Who?
Practice is a creative brand building house led by Michelle Mattar.
After five years independently designing and building brands from concept to launch, then scaling them as they grew, Michelle Mattar built Practice to expand her brand building practices. Acting as the principal designer that actively designs and sets a strategic, researched vision: the Practice model is focused on building brands to scale quickly without compromising quality & vision. We work to build compelling ecosystems that understand the needs and challenges to meaningfully resonate with customers.
We’re not quite an agency; We dedicate ourselves to only a few projects per year so we can give attention to every detail. We act as our client’s dedicated creative leadership and external team before they’ve brought on their own. Ours is an embedded, 360-degree approach.
What?
We’re not quite a studio or an agency: Practice works as an embedded team with dedicated leadership that takes a people-powered approach to brand building. Our experience allows us to know and avoid the challenges that come with building a purposeful brand to scale, then managing day-to-day operations (like marketing & social channels). Our skills range from research, naming and strategy to brand identity, packaging, physical product design such as toys and fabrics, websites, retail, marketing & more.
Strategy•Business development•Brand building•Design•Storytelling•MarketingWhere?
We’re based in New York City but working globally.
We’re currently building projects in:
We share this office with 3 friends.Our clients are in:
Why?
Cracking a big idea isn’t easy. We’ve found that the path to success is paved with strategic creative vision: navigated by a focused, dedicated team working to reinforce strategy across the board.
The Practice experience is unique, team-like, and holistic to building brands: we do more across a variety of touchpoints for fewer clients so that we can be accountable and flexible to all the road bumps that inherently come with building something new. Our clients have the big idea and vision, but they’re missing the creative leadership they need to realize it successfully and take it over the finish line. Just like us, they value design: they see it as a part of their core business strategy.
We engage with just a few clients per year who are passionate and lead with intention. In our work, we seek to launch products that have a positive mission and impact, and we apply our process to a wide range of industries and business types—this keeps us learning and allows us to be better partners, thinkers, and builders.
Partnered in strategy, fueled by creativity.
Lately
What our clients are up to
Ritual lobbied Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), and Richard Burr (R-NC) to introduce the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements Act of 2022. The bill requires supplement makers to keep a record of their suppliers and share health claims with the FDA.
Our founder was named Graphic Design USA's 2023 Person to Watch
Michelle Mattar was selected for the 60th year of Graphic Design USA's People to Watch List
First place in The Dieline Awards
Our packaging system for Allkinds won first place in the Body Care Category for the 2022 Dieline Awards
Across the Allkinds packaging system of 450+ products, we wanted to create a strong system that allowed space for play but was still easy to read and navigate in-store. The rigid design system allows for the rainbow palette and world themes to imprint themselves, and creates distinct sub-ranges across bath & body, skincare, hair care and more.
Outer Work newspaper receives a Communication Arts Award
Our initiative for Outer Work won in the category of Public Service
We donated our Fridays each week to design and produce a guerilla print piece intended to raise awareness for Outer Work's anti-racism practices. We updated the organization's visual identity and applied it to a newspaper that will be distributed digitally and nationwide. Ultimately, we wanted to bring awareness to Outer Work's ideology of sustaining change through community and joy.
We're listening to
Meet Waste Not
We created a searchable site of sustainable suppliers.
We created a free directory of sustainable, searchable listings by type of packaging from direct consumer, retail, and restaurant; fashion and soft goods, interiors, and more. Waste Not is intentionally free and commercially-focused (rather than consumer oriented) so we can make sustainable changes at the scale of business.