Dylan Mulvaney is a quiet catalyst behind some of the most compelling visual narratives in contemporary branding. Working with New York-based design studio Gretel, Dylan has helped shape the brand identities of globally recognized companies while sidestepping the limelight himself. His focus isn’t on accolades—though he has been honored by prestigious organizations like D&AD, the Art Directors Club, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards—but rather on collaboration, intention, and the unseen artistry of graphic design.
Over the course of more than a decade, Dylan has grown alongside Gretel, evolving from motion graphics to leading-edge brand strategy and design. In this in-depth conversation, he reveals the intricate mechanisms behind the studio’s process, his personal journey into the field, the importance of New York’s cultural resonance, and why designers thrive without ever becoming household names.
Why Gretel Stands Out Among New York Design Studios
In the dense, pulsating ecosystem of New York's creative industry, where countless branding studios line every avenue and portfolio sites flood the digital landscape, few agencies possess the enduring clarity and philosophical coherence of Gretel. This branding studio has carved its own lane not by pursuing trends or mimicking the industry’s dominant voices, but by developing a conceptual and methodical approach rooted in empathy, intentionality, and long-term vision.
Unlike many agencies that anchor their branding in fixed stylistic trends or visual gimmicks, Gretel begins with immersive discovery. Dylan Mulvaney, a senior creative presence at the studio, explains that every successful visual identity system is born from authentic insight, not aesthetic impulse. “We aim to understand who our clients are at the deepest level. Their values, behaviors, tone, even their contradictions—these are the real ingredients of a compelling brand,” he says.
This design philosophy translates into branding frameworks that are both fluid and foundational. Rather than relying on static rules, Gretel builds adaptive principles that govern how a brand behaves across mediums—from screen-based interactions to print to motion. It’s about crafting a living identity that evolves alongside the organization it represents. The outcome is a brand presence that is not only recognizable but also resonant, rooted in substance rather than surface.
Equally pivotal is the team behind this vision. Gretel is composed of 35 diverse creatives from around the world, bringing a kaleidoscope of backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives into every collaboration. Dylan highlights this human factor as a cornerstone of Gretel’s success. “What keeps me here after more than a decade is the people. It’s rare to find a place where the exchange of ideas feels this organic and constructive. That diversity of thought is our strongest asset.”
From Motion Graphics Origins to Holistic Brand Storytelling
Gretel’s current stature as a respected branding powerhouse is even more remarkable when you trace its origins. Back in 2009, when Dylan Mulvaney first joined the studio, Gretel operated primarily as a motion design firm. With just four team members at the time, the studio focused on creating television promos, show packages, and network branding—producing visual experiences with storytelling at their core.
That background in motion proved to be more than technical training—it became foundational to Gretel’s identity. The understanding of pacing, rhythm, and emotional resonance through movement would later influence their unique approach to brand behavior in motion and interaction. These elements remain deeply embedded in how the team designs across digital interfaces, advertisements, and live environments.
The inflection point came in 2014, when Netflix approached Gretel to lead their global rebranding. The streaming giant, looking for a partner with deep experience in visual storytelling and network branding, found Gretel’s motion legacy invaluable. The resulting collaboration was a major evolution, not just in the studio’s client portfolio, but in its internal direction. “It was a pivotal moment,” says Dylan. “After the Netflix project, we saw that our design philosophy could resonate far beyond the broadcast world.”
From there, Gretel's roster expanded to include clients across a kaleidoscope of sectors—technology firms, cultural institutions, luxury brands, non-profits, and emerging startups. The studio is now also entering the academic sphere, designing its first higher education identity, set to launch soon. This diversity underscores the studio’s belief that great branding is not bound to industry, but to the integrity of ideas and the power of execution.
The Creative Process: Building Brands Through Strategic Intelligence
At the heart of Gretel’s practice lies a creative process designed to balance intuition with intelligence. Each project is meticulously orchestrated through five main stages—each crafted to foster clarity, creativity, and cohesion.
The first phase, Immersion, functions as a deep research dive. Here, designers, writers, and strategists immerse themselves in the client’s world, not merely as observers, but as curious explorers. They scrutinize language, history, culture, and stakeholder input. “It’s our way of developing empathy and context,” Dylan explains. “We want to know what drives the organization before we define how it should appear to the world.”
