Emailus :)
Info
We are a design practice led by (yes, you guessed it) Elana Schlenker. Our aim is simple: make work we love every day with people who want the same thing.
Our specialty is not having one. We move fluidly between branding and art direction, interactive work, packaging, print, and experiential design. Sometimes we do a bit of naming, copywriting, and strategy, too.
The company we keep is similarly varied and includes A24, Anthology Editions, Aperture, California Institute of the Arts, Columbia GSAPP, Dusen Dusen, Figma, Google, International Center for Photography, The New York Times, Phaidon, Sony, The Verge, Walker Art Center, and WePresent. We also work with independent artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.
To paraphrase the ’90s’ most venerated boy band: We don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you do as long as you’re passionate about design and collaboration. (Disclosure: the Backstreet Boys are not our clients.)
Approach
Our practice may be medium agnostic, but it is grounded in years of experience in editorial design, art direction, and visual storytelling. We’re particularly good at helping clients make sense of complexity, uncovering unexpected yet legible ways to structure and share their ideas.
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, the 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