The studio
Small teams, senior hands, no hand-offs.
Mordant was founded in Lisbon in 2009 by two designers who were tired of watching good ideas get diluted on their way through large agencies. We kept the studio small on purpose.
Today we are four studios and around forty people. Every project is still led by a partner who does the work, from the first sketch to the final file. That is the whole model.
How we work
Four principles we do not bend.
01
Find the edge first
Before we design anything we look for the one idea only this client could own. Everything else hangs from it.
02
Partners do the work
The person who wins the project is the person who designs it. No bait and switch, no junior hand-offs.
03
Make it real early
Paper models, printed proofs, rough prototypes. We test in the real world before we polish on a screen.
04
Stay independent
No holding company and no outside investors. We answer to our clients and to the quality of the work.
Partners and leads
The people behind the work.
Each partner leads a discipline and a studio. Together they review every project before it leaves the building.
Ines Valdés
Founding Partner
Lisbon
Theo Marsh
Partner, Identity
London
Noor Haddad
Partner, Exhibitions
Berlin
Julian Reyes
Partner, Wayfinding
New York
Mira Lindqvist
Design Director
London
Kai Nakamura
Partner, Product
New York
Elena Rossi
Senior Designer
Lisbon
Sami Adeyemi
Partner, Digital
Berlin
2026
Gold, Packaging Design
2025
Best in Show, Wayfinding
2025
Shortlist, Exhibition Design
2024
Book of the Year, Series Design
2023
Type Design Award
Careers