This immersion transitions into Strategic Development, where the studio’s dedicated strategy team crafts a structured framework. This includes defining brand purpose, character, values, and verbal tone. Far from being a superficial exercise, this stage forms the spine of all future design work.
Then comes the Lab—Gretel’s experimental design phase. Here, the studio generates, iterates, and evolves visual identity concepts. Designers sketch, prototype, and test ideas with a blend of rigorous thought and instinctive play. Strategy and design converse closely, often volleying feedback back and forth in a manner that Dylan likens to a “creative ping-pong match.” This collaboration ensures that every visual outcome is not only beautiful but meaningful.
Application follows, where the chosen direction is built out into a fully functional brand toolkit—logos, typography, imagery, layouts, UI systems, motion behaviors, and more. Every asset is designed for flexibility and consistency.
The final stage, Support, involves handing off comprehensive guidelines and training materials to the client, often accompanied by workshops for internal teams. This phase ensures the brand can evolve organically, well beyond launch day.
A Hybrid Workflow Built for Depth and Flexibility
As the design industry continues to adapt to the fluid realities of remote collaboration and global teams, Gretel has embraced a hybrid structure that honors both the solitude of focused work and the dynamism of group synergy.
Currently, Gretel designers are in the studio from Monday to Wednesday and work remotely Thursday and Friday. Other departments follow similarly staggered schedules based on team needs. This rhythm allows for maximum collaboration early in the week—when critiques, team check-ins, and strategy alignment happen—followed by deep, uninterrupted execution in the latter days.
“There’s a rhythm to the week that helps us focus,” Dylan observes. “We start together and end apart. That combination gives us both energy and space.”
In a progressive twist, the studio is also piloting a full-remote month in August, where staff are encouraged to work from anywhere. Dylan, for example, plans to spend that month working from Mexico City. “It’s not just a change of scenery. It’s about absorbing a new cultural context, even if just for a few weeks. That feeds the work in subtle but powerful ways.”
This flexibility acknowledges that creativity doesn’t live exclusively within office walls—and that inspiration often flourishes when routine is disrupted.
The Human Element: Creativity Through Serendipity
Despite the many benefits of remote work, Dylan remains a strong advocate for the spontaneous, idea-generating moments that only occur in a physical studio space. He describes these moments as “ambient collisions”—unplanned conversations or passing observations that spark innovation.
“You might be sketching, and someone walks by and says, ‘That reminds me of a lighting design I saw in a play,’ or tells you about a book cover with a unique production technique. These small interjections can radically shift your perspective.”
Such ephemeral exchanges don’t show up in time-tracking software or project roadmaps, but they are essential ingredients in Gretel’s creative culture. They bring unpredictability into a profession that can sometimes trend toward precision.
This blend of spontaneity and structure reflects Gretel’s commitment to nurturing both the process and the people. “We trust the process because we trust each other,” Dylan says. “And that trust is built from openness, generosity, and shared curiosity.”
Designing Without Ego: Why Graphic Designers Thrive in Anonymity
Unlike artists or entertainers whose work is often inextricably tied to their persona, graphic designers often operate in the background. Dylan embraces this with clarity and conviction.
“Graphic designers are interpreters. We take someone else’s message and shape it so that it’s clear, coherent, and compelling. We’re not the voice—we’re the amplifier.”
This humility doesn’t stem from modesty but from a deep understanding of the role of design in public communication. Dylan likens designers to artisans of communication—problem solvers with a poetic toolbox. He also acknowledges the transient nature of graphic work. “Design is fleeting. A campaign lasts months, a logo a few years. There’s no museum for what we do, and that’s fine.”
For Dylan, legacy is less about recognition and more about utility. “If someone finds one of my projects years from now and it inspires them or helps them think differently—that’s enough.”
Looking Forward: Why Creative Work Still Matters
In a world that often prioritizes metrics and efficiency over meaning, Dylan’s perspective offers a necessary recalibration. For him, graphic design remains an essential form of cultural expression—one that deserves space, time, and respect.
“It’s not just about selling products or driving clicks. It’s about creating emotional connections, establishing identity, and telling human stories through shape, color, typography, and rhythm.”
He hopes the future of design includes broader access to tools, education, and mentorship so that more people—regardless of background—can engage with visual communication as both a career and a craft.
