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Team member

Ines Kowalski

Founder, creative director

Portrait of Ines Kowalski

At the studio since

2012, founding year

Based in

Your City

Leads

Identity, art direction

Favourite typeface

A tight grotesk, set big

Currently reading

The Shape of a Pocket

About

Ines

Ines started the studio in a spare room with two desks and one rule: never make work that could belong to anyone else.

Before the studio she spent eight years inside brand teams and agencies, long enough to learn how great ideas get softened on their way to launch. She now leads every identity project herself, from the first workshop to the last guideline page.

Her work is known for confident type, rare colour and a stubborn refusal to follow category habits. She teaches a short brand course each spring and sits on the jury of two design awards.

If you write to the studio, she is the one who reads it and replies.

14

Years leading

60+

Identities led

19

Awards

In their words

A brand is a promise you keep in small ways, every day. The logo is only the handshake.

Short questions

Ten minutes

with

Ines

.

What makes good work last?

One honest idea, repeated until it becomes habit. Trends help for a season. A point of view lasts for decades.

What do you say no to?

Briefs that ask us to look like our client's biggest competitor. If it could belong to anyone, we do not want it.

Best advice for clients?

Decide who you are not for. Everything gets clearer, including the design.

Where do ideas come from?

Bookshops, bad signage and long walks. Never a moodboard first.

Recognition

Awards and talks.

2025

Brand of the Year, shortlist

Design Week Awards

2024

Gold, Identity

Type & Grid Club

2023

Keynote: Brands Without Briefs

Create Conference

2022

Jury member, Branding

European Design Awards

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