Info
Studio Elana Schlenker is a design practice led by (suprise!) Elana Schlenker. Our specialty is not having one. We move fluidly between branding and art direction, interactive projects, packaging, print, and experiential design. Sometimes we do a bit of naming, copywriting, and strategy, too.
The company we keep is similarly varied. We have collaborated with A24, Aperture, California Institute of the Arts, Columbia GSAPP, Dusen Dusen, Figma, Google, International Center for Photography, Meta, The New York Times, Phaidon, Walker Art Center, WeTransfer and many more. We also frequently work with independent artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.
To paraphrase America’s preeminent boy band: We don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you do as long as you’re passionate about design. (Disclosure: the Backstreet Boys are not our clients.)
Though our practice is medium agnostic, it is grounded in years of experience in editorial design. This means we’re particularly good at helping clients make sense of complexity, uncovering unexpected yet legible ways to visualize their ideas and stories.
Our ideal projects let us get involved early and stick around. We love long-term partnerships where we can revisit and find new expressions for our work over time.
Street cred
We have been recognized by AIGA, Center for Architecture, The One Club for Creativity, Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards, Society for News Design, and The Society of Publication Designers, among others. Our work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections like the Museum of Modern Art and the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum. We have also been featured extensively in print and online media (if you’re into that kind of thing, Google us).
Extra credit
On occasion, we commission and install art in public spaces through our project Placeholder. Previously, we published the magazine Gratuitous Type; created Less Than 100, a pop-up shop for wage parity; and collaborated with Mark Pernice under the moniker Out of Office.
Elana periodically serves as Visiting Faculty at Cornell University’s Image Text MFA program and speaks at institutions and creative conferences around the globe. She has been a Strange Foundation Fellow, Designer in Residence at Meta Open Arts, and Center for Urban Pedagogy Making Policy Public Design Fellow.
Site design: Studio Elana Schlenker
Development: Eric Jacobsen
Portrait: Kate Isobel Scott
Illustrations: Pete Gamlen
Typography: Kessler & Neue Haas Grotesk