As Gretel continues to evolve, Dylan remains committed to the work itself: the process, the people, and the pursuit of clarity. “Good design doesn’t shout,” he says. “It resonates. It lingers. And if you’re lucky, it moves someone.”
Navigating the Hybrid Work Model in the Creative Sector
The global design industry has undergone a seismic shift in the last few years. The days of rigid in-office schedules and siloed creative departments have given way to an adaptive model where flexibility, autonomy, and intentional collaboration reign supreme. At the heart of this new model stands Gretel, a New York-based design studio that has reimagined the way cross-functional teams work in a hybrid environment. With an emphasis on preserving creative energy while supporting the personal rhythms of its people, Gretel’s hybrid model is not just functional—it’s philosophical.
Dylan Mulvaney, a key figure at the studio, describes the setup as one that finds harmony in structure without becoming rigid. Designers are in the studio from Monday to Wednesday, while Thursdays and Fridays are reserved for remote work. Other departments rotate differently, tailored to their specific collaboration needs and internal workflows. The result is a dynamic yet predictable cadence that supports focused execution and immersive teamwork alike.
“Our early-week meetings—brainstorms, critiques, strategy sessions—generate a lot of collaborative friction in the best sense of the word,” Dylan shares. “By midweek, there’s a shift. The studio becomes more contemplative. That contrast fuels both ideation and execution. It allows us to go deep into design problems without feeling disconnected.”
Beyond the weekly rhythm, Gretel has also introduced a forward-thinking initiative: a fully remote month every August. This concept is not just about physical disconnection from the office but about creative renewal. “This year, I’ll be working from Mexico City,” Dylan says. “It’s not just a change of scenery—it’s an invitation to absorb a different aesthetic, a new pace, and unfamiliar cultural nuances that ultimately inform the work in subtle, beautiful ways.”
Shaping the Future of Creative Work Environments
The hybrid model, while increasingly adopted across industries, takes on a unique shape in the realm of design. Here, productivity cannot be measured solely by deliverables. Intuition, mood, serendipity, and ambient inspiration play a crucial role in the quality and originality of creative output.
At Gretel, the physical studio is intentionally designed to encourage cross-pollination of ideas. Long tables replace cubicles, open visual boards replace isolated screens, and group lunches sometimes evolve into spontaneous critique sessions. But the studio is not merely a space—it’s a living system that adapts with its people. When the team enters the space on a Monday morning, it’s not just to work—it’s to reconnect with the collective creative energy.
During remote days, the focus turns inward. Without the distractions or stimuli of the studio environment, individuals are free to refine sketches, distill complex concepts, or iterate on systems. This duality—the energetic charge of group sessions followed by the clarity of solitary deep work—makes the hybrid model not just sustainable, but remarkably generative.
Dylan emphasizes that this structure is constantly evolving. “We listen to how people are working, what’s working well, and what needs to change. The model isn’t static—it’s a living framework that responds to us, not the other way around.”
When Isolation Sparks Innovation
One of the lesser-appreciated benefits of hybrid work in the design world is the way it fosters independent breakthroughs. Solitary work, often undervalued in fast-paced studio environments, has its own distinct power.
“There’s something sacred about uninterrupted time,” Dylan notes. “When I’m alone, especially at home, I can get completely absorbed in the nuance of symbol creation, refining grid systems, or exploring a typographic voice that feels emotionally right for the brand.”
This inward, almost meditative work is foundational to creative integrity. It allows for a depth of exploration that’s difficult to replicate during group sessions, no matter how collaborative or enthusiastic the environment may be.
By intentionally building quiet time into the weekly rhythm, Gretel ensures that its team never feels pressured to perform creatively on command. Instead, ideas are allowed to mature in private, slowly gaining depth before being shared with the wider group for refinement.
The Organic Brilliance of Studio Serendipity
Still, Dylan is quick to point out that the studio’s magic often lies in what’s unplanned. "The most transformative ideas often begin as offhand remarks," he says. Whether it’s someone referencing an obscure art exhibit, commenting on the balance of negative space in a design draft, or simply sharing an unexpected material from a book jacket they found over the weekend—these seemingly minor contributions can set off entire creative chains.
This concept of “ambient collaboration”—where ideas are exchanged not through formal meetings but through passing conversations, shared moods, or even glances at someone’s monitor—forms an essential pillar of Gretel’s creative ecosystem.
