, and truly collaborative design becomes nearly impossible.
So, we’ve built something different.
We work differently
Inspired by like-minded studios such as SanctuCompu and Set Studio, we’ve developed a transparent engagement model that aligns incentives and enables creative exploration. Our pricing is based on fixed two-week sprints at $14,400 each. This removes the need for endless negotiations and eliminates scope constraints, allowing us to focus on what matters: solving the problem in the best way possible.
Sprints can be stand-alone design exercises, but are typically iterative cycles that occur within larger projects. Sprints power our MVP-based process and are a natural way to break up work.
This model allows us to work iteratively, recalibrating with each sprint based on what we learn. It gives us and our partners the flexibility to explore different directions, adjust as needed, and make decisions grounded in real insights. Budgets and timelines become strategic constraints rather than rigid barriers, helping us prioritize and focus without stifling creativity. We communicate costs openly, track spend transparently, and invoice only for actual work completed. Our partners don’t pay more than the true cost to get to launch—and they get tailor-made work shaped by insight, collaboration, and shared goals.
Our process is an onion
Our process is strategic, research-driven, and MVP-based. We begin by working with our partners to identify what is essential—what will have the greatest impact—and build it. By cutting through the noise and focusing on the core of a product or concept, we are able to reduce risk, control costs, and make more intentional design decisions.
From there, we iterate. Each sprint is a chance to learn, refine, and build further. Once we have achieved core MVP functionality, each subsequent sprint becomes a prioritized nice-to-have that can be layered over the core product, enhancing and evolving it into something more and more capable. This process gives us the advantage of having a fully-formed product sooner, which we can test and iteratively refine. It may not have every feature or capability yet, but it performs its essential mission. And it can be launched at any time. It’s a process that’s tactical, flexible, and driven by real-world feedback.
Hungry and foolish
We’re hungry to take on big, meaningful problems—to push ourselves and our partners to think bigger and act bolder—and we’re foolish enough to question the status quo. Our model frees us from convention and empowers us to take risks in ways that open up entirely new possibilities. Design today is often over-optimized and stale, but our approach allows us to take the necessary risks to create something truly new. The opportunity lies in unorthodoxy. By rethinking how we engage, we’ve carved out space for deeper collaboration and more meaningful work. And we’re looking for ambitious partners who are ready to break from the norm and build the future—with us.