Phase 01
Listen
We map the market, the constraints and what you actually need before anything is drawn.
Goals, audience, constraints, budget and the fixed end date — on one page, signed before design starts.
Independent design studio.We see in the dark.
A small senior team making brands, sites and product interfaces for founders who sweat the details.
Night vision
Most studios stop at good enough. We keep working after the lights go down, until the detail nobody can name is the detail everybody feels.
- 6+years independent
- 40+brands and products launched
- 100%senior hands on every project
Selected work
Look closer.
Five projects, shown the way we shoot them — long exposures that only resolve when you stop.
Meridian
Brand and site for a fintech that wanted money to feel calm.
A rebrand and marketing site built around one idea: calm money. A new mark, a type system with room to breathe, and a site that paints in under a second.
- +38 % qualified leads
- 0.8 s first paint
- 14 page templates
- 6-week build
Arden Cole
A personal brand for a founder who speaks for a living.
A mark, four lockups and a speaking site that turns a talk into an inquiry. Built to be updated by one person in five minutes.
- 3× speaking inquiries
- 4 lockups
- +52 % newsletter sign-ups
- 4-week sprint
Fieldwork
A developer showcase tuned for speed and clarity.
Case studies that read like release notes: short, specific and fast. Every page ships under a strict weight budget.
- 0.6 s load
- +41 % demo requests
- 12 case studies
- 5-week build
Volta Studio
Product design for an architecture practice’s client app.
An app that lets clients follow a build from sketch to handover. One design system across web and mobile.
- −27 % onboarding drop-off
- 86 components
- 2 platforms
- 10-week engagement
Halcyon
A motion identity for a sleep-science brand.
An identity that moves the way breathing slows: a launch film, twenty-two loops and the rules for making more.
- 22 launch loops
- 1 identity film
- +64 % watch-through
- 7-week engagement
Capabilities
Made at night. Built for daylight.
Four disciplines, one senior team, no hand-offs between departments.
Marks, systems and voice that survive a decade of use.
Fast, considered sites with motion that earns its place.
Interfaces people learn once and never think about again.
Identity in movement — launch films, loops and micro-interactions.
Process
Four phases. One moon.
A tight, opinionated way of working — no bloated decks, no guesswork, and a fixed end date.
- Phase 02
Frame
Direction locked in a week: type, colour, tone, references, the rules we will not break.
One short document your whole team can read in ten minutes and hold us to.
- Phase 03
Build
Design and code in tight loops so you watch it grow instead of waiting for a reveal.
A live link to click, share and comment on — never a static mock-up standing in for the real thing.
- Phase 04
Ship
We test, refine, document and hand over clean files. Launch day is the easy part.
Organised files, a recorded walkthrough and a month of fixes and small changes after launch.
We work while the city sleeps — so the work is ready when it wakes.
House rules
Four things we will not do.
The studio runs on a short list of refusals. They are why the work is good.
Senior team · Fixed monthly rate · Async-first · No middle managers · Lisbon, after dark
Clients
Said after dark.
Every launch we’re proud of has Nocturne’s hands on it.
They treated our brand like their own. Sharp thinking, immaculate craft, not one wasted week.
The calmest design partner we’ve had. It shipped early and looked better than the brief.
01 / 03
Engagements
Plain rates. No surprises.
Every engagement is senior-led, fixed-price and has an end date. Yearly saves 15 %.
| What’s included | SprintFocused quality for a growing brand.$3,500/mo | ScaleProduct and platform, end to end.$5,000/mo | StudioMost chosenA full creative partner, on retainer.$8,000/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active requests | 1 at a time | 1 at a time | 2 at a time |
| Brand system | Core | Included | Full system |
| Web build | Landing page | Included | Included |
| Product design | Not included | Included | Included |
| Motion design | Essential | Essential | Advanced |
| CMS & integrations | Not included | Included | Included |
| Studio lead | Not included | Not included | Dedicated |
| Revisions | 2 rounds | 3 rounds | Unlimited |
| Choose Sprint | Choose Scale | Choose Studio |
- SprintFocused quality for a growing brand.$3,500/mo
- Active requests
- 1 at a time
- Brand system
- Core
- Web build
- Landing page
- Product design
- Not included
- Motion design
- Essential
- CMS & integrations
- Not included
- Studio lead
- Not included
- Revisions
- 2 rounds
- ScaleProduct and platform, end to end.$5,000/mo
- Active requests
- 1 at a time
- Brand system
- Included
- Web build
- Included
- Product design
- Included
- Motion design
- Essential
- CMS & integrations
- Included
- Studio lead
- Not included
- Revisions
- 3 rounds
- StudioMost chosenA full creative partner, on retainer.$8,000/mo
- Active requests
- 2 at a time
- Brand system
- Full system
- Web build
- Included
- Product design
- Included
- Motion design
- Advanced
- CMS & integrations
- Included
- Studio lead
- Dedicated
- Revisions
- Unlimited
Free field notes
The After-Dark Teardown Files
Five short teardowns of work we admire — what it does at 200 ms, why the type carries weight, and where the polish gets decided.
What’s inside
- 01The 200 ms ruleThe details you can’t name are the ones people feel.
- 02Type that carries weightSet a system, not a font.
- 03Motion with intentEvery animation earns its place, or it’s cut.
- 04The craft auditThe checklist we run before anything ships.
- 05Selling the invisibleCharging for polish clients can’t articulate.
Questions
Straight answers.
Can’t find yours? Ask — we reply within a day.
Response timeUnder 24h
Send a short brief to the email address in the footer. We reply within a day with questions and a first read on scope.
Direction is locked in week one and you see working progress every Friday. Most engagements run four to ten weeks.
Figma for design, code for anything that moves. You get clean, organised files at hand-off.
Senior craft on demand, without recruiting, onboarding or a long-term salary to carry.
We work in tight loops, so feedback lands early. We refine within the agreed rounds until it’s right.