Northlight Studio Email us

A two-person studio for brands that hate templates.

We're Mara and Dev. She designs, he builds, both of us pick up the phone. Eight years, forty-some launches, zero account managers.

Selected work

Work we still answer for.

Outdoor portrait of a woman laughing

Fjord & Field

Outdoor retailer rebrand and storefront for a business that had outgrown marketplace copy.

Sunlit living room with a leather sofa and a wall of framed photos

Haskell Grain

A 120-year-old co-op that finally has a website its members actually use.

Paint-splattered brushes and a sponge on a studio table

Paper Crane Legal

Solo immigration practice. Consult bookings doubled after the new site went up.

What we take on

Brand sites

Design and build from one team, no handoff. Four to eight weeks depending on how fast you can write back.

Rescues

Your site is slow, hacked, or held hostage by a vanished freelancer. We've seen worse.

Care plans

Monthly retainer: updates, backups, small changes, and a human who answers email.

How it moves

Enough process to make a decision, not hide behind one.

A small team only works when the work is visible. This is the sequence we use to keep decisions close to the people making them.

01

Get the real brief

We talk to the people answering customer questions, not just the person who approved the budget.

02

Make the site make sense

We shape the message, content and navigation before polishing screens that may never earn their keep.

03

Design and build together

The design system and the production site move in the same weekly review, so there is no handoff cliff.

04

Hand it over properly

We document the useful bits, train the team, and leave a care plan if you want one.

Who does the work

Strategy and design

Mara Chen

Mara turns a messy offer into a site with a point of view. She leads research, content structure, visual direction, and the decisions that make a business recognizable.

Development and care

Dev Ortiz

Dev builds the thing, keeps it fast, and stays available after launch. He cares about an editor being as clear as the page it produces.