Booking now Five briefs / year Selected only

Creative Director + Label Founder · Marrickville

I make WORK you will never see anywhere else.

Multidisciplinary studio of one. Brand direction, music releases, art-led work. Marrickville.

Years in the chair

Artists on the label

Briefs I take per year

Brief Lani Next discovery slot:Friday 11am

Marrickville · Newtown · Erskineville · Surry Hills · Redfern · cross-Sydney + Melbourne / Manila

The reason you are reading this

Every site looks like every site. Webflow + Framer homogenised the aesthetic. You want yours to look like nobody else's.

You spent six figures on a brand. The site looks like the next twelve agencies. Templates with personality dialled to 30 percent. We are going to fix that.

How I work different

I read the brief and ignore half of it. I show you what nobody asks for. Then we ship the uncomfortable one.

01 / Read

The brief is a starting point, not a destination.

I read everything you sent. I ignore what would lead us to a generic outcome.

02 / Pivot

I show you the work nobody asked for.

The first concept I pitch gets killed often. That is the point.

03 / Ship

We pick the uncomfortable one and ship it.

Comfortable work goes unnoticed. Uncomfortable work pays for itself.

About

Lani: I read the brief and ignore half of it.

14 years in the chair. A&R at a Sydney record label, design lead, freelance creative direction, then founded my own micro-label and studio in 2022. I take 5 briefs a year. I sign 1 to 2 artists a year. Both gates are tight on purpose.

Marrickville studio. Cross-Sydney plus Melbourne plus occasional Manila travel for label work. I do not do logos in isolation. I do brands. I do not do "music videos." I do release worlds.

My promise is simple. I will make work you cannot get anywhere else. The trade-off is the queue. I take 5 briefs a year. If we are not a fit, I will tell you in the first call.

Lani at drafting table, ink-stained hands, mid-sketch with charcoal, vintage record on turntable, mauve gel light

Lani gesturing across work table with client, mood boards and coffee, Marrickville interior

Engagement

$12K to $40K

per project. Retainers $5K to $15K per month. Direction days $2,500.

Process

How I work. Four steps.

01 / Read + bin

Brief read + bin (free, 60 min).

Tell me what you want. I will tell you what is wrong with it.

02 / Discovery

Discovery week.

Reading, listening, drawing, hating my first idea, finding the second.

03 / Reveal

Concept reveal.

Three directions. We kill two.

04 / Production

Production. 4 to 12 weeks.

Depending on scope. You sign off, we ship.

Six ways we work

Brand. Album. Refresh. Direction. Retainer. A&R.

Project-based or retainer. Strategy through ship. Five engagements a year is the cap, and that is the point.

Service 01 · Flagship

Brand Identity

Full system. 8 to 12 week engagement. Naming, mark, type, palette, tone-of-voice, application kit, rollout pack. For artists, labels, cultural orgs and consumer brands that want to look like nobody else.

From $24,000 →

Hands holding 12-inch vinyl test pressing up to studio light, contact sheet of album cover variants on table foreground

Service 02

Album Visual Direction

6 to 8 weeks per release. Packaging, single artwork, typography system, full visual world plus collateral.

From $16,000 →

Before and after print proofs side by side on drafting table, red marker annotation on the before copy, hard top-down light

Service 03

Brand Refresh

4 to 6 week tighter scope on existing brand. We surgically lift what is working, kill what is not.

From $12,000 →

Hand holding Sharpie mid-stroke on large white roll paper pinned to wall, slight mauve gel light, motion blur on hand

Service 04

Creative Direction Day

One-day deep dive. In-person Marrickville. Output: direction document plus annotated reference deck.

$2,500 / day →

Calendar page with marked dates in mauve highlighter, lime sticky note, small reference vinyl, vintage industrial desk

Service 05

Strategic Retainer

Quarterly creative direction, ongoing relationship. Two slots reserved per year for the right operators.

From $5,000 / mo →

Finished album artwork in simple frame leaned against brick wall, abstract piece, small spotlight, theatrical mauve gel cast

Service 06 · Limited

Label A&R + Strategy

1 to 2 artist signings per year. Long-form creative direction across release cycle.

Quote per →

Five engagements a year. Two slots open Q3. Brief me →

Brief Lani in 90 seconds

Five briefs a year. Two slots open Q3.

Tell Riot what you have got. They read inbound briefs for me, ask the right questions, and decide if it is worth a 30-minute call. No discovery cost.

The AI assistant filters fast. I read everything that gets through. If we are a fit, you are on my calendar within 48 hours.

Brand · music release · art direction · wild card

Riot

Online · reads briefs for Lani

Yo, I'm Riot. I read inbound briefs for Lani. Tell me yours and I will tell you if it is interesting.

Brand, music release, art direction, or wild card?

Album direction. Boutique indie label, second release.

Got it. What is the artist register? And how soon are you tracking?

Common questions

Six things people ask.

Why only 5 briefs a year?

Depth, not volume. Brand work and album direction at the level I do it cannot be parallelised. Five projects a year, executed properly, beats fifteen rushed. The cap protects the work and the artists I sign.

Do you do logos in isolation?

No. I do brands. A logo is a single artefact in a system. Asking me for a logo is like asking a chef for one ingredient. If you need a logo only, I am not the right person. If you need a brand, we can talk.

Do you sign artists from inbound?

Rarely. Most signings come from referrals, gigs and active A&R hunts. That said, I read every inbound brief that comes through Riot. If your work is unusual enough to break my filter, send it.

Can I see prices upfront?

Yes. The service tiles above show the floor for each engagement. Actual quote needs the brief. Bigger scope, longer rollout, more deliverables move the number up. I am direct about pricing in the discovery call.

What if I do not like your concept?

We kill it. The first concept I pitch gets killed often. The kill round is built into the process. I show you three directions, we discuss, we keep one and execute. Disagreement is part of the work.

Are you booking now?

Q3 and Q4 2026 only. Earlier slots are sold. If you brief me now I can usually start within 6 to 10 weeks. If you need work shipped sooner than that, I am probably not the right fit for this round.