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About the Studio

We build
brands that
endure

Lumen was founded in 2018 by creative director Elena Vasquez with a single belief: that most design work is too safe, too derivative, and too quick to compromise.

We are a boutique studio of eight people who care deeply about craft, reject mediocrity on principle, and believe that the work is the best marketing a studio can do.

We work with a small number of clients at any given time. Intentionally. We'd rather do ten projects extraordinarily well than forty projects adequately.

Every project we take on is handled entirely in-house — by our team, not by freelancers or subcontractors. When you work with Lumen, you work with Lumen.

120+
Projects delivered since founding
8
People in the studio
18
Industry awards won
What We Believe

Our Values

I
Craft Over Quantity

We take on fewer projects so we can give each one the attention it deserves. We will never compromise quality for throughput.

II
Strategy First

We don't make things pretty. We make things work. Every aesthetic decision is rooted in a strategic reason that we can articulate.

III
Radical Honesty

We tell clients what we believe, not what they want to hear. That includes telling someone their existing logo is fine when it is.

IV
Long-Term Thinking

We build identities to last 20 years, not 2. Trend-chasing is the enemy of enduring brand equity.

V
Total Ownership

Everything we produce is made in-house. We don't outsource. We don't use templates. Every file starts from scratch.

VI
Results Matter

Beautiful work that doesn't move the business forward is decoration. We track outcomes and care about what the work achieves.

The People

Our Team

E
Elena Vasquez
Founder & CD
Former Pentagram. 18 years in brand design across two continents. Obsessive about typography and long-distance cycling.
J
James Okafor
Design Director
Formerly at Wolff Olins and Moving Brands. Specialises in identity systems for complex, multi-stakeholder organisations.
S
Sofia Marchetti
Web Design Lead
A decade of designing at the intersection of editorial and interactive. Picky about typefaces and equally picky about whitespace.
M
Marcus Holt
Motion Director
Studied film before discovering that 5-second logo stings can be as cinematic as a feature. Convinced everyone else of this too.
Our History

Six years
building

2018
Founded in Brooklyn
Elena starts Lumen in a spare bedroom with three clients and a belief that small studios can do better work than large agencies.
2019
First major award
The Aurum Spirits rebrand wins a D&AD Pencil and gets us featured in Brand New. The phone doesn't stop ringing for six months.
2020
Studio grows to 6
We hire our web design and motion leads, add a London presence, and start turning down more work than we accept.
2022
Meridian Capital project
The finance sector finds us. We learn that conservative industries are hungry for design that takes them seriously without being boring.
2024
100th project milestone
We complete our 100th project, turn 6 years old, and publish our first journal on design and independent studio practice.
Recognition

Awards

2024
Brand Identity of the Year
Communication Arts
2024
Silver — Packaging
The Dieline Awards
2023
Studio of the Year
Design Week
2023
Gold — Web Design
Awwwards
2022
Wood Pencil — Branding
D&AD
2019
Yellow Pencil — Identity
D&AD

Ready to
make something
great?

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