Studio

We are Standard, a design + technology studio giving form to ambitious ideas. We deliver memorable design systems that power brands, editorial experiences, and product interfaces.

We partner with ambitious teams to tackle complex challenges through strategic, research-driven, and iterative design. The traditional engagement model—with fixed scopes and rigid contracts—undermines creativity and collaboration. To break free from that, we’ve adopted a transparent, sprint-based model that aligns incentives, removes negotiation hurdles, and allows us to focus on what truly matters.

We’re hungry to take on meaningful problems and to push ourselves and our partners to explore new possibilities—and we’re foolish enough to question the status quo. Our approach frees us from convention, enabling bold thinking and real innovation at a time when design is often stale and over-optimized. We believe the future belongs to the rule-breakers—and we’re always looking for collaborators ready to build it with us.

Approach

Partnership

Partnerships enable us to deliver excellent work. Our partnerships are not just transactional vendor-customer arrangements, they are long-term, ongoing relationships. We become part of our clients’ teams, and they become part of ours. This teamwork mentality empowers us to dig deep, integrate with our partners, and get to know their businesses from the inside. As a full-stack studio, we approach each project holistically—from early strategic direction to design and implementation—and adapt along the way to ensure our partners’ success.

Process

Our process is strategic, research-driven, and MVP-based. We focus on the essentials and build around that. Iteration is at the core of our process, enabling us to be tactical, flexible, and adapt often. When we work iteratively we are able to target our efforts where they will have the most impact, resulting in less risk, reduced costs, and more deliberate design.

Pricing

A predetermined scope of work hinders the design process—it undermines our ability to collaborate with our clients and pits us against each other. Instead, we align our incentives by employing a transparent pricing model based on two-week cycles that we call sprints. Each sprint is priced at $14,400 and represents one iteration within a project. Timeline and budget become design constraints, and we calibrate each iteration to control spend. Our partners pay only for real work done and we are able to act as true creative partners.

Results

When we nail the fundamentals of our partnership-driven approach, supported by our iterative process and transparent pricing, it empowers us to be creative. We can embrace design’s messy nature—balancing open exploration with disciplined craft—to produce stunning, surprising, and delightful work. Design today is often over-optimized and stale, but our approach allows us to take the necessary risks to achieve something truly new.

Process + Collaboration

1

Strategy

Discovery

We begin every project with thorough research, evaluating existing data and filling any gaps with our own research and analysis. This process usually involves brand audits, market analysis, audience research, and stakeholder interviews.

Strategic Shaping

A solid strategic foundation is essential for a transformational project. In this phase, we work with our partners in collaborative workshop sessions to identify critical insights and turn those insights into a strategic platform that will guide all subsequent design decisions.

2

Design

Exploration + Ideation

We love the messiness of design, and in this phase we embrace it wholeheartedly. We research, sketch, experiment, and play. Through this process we begin transforming the insights of the strategic platform into potential creative concepts. We work closely with our partners throughout this process, choosing genuine collaboration over dramatic reveals.

Development

Through structured feedback and iteration cycles, we gradually refine the potential creative concepts, moving from broad exploration toward a single, cohesive design system. We take a holistic approach to the design development, considering how every element integrates to create a resilient system.

3

Implement

Build

Once the design system is established we expand it across the project touch points, whether it’s designing the first issues of a magazine, implementing web components in code, or creating branded collateral.

Deploy

Great execution is just as important as great ideas. We work directly with printers and producers to execute our vision with exactness, and we develop digital products in-house to ensure our designs are implemented with accuracy.

4

Document

Guidelines

After the initial push of the project has been completed, we deliver guidelines to be used for the production of future materials. These documents outline rules for consistently applying design elements—such as logos, color, typography, and art direction—and provide strategic guidance for content creation, editorial production, and brand expression.

Templates

In the final phase, we create tools for our partners to use the design system effectively. We deliver carefully documented templates for physical and digital applications to ensure quality and consistency across all touchpoints.

Capabilities

  • Visual identity
  • Design systems
  • Information architecture
  • User research + interviews
  • Content strategy
  • Brand strategy
  • Positioning
  • Art direction
  • Website design
  • Product design
  • Data visualization
  • Print + digital publications
  • Platform-native, full-stack web development
  • Modern CSS with fluid type + layouts
  • Progressive enhancement
  • Inclusive UI development
  • UI animation
  • High-fidelity prototyping
  • Design system development
  • Custom CMS implementation
  • Data modeling + migration
  • Hosting setup
  • API integration
  • Continuous integration + delivery

Values

  • Collaboration

    Being a creative partner
    The best way to make work that answers our clients’ needs is through radically open collaboration. We want to be a creative partner to our clients, working closely with them to develop their vision from start to finish.