“It’s hard to quantify the value of those moments,” Dylan admits. “But we all recognize their power. That’s why being in the studio, even just three days a week, matters. It creates the conditions for those collisions—unexpected, unscheduled, and profoundly generative.”
The Psychological Value of Creative Rituals
Hybrid work is not just about logistics—it’s about rhythm, mental space, and psychological cues that allow people to enter a creative state. One thing Gretel has cultivated consciously is the idea of ritual. Mornings in the studio often begin with communal catch-ups or visual warm-ups. The first remote day of the week often starts with a solo planning session where team members define their personal goals.
For Dylan, these rituals help frame the creative mindset. “When I start the week with people, I gain momentum. When I end it alone, I get clarity. That ebb and flow lets ideas breathe.”
The remote month in August also serves as a long-form ritual of reset. It’s not about vacation or checking out—but about checking in with different sources of influence. Whether someone is working from a lakeside cabin, a bustling city abroad, or their kitchen in Brooklyn, the important thing is the intentional shift in scenery.
Design, after all, thrives on contrast—between chaos and clarity, solitude and community, restriction and openness. By embracing a cyclical rhythm that honors both, Gretel has found a uniquely sustainable path forward.
Reimagining Productivity in Creative Industries
While many industries continue to measure success through quantifiable metrics—hours billed, emails sent, meetings attended—creative work resists such neat containers. At Gretel, productivity is defined less by quantity and more by resonance.
“It’s not about how many decks we can push out in a week,” Dylan says. “It’s about whether the work we’re doing feels grounded, insightful, and expressive.”
This redefinition has shaped how the team approaches deadlines, project pacing, and internal reviews. It’s not about speed for speed’s sake. It’s about arriving at the right solution through an integrated process of thinking, making, revising, and reflecting.
The hybrid work structure supports this recalibration beautifully. It allows for bursts of shared momentum and equal stretches of patient exploration. By removing the pressure to be constantly visible or performative, the system trusts that valuable ideas are growing even in the quietest moments.
Looking Ahead: A Blueprint for Creative Wellbeing
The hybrid work model at Gretel is more than a response to a global crisis—it is a proactive evolution of how creative professionals want, and need, to work in the modern era. It places equal value on human connection and individual growth, on external input and internal intuition.
As Dylan looks ahead, he sees even more potential for refinement and innovation in how studios structure their time and space. “This is just the beginning,” he says. “We’re constantly learning, tweaking, and expanding the possibilities for how we collaborate. The real goal is not to find the ‘perfect’ model, but the most humane, flexible, and inspiring one.”
In a world that often confuses hustle with progress, Gretel offers a welcome alternative—a model that honors the messy, magnificent process of making something meaningful. And in doing so, they’ve created not just a workspace, but a creative sanctuary.
Gretel’s Strategic Creative Framework
For a branding agency to create identities that resonate globally, a meticulous yet adaptable creative framework is not a luxury—it is a necessity. At Gretel, a renowned New York-based branding studio, the creative process is anything but linear. Rather than working from a rigid playbook or defaulting to formulaic templates, the studio engages in a deeply investigative, iterative, and human-centered process. Every branding project passes through five integral phases, each offering opportunities for research-driven strategy and boundless artistic exploration.
Dylan Mulvaney, a senior creative leader at the studio, compares the process to a living organism: structured in skeleton, but dynamic in movement. Each phase builds on the last while remaining porous enough to allow for new insights, serendipity, and client-specific nuance. What results isn’t just a brand identity—it’s a carefully composed system of meaning that speaks authentically and adapts intuitively.
The journey begins with immersive research and ends with comprehensive empowerment. What happens in between is where strategy becomes story and form meets function.
Immersion: Diving into the Client’s Ecosystem
Every branding initiative at Gretel starts with an in-depth immersion phase—an expansive, anthropological deep-dive into the inner workings of the client’s world. Designers, strategists, and researchers commit themselves fully to understanding the client's mission, values, market dynamics, visual history, and linguistic tone. Nothing is taken at face value. This isn't simply about absorbing a brand brief or reviewing previous materials—it's about unearthing core truths.
Dylan describes it with vivid imagery: “We approach this like Jane Goodall in the forest—observing, listening, learning patterns. We want to experience the client's world from the inside out, not just as outsiders glancing through a window.”
