One argument per project
Every engagement is reduced to a single defensible claim before anything is designed. If we cannot write it in one sentence that somebody could reasonably disagree with, we do not yet understand the problem.
Studio — founded 2015
Twenty-six people who would rather be un-needed than retained.
Rilevo is an independent creative agency of twenty-six people, working from Marchmont Works in London and a converted print floor in Lisbon. We are employee-owned, which mostly means we can turn work down.
We work with organisations that have something genuinely difficult to explain — a fifteen-year infrastructure programme, a ninety-year archive, a category whose vocabulary has gone dead. The work is not decoration applied afterwards; it is the argument, made visible.
26
People in the studio
Two studios, one team. Nobody is a resource.
2015
Founded
Independent, employee-owned since 2021.
6
Disciplines under one roof
Strategy, identity, digital, environments, editorial, film.
14 wks
Median engagement
Long enough to change something. Short enough to remember why.
What we believe
Four rules we have actually lost work over.
Every studio publishes values. These are the four that have cost us something, which is the only test that means anything.
Build it, do not describe it
We hand over working code, print-ready artwork and fabrication drawings. Strategy that stops at a deck is an invoice for a conversation.
Design for the worst reproduction
The embroidered version, the 8 mm application, the badly lit photograph, the 360 px screen. Systems that survive there survive everywhere else by default.
Say the difficult part early
Including when the answer is that the project should not happen, the budget is wrong, or the thing you asked for is not the thing you need. It is cheaper in week two than in week twenty.
Who is here
The people whose names go on the credits.
Twelve of twenty-six, and the ones you are most likely to work with. Every case study credits the people who actually did it.
- Since 2015
Ines Aldaz
Runs the first three weeks of everything.
- Since 2015
Tobias Renn
Writes the sentence the whole project has to survive.
- Since 2017
Marta Oyelaran
Typography, and the argument for less of it.
- Since 2019
Kasia Wrońska
Identity systems and the guidelines nobody dreads.
- Since 2018
Cai Ferreday
Knows what a fabricator will actually say.
- Since 2018
Ruth Ekhator
Performance budgets, and holding us to them.
- Since 2020
Joaquim Sé
Shoots the rehearsal, not the performance.
- Since 2021
Nour Bahri
Deletes the adjectives. All of them.
- Since 2016
Halldór Sæmundsson
On press at six in the morning, cheerfully.
- Since 2022
Beatriz Mourão
The reason install weeks are boring.
- Since 2021
Daniel Mkhize
Accessibility, and refusing to ship without it.
- Since 2019
Ola Fadipe
Runs the building and the calendar.
Recognition
Useful mostly for recruitment.
We enter two award programmes a year and tell clients in advance. Nobody has ever chosen us because of a pencil, and we have never pretended otherwise.
- 2026
D&AD — Wood Pencil
Verrine, editorial design (season programmes)
- 2026
Type Directors Club — Certificate of Excellence
Verrine, typographic systems
- 2025
Design Week Awards — Winner
Northmoor Wind, place and environment
- 2025
Brand Impact Awards — Shortlist
Tessel, packaging
- 2024
Webby Awards — Honoree
Lumen Archive, cultural institutions
- 2024
Museums + Heritage Awards — Finalist
Lumen Archive, digital access
Working here
We hire about three people a year.
We hire perhaps three people a year and keep them for a long time. There is no graduate scheme, no unpaid placement and no test project we would not pay for.
- Permanent
Senior designer — identity
Write to careers@rilevo.studio with anything you have made and one paragraph about why this one.
- Permanent
Front-end engineer
Write to careers@rilevo.studio with anything you have made and one paragraph about why this one.
If nothing is open, write anyway. We keep letters and we answer them.
Studios
London
Unit 4, Marchmont Works118 Pentonville RoadLondon N1 9JBStrategy, design, production · GMT / BST
Lisbon
Rua da Boavista 841200-069 LisboaEngineering, motion, film · WET / WEST