Eleven years in, the editor still answers her own emails, the studio dog still attends every meeting, and yet — somehow — clients keep signing. A long read about a studio that says no twice as often as yes.
FIG. 01 · Inside the studio on a Wednesday morning, sometime before noon. The dog, Atlas, is present in roughly 90% of every meeting.
The studio sits on the second floor of a building that should have been condemned in 1987. It wasn't, and now, eleven years later, it houses a team of nine people, two studio dogs, and a printer that everyone has named, against advice.
What is unusual about The Weekly Studio is what they refuse to do: they don't pitch, they don't do unpaid work, and they don't take more than two projects a quarter. Which would be a problem, except that the projects they do take tend to be remarkable.
Founders Lia and Theo started in 2014 with a single rule pinned to the kitchen wall: don't make anything you wouldn't put on the cover. Eleven years and one bigger kitchen later, that rule is still there.
The studio's portfolio includes a national museum, three foundries, the second oldest brewery in Tromsø, and a small reading app whose founder cried during the kickoff. (She insists this is not unusual when she works with us, but we suspect she is being polite.)
What unites them, the editor argues, is restraint. “We remove three things from every project before we sign it. The fourth thing we sometimes remove during.” She does not appear to be joking.
This week, the studio opens two new project slots for the third quarter. By Friday, they will be full.
Continued on page B2 ▸Elsewhere in this edition: the studio's complete project market, an editor's note on slow design, six fresh letters from clients, a classified ad for a freelance type designer (we know it's unusual), and the latest from the studio dog — who has, by all accounts, had a very good week.
And finally, a recipe.
— Inside this issue —
A1 front · B1 work · C1 market · D1 letters · E1 editor · F1 classifieds · Z1 colophon
A six-month rebrand of a Norwegian skincare house, ending in a product line, a website, and an unusually quiet launch night.
The brief was to make Halden Mineral less good and more memorable. Six months later, we'd renamed three products, redrawn the system, and built a fifteen-page site that does almost no scrolling — by client request, after a long argument we lost.
The launch sold out the first batch on Tuesday morning. Investors, characteristically, were displeased and pleased in roughly equal measure.
BY L. SAARI · WORK EDITOR · 02 / 26
The twelfth issue of the architecture journal we've been designing since the third. Heavier than last year. Half the cover photos shot on film. Currently shipping at 1,200 copies, with a print-run we expect to sell out by July.
BY F. HOLBROOK · 01 / 26
A thirty-eight-year-old private equity firm decided, against its instinct, to look like a firm built this decade. Identity, investor portal, 80 pages of corporate stationery, and a quiet launch that nobody outside the industry noticed — which was the point.
BY T. PEARCE · 11 / 25
A reading app sells… ceramics? Yes — a small edition of thirty hand-thrown ceramic bookends, sold in three days, two emails, no marketing. The founder still has one. The other twenty-nine have been spotted in libraries across four cities.
BY L. SAARI · 09 / 25
An identity and a 36-strong packaging family for a microbrewery in Tromsø. Each can is a different shade, each shade is named after a fjord, each fjord is mispronounced by us at every press conference.
BY F. HOLBROOK · 03 / 25
Identity and exhibition graphics for Kunsthalle Bern's spring '25 program. Six shows, one consistent voice, three thousand printed posters, and a small queue outside the building every Saturday at 11:00 sharp.
BY T. PEARCE · 02 / 25
| Code | Engagement | Lead time | Team | From | Status | Slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDN | Brand identityNaming · marks · system · type |
10—14 weeks | 2 designers, 1 strategist | €26,000 | OPEN | 2 / Q3 |
| WEB | WebsiteDesign, build, CMS, handoff |
8—12 weeks | 1 designer, 1 engineer | €32,000 | OPEN | 1 / Q3 |
| PRD | Digital productApp, dashboard, configurator |
14—22 weeks | 2 designers, 2 engineers | €84,000 | OPEN | 1 / Q4 |
| BOK | Editorial & booksCatalogue, journal, monograph |
12—16 weeks | 1 designer, 1 editor | €14,000 | WAITLIST | 0 / Q3 |
| MTN | Motion & filmBrand films, idents, loops |
6—10 weeks | 1 director, 1 designer | €18,000 | OPEN | 3 / Q3 |
| RTN | RetainerEmbedded design partner |
6 month min. | Half a studio | €25,000 / mo | FULL | 0 |
| FBL | Feasibility studyPre-engagement |
2 weeks · fixed | 1 partner + studio | €4,800 | OPEN | 4 / always |
Dear Editor — I want to register, on the record, that the rebrand your studio delivered last quarter has done what three previous agencies failed to do over four years. We launched on a Tuesday. By Thursday, our sales were up thirty-eight percent. By the weekend, the board had stopped suggesting tweaks. I write this as a thank-you and also a slight complaint: I now have to find a new agency to be unhappy with.
You have done the rare and unusual thing of building something my users describe with their hands. Long-form reading is a difficult category, full of bad design dressed up as restraint. What you handed us is restraint with a little smirk underneath, and I find I love it. Thank you, and please tell Atlas (the dog) we will be sending biscuits.
It has been twelve issues now. I no longer know how to work with another studio, and frankly, I no longer want to. The journal looks the way I imagined it looking when I was twenty-one and could not afford the paper for one issue. What you make for us is, I think, the most accurate thing I will ever publish about architecture.
Lives in Lisbon. Was born in Helsinki. Started the studio with Theo Pearce in a one-room office. Now there are nine of them, plus Atlas the dog. Writes this column most weeks.
We have been making things on the internet for long enough to remember when the internet was an interesting place. We are still trying to make it one. Every Wednesday for the last twelve years, this column has appeared in some form — in print, online, occasionally only by mistake. The idea has not changed. The idea is: don't make anything you wouldn't put on the cover.
This week the studio opens two new project slots. By Friday, in all likelihood, they will be full. We will say no to most of the people who write to us, because we do not believe in making more than two good things at a time. This is not a marketing position. It is, after eleven years, the only position we can defend.
If you are reading this because you want to work with us, write us a letter. If you are reading this because you like the studio, share this paper with someone who would. If you are reading this by accident, welcome — please consider staying.
Brand or web. Six- to ten-week engagements. Direct partner access. Apply by 15 June 2026 with a 200-word note about your thing.
Two custom faces, one display, one text. Remote or studio. Open until 30 June. Portfolios with at least one finished family.
We are designing a small range and need a producer who'll let us help with their next bottle, label, harvest, and small website.
Logos, fonts, project sheets, six portraits, two studio shots. Request access ↗. Reply 24h on weekdays.
Letters, projects, briefs, complaints, recipe submissions, dog photos. Send them all. The editor replies on Wednesdays.
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