Stakeholder interviews, cultural audits, competitor reviews, and internal workshops all contribute to this phase. The aim is to identify latent insights and intangible forces that shape how the brand behaves. These inputs are organized and synthesized into an internal briefing document that outlines not only what the brand does, but who it is.
This deep empathy-building phase ensures that the visual and verbal identity work to come will emerge from understanding, not assumption. It's the difference between designing around a brand versus designing from within it.
Strategic Foundation: Crafting the Verbal and Conceptual Backbone
With rich insight in hand, the next stage is building the strategic architecture—the core framework that defines the brand’s ethos, narrative, and verbal personality. Led by a specialized strategy team, this phase acts as a translation between discovery and design. Its purpose is to create conceptual alignment, narrative clarity, and directional focus.
Here, abstract values are turned into actionable principles. Purpose is clarified. Tone is established. Key audience segments are identified, and communication goals are refined. The brand begins to coalesce—not yet visually, but ideologically.
A foundational output of this stage is a strategy document that encapsulates the brand’s positioning, key messages, brand story, audience insights, competitive landscape, and verbal guidelines. This is not merely an internal document—it is the blueprint for every visual and verbal expression that will follow.
According to Dylan, this phase acts as a bridge: “It’s the connective tissue between who the brand is and how it will look, sound, and behave in the world. It empowers both the client and the creative team to make decisions with confidence and coherence.”
Creative Discovery: Experimentation in the Design Lab
Gretel refers to its creative exploration phase as “The Lab”—an evocative name that underscores its spirit of experimentation, iteration, and dialogue. The Lab is where strategy takes shape, where abstract principles find visual form, and where speculative ideas are tested, twisted, and refined.
Dylan identifies this as his favorite part of the process: “It’s that exhilarating moment where the brief fades slightly and your intuition takes over. You’ve absorbed the context, but now it’s time to react instinctively—to sketch, experiment, and invent.”
Designers begin sketching potential identity systems: logos, typography systems, motion behaviors, color palettes, and other visual components that articulate the strategic framework. This phase is messy by design—each creative path explored reveals something new about the brand's potential, even if it’s ultimately discarded.
What sets this phase apart at Gretel is its iterative, dialogic nature. Strategy and design teams remain in constant conversation, with each influencing the other. Concepts are shared early and often. Ideas are challenged, tested, and evolved through feedback loops and structured critiques.
Rather than seeking a single perfect concept, the goal is to uncover the most resonant, resilient system—one that has room to grow, adapt, and connect authentically with the brand’s audiences.
Execution: Translating Strategy into Practical Identity Systems
Once a creative direction is selected, the project enters the execution phase. Here, the chosen design language is expanded and formalized into a coherent identity system. Every element—from icons and imagery to web modules and motion language—is shaped to serve both aesthetic and functional purposes.
Templates, digital components, environmental applications, and editorial treatments are created, tested, and refined. The work becomes more detailed, more specific, and more tightly interwoven with the brand’s operational reality. It’s not just about making beautiful visuals—it’s about making smart, scalable, and context-responsive tools that work across departments, platforms, and touchpoints.
This phase also involves practical coordination with developers, marketers, in-house teams, and partner vendors to ensure consistency and flexibility. The identity system must be strong enough to guide, yet loose enough to inspire.
“The real power of a well-executed brand system is that it empowers others to create within it,” Dylan explains. “We don’t want to build something that only works in the studio—we want it to live and evolve wherever the brand exists.”
Handoff and Empowerment: Building Tools for Longevity
The final stage of Gretel’s strategic creative process is focused on education, adoption, and longevity. After the identity system is finalized, the studio delivers a complete suite of assets—guidelines, toolkits, templates, and digital files—all designed to help the client steward their new brand with confidence.
These aren’t just static PDFs or logo folders—they are living documents supported by workshops, training sessions, and interactive discussions. The goal is to build brand literacy among internal teams, external partners, and collaborators so that the new identity is not only maintained, but actively embraced.
“Design is never finished the day a logo is handed off,” Dylan says. “Brands evolve, contexts shift, platforms emerge. What we deliver is a system that’s meant to stretch, respond, and grow.”
This philosophy reflects a deep understanding of brand development as a continuous, collaborative process. Clients aren’t left to figure it out alone—they’re given the tools, knowledge, and confidence to take ownership of their new identity.