    Transparency leads to better results
    To get the best results, we need to be aligned with our clients expectations every step of the way. We do this through establishing sprint goals, frequent check-ins, and transparent pricing.

  • People

    People over commerce
    We believe people who lead full lives make the best work. We work hard when we’re on the clock, but we make sure there is time outside of work to fill our wells. We don’t work weekends, we avoid late nights, and we don’t take on projects that sound boring just for the money.

    Relationships matter
    We are all in this together, so isn’t it best to just be kind? We want to be true creative partners with our clients, and good partnerships require trust and respect. We aspire to always be warm and friendly, and show up ready to work as a team.

  • Thinking

    Be strategic
    Good visual design is strategic. We begin the design process by establishing a strategic platform that is carried through every phase of the project. We aren’t an agency that pumps out templated and expected work—we dig deep to find tailored solutions.

    Strong opinions, loosely held
    We believe that a strong point of view, while occasionally polarizing, moves the world forward. We don’t serve our clients by keeping our thoughts and expertise to ourselves; we share what we know and what we believe will make the work better, then work together to chart a path forward.

  • Curiosity

    Good ideas come from everywhere
    Diverse perspectives lead to interesting work. We like to look for the good ideas in everything—art, film, nature, history. We indulge in our natural curiosity and see where it leads us.

    Design is a playground
    Design is about learning the rules so you can break them. It’s making beautiful things and telling great stories. It’s intellectual and human and it drives culture. Design is fun and we like to have fun while doing it.

  • Ambition

    Fueled by passion
    Our clients’ passion fuels our passion. Working with clients who have clear vision and high expectations challenges us to push beyond the surface level ideas and create boundary-pushing work.

    Pushing boundaries
    We don’t believe in limiting ourselves, we embrace boundless thinking. Every project is a blank canvas with limitless potential. We try new things and channel our creativity into practical real-world design.

  • Unexpected

    Fight against the obvious
    There is always a temptation to be obvious—obvious solutions are easy and safe. We fight against the temptation, choosing to work with people who want to take big swings and stand out against the crowd.

    Freshness guarantee
    We push the envelope and find unique solutions. Every client mission and every project is singular, so the end result should be equally as unique.

  • Practice

    Time equals results
    We believe that good ideas need room to grow. Extremely tight timelines lead to boring and expected design, so we work with our clients to make room in timelines so we can experiment and iterate and give them the best results.

    Share your work
    We don’t wait until something is picture perfect to get it in front of the team. We share messy ideas so we can work efficiently and refine them as a group.

  • Craft

    The highest standard
    We hold ourselves and our work to the highest standard. We reject design trends and deliver timeless work that will last for years.

    Implementation
    We design good work and we expect it to be fabricated at the highest quality. We build our own digital products to ensure our designs are implemented with accuracy.

Team

  • Portrait of Austin Maurer

    Austin Maurer

    Austin Maurer is a designer and technologist working in both analog and digital mediums—with particular interest in where they collide.

    Austin combines a background in traditional typography and design with technical skills in web development and code. His work includes crafting brand identities, digital design systems, websites, product interfaces, and printed publications for a variety of clients. His work has been recognized and featured by the Society of Publication Designers, the Society for News Design, the Type Directors Club, PRINT magazine, Communication Arts, Graphis, and others.

    Prior to founding Standard, Austin was an associate partner at Pentagram’s New York office. There, he spent six years working with partner Luke Hayman on numerous projects, including redesigning the alumni magazines for Brown and Northwestern universities as well as the flagship publication of the IEEE, Spectrum. Austin also led the design team for the rebranding and website redesign for Tablet, the daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture. Additionally, he worked on many identity design projects, including for Moravian University, Maxwell, Skiff, and others.

    Originally from Boise, Idaho, Austin studied design at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. He currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his family.

  • Portrait of Laura McNeill

    Laura McNeill

    Originally from Utah, Laura studied graphic design at Brigham Young University and began her career working at Pentagram in New York City. In 2019 she was awarded The One Club Young Ones Portfolio Award and the Communication Arts Award of Excellence. Her work has been featured in numerous design publications including Graphis, Communication Arts, and the Society of Publication Designers. Laura builds on a classical foundation of typography, composition and craft—principles that continue to shape her approach to identity systems, digital design, and printed publications today.