Mara Ellis, independent art director
About.
I help brands find a look they can live with for years. Identity, packaging and image-making, from the first sketch to the last proof.
In the studio on Rua da Rosa, Lisbon.
I’m Mara, an art director who believes most brands need fewer things, made with more care.
For twelve years I’ve worked on identities, packaging and campaigns for independent companies and a few large ones, first in Lyon and London, then in Porto and Copenhagen. Since 2022 I’ve run a one-person studio in Lisbon and bring in photographers, type designers and developers as each project needs them.
My work usually starts with a lot of listening and a small number of very good decisions: a typeface, a color, a way of photographing things. Then I build the system around them and make sure it still holds up on a shelf, a phone screen and the side of a delivery van.
Outside client work I make things for the Lab, teach a portfolio class at a local design school and collect badly printed matchbooks.
PDF, updated November 2026
Experience
2022–Now
Independent studio, Lisbon
Art director and founder
2019–2022
Studio Halde, Copenhagen
Senior art director
2016–2019
Forma & Filho, Porto
Art director
2014–2016
Northpaw, London
Designer
2012–2014
Atelier Brun, Lyon
Junior designer
Capabilities
Identity
Brand strategy workshops
Logo and type systems
Naming support
Guidelines and toolkits
Art direction
Campaign concepts
Photography and set direction
Packaging and print
Editorial design
Digital and motion
Websites and launch pages
Motion identities
3D and CGI direction
Design systems
Languages
English
C2
Working language, written and spoken
Portuguese
C1
Fluent, used every day in Lisbon
Italian
B2
Comfortable in meetings and on set
Spanish
B1
Conversational
Selected clients