A designer's desk with an open laptop, sketchbook and a cup of coffee beside a window

Independent design studio of one

Brand and interface design for teams who ship small and often.

I'm Nadia Okonjo. I work directly with founders and product leads on identity systems, product screens and launch pages — one project at a time, start to handover.

Send a brief See recent work

Remote from Lisbon · Working in English and Portuguese · Files handed over in Figma

How the studio runs right now

Next start date: Mid-November
Usual engagement: Three to six weeks
Working hours: 09:00–17:00 WET, Mon–Thu

One active project at a time, so dates are real. Friday is kept for handover calls, file cleanup and small fixes for past clients.

Selected work

Three recent projects, described the way they actually ran.

Each one started as a written brief and ended with a build-ready file set. Commercial details are kept general; happy to walk through any of them on a call.

Chapter 01

Meridian Ferns — identity system for a plant nursery

A family nursery moving from one market stall to a small shopfront. They needed a name treatment that survived being painted on a window, printed on kraft labels and reduced to a 16px favicon.

I built a three-weight wordmark, a leaf-count label system for pot sizes, and a two-colour print palette that their local printer could match without proofing rounds.

Ask: Identity that works painted, printed and on screen
Delivered: Wordmark set, label templates, signage artwork, one-page usage note
Ran for: Four weeks, two review calls

Wordmark exploration, week one

Chapter 02

Rowan & Pike — booking screens for a two-person workshop

A furniture repair workshop was losing enquiries in a long form. We cut the flow to three screens and put the pieces they repair, with example timelines, in front of the enquiry instead of after it.

The design covered every state their developer needed: empty, loading, validation error, and the confirmation email layout. No pattern library, just the screens that existed.

Ask: Fewer abandoned enquiries on mobile
Delivered: Nine annotated screens, component sheet, email layout, handover walkthrough
Ran for: Three weeks, async reviews

Interface layouts being drawn on a tablet with a stylus — Booking flow, mobile-first layouts

Chapter 03

Halterwood Coaching — launch page and written voice

A career coach with a strong practice and a page that read like everyone else's. We rewrote the offer in her own sentences, then designed a single page that lets a visitor self-select in one scroll.

Because she updates it herself, the layout uses five repeatable blocks and a written note explaining which block to use for what.

Ask: One page that explains a nuanced service plainly
Delivered: Page design, copy pass, block library, editing guide
Ran for: Two weeks and a follow-up review

Two people reviewing page layouts together at a desk — Copy and layout review session

Ways to work

Three shapes of engagement. Pick the one that matches your next decision.

Prices are starting points quoted as a fixed project fee after the brief call, so you approve a number before anything begins.

Design sprint

From €1,800 · one week

A short, contained piece of work when you already know what you need made.

One landing page or up to four product screens
Two rounds of written feedback
Figma file with layers named for handover
Loom walkthrough at the end

A good fit if you have copy, a rough structure and a date to hit.

Identity project

From €4,200 · three to four weeks

The full pass on how a business looks and sounds, built to survive real production.

Wordmark and mark, plus responsive variants
Type, colour and layout rules with print values
Applied examples for your actual materials
Short usage note anyone on the team can follow

A good fit if you are naming, renaming or opening something.

Product partnership

From €3,400 per month · two days a week

Ongoing design alongside a small team, with a standing review slot each week.

Two reserved design days weekly
Shared backlog and one weekly review call
Design QA on staging before release
Rolling monthly, one month's notice either way

A good fit if features keep arriving and nobody owns the screens.

How a project runs

Four stages, written down before we start.

You always know what happens next, what I need from you, and when you will see something.

Brief and quote

You send the form. I reply with questions, then a fixed fee, scope and dates in writing.

Reply within two working days

Groundwork

One call, then I read what you already have: old files, analytics notes, the words customers use.

First three days

Design and review

Work in the open in one Figma file. Two structured review rounds, comments rather than meetings.

Bulk of the schedule

Handover

Tidy file, exported assets, a written usage note and a recorded walkthrough for whoever builds it.

Final week, plus 14 days of fixes

Questions worth asking

The things clients ask before signing.

How many revisions are included?

Two structured rounds per deliverable, collected as comments in one place rather than scattered messages. Small corrections after that are normal and I do not count them. If the direction changes after approval, I quote the extra work before starting it.

What files do I actually receive?

The working Figma file with named layers and components, exported logo files in SVG, PNG and PDF, print-ready CMYK values, and a short written usage note. You own the final delivered work outright once the invoice is settled.

Do you build the site as well as design it?

I design and hand over. I work well with developers and will prepare annotated screens, states and a walkthrough recording for them. If you do not have a developer, I can recommend two I have worked with and stay available for design QA during the build.

We're in a different timezone — does that work?

Yes, with async as the default. I write updates you can read when you wake up, and keep one live slot each week that overlaps your morning. Projects with clients in the Americas usually settle on a Wednesday review call at 16:00 WET.

What if we need to pause or cancel?

Projects are booked in 50% deposit and 50% on handover. If you pause, the deposit holds your slot for eight weeks. If you cancel, you keep everything produced to that point and the deposit covers the work already done — there is no penalty beyond that.

Can you work with brand assets we already have?

Often the better option. If your existing mark is sound, I will keep it and fix what is failing — usually type, spacing and colour under real conditions. I will say plainly if I think a full redraw is the cheaper answer over two years.

Send a brief

Tell me what you're making and when it needs to exist.

A few sentences is enough to start. I read every enquiry myself and reply with either a quote, a question, or an honest note that I'm not the right fit.

Reply time: Within two working days, Monday to Thursday
What helps most: A link to what you have now, your date, and your budget band
What happens next: A written scope and fixed fee before any work begins

Your name

What kind of project is it?

When do you need it live?

Budget band

The brief

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