NEWSLETTER 60
THIS IS OUR NEWSLETTER
A LIVING BRAND STORY
A brand isn't something you write for people. It's something you uncover in them. We're reminded of this every time we stop being the storytellers and stand in someone's space, watching them do the thing they've built their life around.
This month, that showed up everywhere. On set with Karis Parenting and in social media production with MOOD. The work landed because the people in front of the lens already believed what they were saying. As we mark ten years, we keep returning to the same truth: our story was never ours alone. It belongs to the neighbors, clients, and collaborators who lived it with us. We carried that conviction to the First Round Conference in New York and we're carrying it as we say a bittersweet goodbye to Izzy, whose internship leaves its mark on the studio.
Brand storytelling done well isn't performance. It's presence.
Read more for a look at what we’ve been up to, and what’s ahead.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT | 05.28.26
SETTING THE MOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION
We closed the shop for a day and brought our cameras into MOOD's beautiful studio and store in Oak Park, Illinois capturing content built to work across everything: marketing, social media, and a refreshed website.
MOOD is a residential interior design firm with a wide range of services. They highlight products for styling spaces while working alongside builders and architects to create livable spaces designed for life, safety, and welfare. It's design that's as thoughtful about how a room functions as how it feels. It’s also about understanding the relationship their clients will have with a trusted professional that will carry them through the highs and lows of construction.
Working with Candy and her team made the day. They're professional, organized, and creative, the kind of collaborators who know their craft so well that the production simply flows. Their studio style gave us a beautiful backdrop for a story worth filming.
Good interior design is about presence in a space. Good production is, too. We're glad to help MOOD show the world not just what they make, but how it feels to be there.
Feel like the right people just aren't finding you? You've got a story worth telling—but if it's not reaching your ideal audience, it can't do its job. Let's change that. Book a time with us and let's explore what a partnership could look like.
10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION | 05.22.26
10 Year Anniversary Recap
How is it possible that an organization turned business can have such a history of amazing people on the team? That's what this 10 Year Anniversary Celebration highlighted! Not only did we celebrate the ten cohorts of interns and professionals who have designed products, brands, places, and events for our clients, we celebrated you! If you're reading this article, you've had something to do with Marion Design Co. Whether watching from a distance or working from the center, you've influenced the direction and vision of this company.
Friday night we began our time together at the dinner table. Wendy and Keith, Herb and Heidi, and Luke and Kylee spent a long evening reminiscing and catching up on life. Saturday began with a storytelling timeline by Peter Troutner, a tour and timeline highlight by Wendy. After enjoying conversation over a team favorite, Los Amores, we filled the space with joyful chatter during a "speed dating" format of catch-up in quick conversations. The open house broadened our celebration, with community members celebrating the growth in our downtown and the contributions Marion Design Co. has made to the revitalization in progress downtown.
Thank you to all of you who traveled to Marion to celebrate with us. We loved spending time with you!
TEAM INSPIRATION | 05.08.26
FIRST ROUND IN NYC
We made the trip to New York for First Round, the Brand New one-day event built around brand and identity work, and came back with the kind of energy that reminds us of why we do what we do.
What struck us first was the event identity itself. The hosts and emcees pulled off a visual language that felt genuinely considered for the venue, the sort of thoughtful design choices we notice and admire because they're easy to skip and hard to get right. When we learned the folks behind it were from Bloomington, it landed as one of those small-world moments that make the design community feel less like a map of scattered dots and more like a neighborhood. We're a community-based studio at heart, so naturally we love discovering those in small towns doing big things!
First Round is a brand-identity event by nature, a full lineup of practitioners talking through work that’s not typically shown to the public. As designers, we create a ton of work before we create the work you, as the client, actually get to see. It was a gift to get an inside look into the process of work from Emily Oberman, creator of the Elvis movie brand, Nadia Lung, creator of the Aldo Shoe brand, and Alfredo Enciso, creator of the Guatemala Soccer Team brand.
But the real gift of a room like that is the conversation around the edges of it. We got to talk shop with other professionals and friends—about process, about how studios are actually structured, about the messy, unglamorous parts of the work that rarely make it into a polished case study. Those are exactly the conversations we crave. So much of what we do at Marion Design Co. runs on design thinking and listening, and there's something energizing about turning that same posture toward our own practice and asking other people how they build, refine, and run their studios. We left with a notebook of ideas, a few new friends, and the reminder that good design communities grow the same way good design does.
LEARNING BY SHOWING UP | 06.06.26
FAREWELL TO IZZY
Some of the best people who pass through Marion Design Co. don't arrive with a title or a deadline. They arrive with curiosity. Isabelle Lucas is one of those people.
A Communications major at Indiana Wesleyan University, Isabelle volunteered with us for months, not for credit, not for a paycheck, but simply because she wanted to learn from our process. That kind of self-directed hunger is rare, and it's exactly the sort of thing we notice.
What struck us most was a forward-thinking professionalism well beyond her age and training. Isabelle brought a maturity to her work that you can't teach in a classroom—an instinct for how communication actually connects people, and a willingness to do the unglamorous work of learning a craft by living inside it. From social media design, to design thinking, and film production assistant, her nimble nature made it easy to slide her into any project.
We're grateful for the months she spent learning alongside us, and we have no doubt she's going to carry that same intentionality wherever she goes next.
Thank you, Izzy. The door's always open.
GOT AN IDEA? CONNECT WITH US!
If you’ve been carrying around an idea—big or small—and you’re wondering what it might look like brought to life through design, we’d love to hear about it. We believe design is about bringing the soul of your vision to the surface and shaping it into something that moves people.
Whether you’re at the spark stage or halfway there, our process is built to listen deeply, uncover what matters most, and accelerate your idea into something tangible, meaningful, and ready to make an impact. Let’s start the conversation. Contact us at hello@mariondesign.co!
