Studio
A small studio, on purpose.
Halyard started in 2018 with two people and a shared desk. Eight of us now work from a converted warehouse in Lisbon, and we plan to stay about this size.
Founded
2018
People
8
Based in
Lisbon
Projects
70+
How we got here
Designers and developers, at the same table.
We met at a larger agency, where design was finished before anyone asked a developer if it could be built. The handoffs cost weeks and the final product never quite looked like the pictures.
So we started a studio where both disciplines sit together from the first sketch. It makes us slower to start, faster to finish and a good deal calmer in between.
Halyard is a fictional studio created for this template. The people, clients and numbers are made up, and the portraits are illustrations.
Values
What we care about
01
Make it with, not for
Clients sit in our reviews and our critiques. The best ideas come from people who know the problem, and everything we build is easier to adopt when they helped shape it.
02
Small on purpose
Eight people means every project gets the senior team. We turn down work that would make us bigger and worse at what we do.
03
Finish the details
Empty states, error pages, the 404 and the keyboard path. The parts people only see when something goes wrong are the parts that show care.
Team
The people
Six of us are shown here. Two more join us for specific projects: a copywriter and a sound designer.
Amara Dlamini
Founder and creative director
Tomas Vidal
Design director
Ines Carvalho
Lead developer
Kofi Mensah
Researcher and strategist
Noor Haddad
Studio producer
Jonas Weber
Motion designer
Process
How a project runs
Four phases, with a review at the end of each. You always know what comes next and what we need from you.
01 Week 1
Discover
Research, interviews and a clear written brief. We find out what is true before we draw anything.
02 Weeks 2 to 3
Define
Direction, scope and a plan you can hold us to. Ends with a fixed quote for the rest.
03 Weeks 4 to 10
Design and build
Design and code move together, with a working version in your hands every second week.
04 Final 2 weeks
Launch and hand over
Testing, training and a short guide. Two weeks of free fixes after launch.
Come and work with us, or ask us to work with you.
We are hiring a product designer and a front-end developer, and taking on new projects from February.