The power of the sea, and the freedom of the hand that draws in it.

I named the studio in 2023, as my business was taking off. I loved the freedom of an open horizon, yet I cared so much that the fear of making a mistake was holding my creativity back. Mar Sabi holds both: the open sea, and the permission to experiment.

Mar

/mɑːr/ n. [Portuguese], the sea

The sea extends to the horizon in every direction: open, vast, full of what could be. It holds the same power as a canvas before the first mark, the potential behind its emptiness. That potential is where inspiration lives.

Sabi

Beauty in imperfection

Sabi stands for the courage to pick up the brush. It comes from the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, the idea that imperfection isn’t a flaw but a quality to honour. The playfulness of the human touch that turns a blank canvas into something real.

7 yrs
designing brands and websites
30+
startups and growing businesses
10+
countries, from the first client on
4 yrs
of clients coming only by referral
Amber Engine website
Amber Engine

Led the website redesign and creative direction ahead of the acquisition by Material Bank, built the design system the team ran on, and hired and trained junior designers.

Cre8 conference website
STRAT

Started as a project manager and became Head of Brand Experience & Strategy, leading a team of eight and launching Cre8, a new conference brand, from scratch.

Remotive landing page
Remotive

Designed and built key landing pages for the remote jobs platform and redesigned its jobs dashboard, working directly with the founder and CTO.

Among the 30+ teams I’ve designed for

People decide whether to trust you before they ever talk to you.

They look at your website, your LinkedIn, your pitch deck, the proposal you sent last week. Within seconds, they’ve decided how established you are, how much they trust you, and how much they’re willing to pay.

My job is to make sure that decision goes your way.

A few things I’ve learned in seven years of doing this

  1. 01

    People trust people.

    Showing the faces behind a company does more for credibility than almost anything else on a website.

  2. 02

    Taste can’t be generated.

    AI is great for getting started, but it gives everyone the same average result. Being remembered takes someone making real choices.

  3. 03

    The small things count.

    A proposal on plain white paper can undo everything your website built.

FAQ

Didn’t find your question?
Send me a message.

  • With me. I do most of the work myself and I’m your point of contact from the first call to handover. For bigger projects, I can bring in a designer I’ve worked with for years, and you’ll always know who’s on it.

  • You get the person whose work you saw, from the first call to handover. Nothing gets lost between an account manager and a junior designer, decisions happen quickly, and the person who designs your brand is the one who answers your messages.

  • We start with a call about your company, your customers and what you need. After it, I send a proposal with the scope, timeline and a fixed price. Once you approve it, we start with a 50% deposit.

  • Yes. A one-hour consultation gets you a review of your brand or website and a clear list of what to improve first. A credibility audit goes further and looks at everything your customers see. Both work on their own, or as a first step before a bigger project.

  • Every project gets a fixed quote based on what you actually need. After our first call, I send a proposal with the scope, timeline and price, and we start with a 50% deposit. Ongoing design support runs on a monthly retainer.

  • Mostly async. You see work in progress early and give feedback while changes are still easy, and we schedule calls for the moments that need a conversation, around your hours. I always reply within one working day.

  • We start small. Before anything gets built, you see a few key pieces first and give feedback while changes are still easy, so there’s no big reveal at the end. Fixed-price projects include an agreed number of revision rounds, and extra changes are always possible at an hourly rate.

  • I can. I’m happy to write the copy for your website and materials, or to work with copy your team has already written.

  • Yes. I often work with brands that already exist, refining them so they hold up at the next stage. I’m just as used to working alongside in-house teams and developers as I am to working on my own.

  • All the files we agreed on in the scope, organised and in the formats your team needs, with guidelines so anyone can use the brand consistently. For websites, an admin panel built around what your team edits and a short video walkthrough.

  • Yes. Ongoing support runs on a monthly retainer: a set number of hours, starting from five, prepaid at the start of each month. Unused hours roll over for up to two months, so quieter months aren’t wasted.

  • Startups, both bootstrapped and venture-backed, growing small businesses and solo founders. Over seven years, Mar Sabi Studio has worked with companies from more than 10 countries, from bootstrapped startups like Remotive, Content Snare and Amber Engine (acquired by Material Bank) to VC-backed companies like cargo.one.

  • Yes. Most of the work happens async, and I schedule calls around your hours. If something urgent comes up, like an event deadline, I’m flexible to support you.

Let’s talk about how your company comes across.

Send me your website and I’ll tell you what I see.

New messageDraft
ToAlexandra

Hi Alexandra,