Lemoon & Hood
Chapter One — Established 2017
By Mara Lemoon & Theo Hood, founders of Lemoon & Hood Studio LLC.
The Founders
Co-founder · Strategy & Identity
Mara spent six years at Pentagram New York before opening the studio with Theo in a converted ribbon factory on Wythe Avenue. She lectures on brand strategy at RISD and has served on the Type Directors Club board since 2021. Her work for the Cooper Hewitt acquisition series was acquired for the museum's permanent collection in 2022.
Co-founder · Design & Writing
Theo trained as a typographer at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and wrote two books on retail packaging before cofounding the studio. His Dieline Package Design Award (2023) jury remarks have been anthologised in PRINT Magazine. He runs the studio's Thursday teardown newsletter, read by 41,000 designers and founders every week.
A note from the founders
It's an unusual position to take, and it costs us money. The maths is simple: we'd rather do twelve things we believe in than fifty things we don't. So we read every brief that comes in, and we say no to most of them — politely, with a short note about why, and usually with a recommendation for another studio that fits better.
The briefs we take share a pattern. The founder is past the "anyone will do" stage and before the "we just need a deck" stage. They have a product that works, a market that's listening, and a brand that no longer matches either. They are not asking us to make them liked. They are asking us to make them remembered.
That distinction matters. Liked is a feeling; it fades with the algorithm. Remembered is a structure; it compounds for a decade. Most of the brands in the V&A's permanent collection were not the most popular of their year. They were the ones a jury could still recognise, blind, fifteen years later. That is the standard we hold ourselves to.
— Mara & Theo
Provenance
A short, dated colophon of the institutions, juries, and publications that have taken the studio's work seriously since 2017. Listed in the order they happened.
Packaging system for Maillard & Co. tea acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2021. Currently on rotation in the Design 1900–Now gallery.
Identity and signage system for the West Reading Library renovation acquired for the museum's permanent collection, 2022. Featured in the 2023 Acquisitions Annual.
Named a "Studio to Watch" by It's Nice That in 2020, and again in 2023 following the rebrand of Kerr & Sons provisions. The 2023 entry is the longer of the two.
Featured work includes the Brand New "Brand of the Day" for North & Pine (2023), a Dieline Package Design Award for Saltwell Provisions (2023), a PRINT Magazine New Visual Artists profile of Mara (2019), and a long-form Eye on Design essay on the studio's 5-phase method (2022).
The studio maintains a 9.4/10 average on Clutch across 63 verified client reviews, a 92% retention rate since founding, and a free 64-page brand strategy workbook downloaded 18,000+ times. We mention the numbers so you can check them, not so you can take our word for it.
The next step
A 30-minute paid strategy call with one of the founders. We'll read the brief beforehand, tell you on the call whether we're the right studio for it, and if we are, we'll send a one-page proposal within a week.
Lemoon & Hood Studio LLC · 224 Wythe Avenue, Floor 4, Brooklyn, NY 11249 · +1 (212) 555-0147 · [email protected]