The studio
Acme Studio began in 2016 in London, around a simple conviction: a brand only truly exists on the day it is understood without effort.
We are six, designers and developers, based in Shoreditch. We work as a small team on few projects at a time, because it is the only way we know of staying precise from the first meeting to the day the site goes live.
We subcontract nothing. The person presenting a direction is the one who drew it, and the person building the site is the one who designed it. That is slower to sell, and considerably faster to produce.
Saying no when it helps
A badly framed project costs everyone more than a polite refusal. When a need is not our trade, or when the budget does not allow the work to be done properly, we say so before signing and point elsewhere.
Delivering systems, not pictures
A beautiful page is useless if nobody knows how to produce the next one. Every project ends with rules, components and files your teams can pick up without calling us.
Measuring before deciding
Before redrawing anything we look at the existing data: pages viewed, abandoned journeys, real load times. An aesthetic opinion is arguable, a number is checkable.
Handing the tools back
We consider a studio successful on the day its client no longer needs it to publish. Training, documentation and full access are part of the delivery, never an option billed separately.
The team
The people you actually work with
No account layer and no subcontracting. The person presenting a direction is the one who drew it, and the person building the site is the one who designed it.
Claire Bennett
Art director
Claire has led the identity projects since the studio was founded. Trained in typography and long attached to print, she draws systems that hold up as well on a shopfront as on a phone screen.
Mark Ellery
Studio director and brand strategy
Mark runs the audits and the framing workshops. His work consists mostly of asking the questions nobody dares ask in a meeting, then turning the answers into decisions that hold.
Leah Fenton
Front-end developer
Leah builds the studio's sites and watches over accessibility and performance. She refuses on principle any animation that costs more in waiting than it returns in clarity.
Ian Bertram
Product designer
Ian designs the flows and design systems of the applications we support. He spends most of his time removing screens rather than adding them.
Ten years, told in three dates. Two people around one table in 2016, six people and about ten projects a year today.
- 2016
Studio founded in London, two people and one table
- 2020
Digital product practice opens
- 2026
Six people and around ten projects a year