A studio is the people in it
Everything here is arranged around keeping the person you meet and the person who makes the work the same person. It is not a management philosophy. It is what you conclude after enough years of watching the alternative.
Founded
Two people and one rule about publishing prices. Now twenty-four, in two cities.
Brand systems
Across utilities, banking, software, drinks, healthcare, logistics and property.
People
Strategists who draw and designers who write. Nobody here only briefs somebody else.
Studios
Amsterdam and Lisbon, one hour apart. There is not going to be a third.
Weeks
The same nine for every project, whatever the size of the company buying it.
Recognitions
Given by people we did not pay to give them, which is the only kind worth counting.
No account managers overpromising. No vacuum strategists handing over fiction to designers who think they are paid to make art. No protective buffer between clients and practitioners. It's not an attitude or management philosophy. Just something that makes sense once you've been doing the work long enough to realize it.
Amsterdam
Veemarktstraat 118, 1019 Amsterdam. The bigger of the two rooms, and the one with the wall everything gets pinned to. Say hello — amsterdam@hardstand.example
Get in touch
Lisbon
Rua do Cais 41, 1200 Lisbon. Opened in 2021, an hour behind, and the reason somebody is still at a desk at seven in the evening. Say hello — lisbon@hardstand.example
Get in touchWe believe
Eight things we stopped arguing about internally, and now say out loud before the first invoice.