The studio
Nine people, one room
Kite opened in 2017 in a former print works in Rotterdam. We have stayed deliberately small, and turned down the work that would have made us big.
About Kite
Started by an art director who was tired of presenting nine routes
Ivy Marchetti spent seven years running a design floor at a network agency, where the process was to show a client so many options that whichever one they picked, nobody could be blamed. The work got safer every year and the results got smaller.
Kite opened in 2017 with the opposite rule. Three routes, shown once, with an argument attached to each. We take the client through why one of them is right, and then we stop presenting and start building the system that makes it hold.
- The founder is on every engagement, from first call to handover
- Twelve projects a year, so nobody is on four at once
- Every project ends with rules your own team can run
How we operate
Four rules we have not broken
No juniors on the pitch and seniors off the project
The people in the first meeting are the people doing the work. If that changes, we tell you the week it changes and why.
Three routes, shown once
We present three directions in a single session, argue for one, and then stop presenting. Endless options are a way of avoiding a decision.
The system outlives the launch
Every engagement ends with rules your team can run. We would rather not be needed in month seven than be needed forever.
Twelve projects a year, no more
It is the number at which the founder can be genuinely on every project. Beyond it we would be selling a name rather than a studio.
Who you meet
The five you will be in a room with
Ivy Marchetti
Founder and creative director
Fifteen years art-directing, seven of them running the design floor at a network shop before deciding nine people could do it better than ninety. Leads every engagement personally.
Sun-woo Park
Design director
Draws the systems. Typeface work for two foundries and an obsession with the twelfth application of a logotype rather than the first.
Callum Iheanacho
Strategy director
Came from category planning, not from a strategy course. Writes the sentence, then defends it in the room where the budget lives.
Freya Lindholm
Motion and film lead
Cuts the film, builds the motion language, and insists a brand has a rhythm before it has an animation. Shot on four continents last year.
Dov Abramson
Production director
Owns the dates. Nine years in print and retail production, which is why our packaging specs come back from the plant unchanged.
Nine years
2017
Opened in a print works in Rotterdam with three people and one client
2019
Added strategy in house after losing an argument we should have won
2021
First full identity above six figures, for a client who is still with us
2023
Built the motion and film team rather than keep subcontracting the last mile
2026
Nine people, 128 projects shipped, twelve engagements a year by choice