I make brands, websites, and the occasional curious thing in print. Considered work, the long way round, made for humans (not algorithms).
N°02 / The Short Version
For nearly two decades I have been quietly building brands, websites, and visual systems that feel less like marketing and more like a proper conversation.
My favourite projects start with a long coffee and end with something that actually looks like the person who asked for it. I work mostly with founders, charities, independent retailers, and the occasional curious soul who would rather their company not look like every other tab open right now. No house style, no template, no clever templates pretending to be bespoke.
When I am not at the screen, I am usually wandering around looking at signage, ticket stubs, faded shopfronts, and the bits of typography most people walk straight past. That is where most of the good ideas live.
A working list of the disciplines I bring to a project. Most briefs pull in three or four of these at once. Drag, swipe, or use the arrows below to look through.
Naming, marks, type systems, voice. The whole identity, from first sketch to a proper guidelines document you will actually use.
Sites that feel hand made, load quickly, and behave nicely on a phone in the rain. UX research, wireframes, and the final polish.
I write the markup, the CSS, and the small bits of JavaScript myself. No designer-to-developer telephone game between intent and result.
Books, magazines, reports, posters, packaging slips, and the small print that nobody talks about but everyone reads.
Wine, coffee, candles, ceramics. Practical packaging that does its job at the shelf and looks proper at home on the side.
Small, useful, characterful motion. Logo idents, social loops, page transitions. Movement with a reason, never wallpaper.
Pen, pencil, screen, scanner. Editorial illustration, spot drawings, and unusual visual systems for brands that need a voice of their own.
Photography, casting, location, retouching. Quietly steering the visual mood across a campaign so nothing feels out of step.
Considered interfaces for products and dashboards. Honest hierarchy, generous typography, and accessibility that is built in (not bolted on).
Good design is the quiet bit between the noise. It is the moment a stranger decides you might be worth their time.
Nicolas Lewis, on his practice
N°04 / The Working Method
Four principles that quietly run underneath every project. Not a process diagram, not a sales pitch. Just the things I keep coming back to.
Every project starts somewhere unexpected. A film still, a misprint, a sun-bleached awning on a back street in Lisbon. The brief is a starting point, not a destination.
Templates are for spreadsheets. Your brand deserves something that could only be yours. If a competitor could lift the work wholesale, I have not done my job.
I listen more than I talk, take notes by hand, and remember the small things you said in passing. Most of the strongest ideas come from there, not from the brief.
Beautiful is non negotiable. So is being usable for everyone who lands on the page, on every device, at every reading level. Both, always.
N°05 / Selected Work
Four premier pieces from the last few years. The full back catalogue (around forty projects) lives in the portfolio archive.
Nicolas listens in a way that makes you a better client. He asked questions nobody else thought to ask, and the work was better for it. We have already lined him up for our next launch.
The kind of designer who will quietly fix the thing you did not realise was broken. We have worked with him on three projects now, and the standard never slips.
Calm, curious, and unmistakably good at what he does. He brought our publication back from a place I was worried we could not return from. I would hire him again tomorrow.
He gave us a brand that customers describe back to us, unprompted, when they walk in the door. That has never happened before. He is genuinely worth every penny.