Why the Process Matters as Much as the Outcome
Gretel’s five-phase methodology is not a marketing slogan or a workflow checklist—it’s a reflection of how the studio thinks, works, and creates. Every step is designed to uphold the studio’s commitment to meaningful, responsive, and responsible brand-building.
For Dylan and the team, the process matters as much as the end product. “We want the journey to feel as transformative as the destination. A great identity system isn't just something you look at—it’s something you use. It becomes part of how you work, how you think, and how you connect.”
This mindset shapes everything from how briefs are written to how feedback is processed. The studio avoids shortcuts, resists decoration-for-decoration’s-sake, and holds firm to the belief that good design begins with good understanding.
The process also creates trust—between designer and client, between strategy and execution, between form and function. That trust is what enables bold thinking and lasting impact.
A Living Framework for Contemporary Brand Design
As the design industry continues to grapple with evolving technologies, changing consumer expectations, and the blurred boundaries of digital and physical experience, Gretel’s creative framework offers something essential: stability without stagnation.
It’s a system that values research as much as revelation, intuition as much as rigor. It invites both structure and surprise, both predictability and play. For clients, it means clarity, consistency, and confidence. For designers, it means space to explore, to question, and to create something truly distinctive.
Dylan’s description of the Lab stage encapsulates the entire philosophy: “That moment when preparation gives way to instinct—when you're sketching something unexpected because it just feels right—that’s where design becomes more than problem-solving. It becomes storytelling.”
In a world overloaded with visual noise, Gretel’s strategic creative process stands as a quiet, powerful reminder: when branding is built on empathy, insight, and purposeful design, it doesn’t just make things look better—it makes them mean more.
A Humble Beginning in Rural Iowa
Dylan’s affinity for design began far from the urban design capitals. Raised in the small town of Coggon, Iowa, he grew up in a world devoid of professional artists or designers. “My dad was a mechanic, and my mom was a schoolteacher. Most families were farmers. Creative careers weren’t visible,” he says.
His fascination with visuals manifested early through handmade storybooks and experimental drawings. Things took a turn when the family got their first computer. “Photoshop, digital cameras, and the internet changed everything. I started creating CD covers, cloning images, and building terrible websites—thankfully lost to time.”
A high school job shadowing program at a local newspaper finally gave a name to what he loved: graphic design. That clarity set him on a path that led, eventually, to New York City.
How New York Continues to Shape His Creative Life
For Dylan, New York is more than a place to live; it’s an unending source of creative friction and inspiration. “The diversity, density, and dynamism here are unmatched. Every street, gallery, or subway ride offers a new narrative or insight.”
Despite the rising popularity of remote work, he believes cities like New York remain essential to innovation. “The chance encounters, the saturation of art and culture, the random conversations—these are irreplaceable. Creativity thrives on exposure to the unfamiliar.”
He’s also rekindled an appreciation for nature, frequently escaping to upstate New York or revisiting Iowa to decompress. “You need both,” he says. “The relentless pace of the city and the stillness of the countryside. They balance each other.”
Why Graphic Designers Aren’t Meant to Be Famous
Fame, Dylan suggests, is antithetical to the essence of graphic design. “We’re visual translators. Our purpose is to help others communicate, not to become the message ourselves.”
He draws parallels to disciplines like industrial design or architecture, where the work’s impact is paramount and often anonymous. “There’s no museum for logos. And that’s fine. Graphic design is inherently transient. The satisfaction lies in solving problems and creating clarity.”
If his work is ever rediscovered, Dylan simply hopes it offers something useful to future designers. “Take what resonates, discard the rest, and keep evolving the field.”
The Eternal Allure of Design Thinking
What keeps Dylan engaged after all these years is the endless potential for refinement and reinvention. “Graphic design is never finished. There’s always another iteration, another path not taken.”
This infinite possibility, while sometimes daunting, is also profoundly rewarding. “It’s like navigating a labyrinth where the goal is not just to escape, but to build new corridors. The friction, the ambiguity—that’s where the growth happens.”
He hopes the design industry continues to broaden access and democratize creative expression. “Design should be accessible, not elitist. It’s a powerful tool for communication, and everyone should have a chance to wield it.”
Final Thoughts:
Dylan Mulvaney’s journey is a testament to what can be achieved when creative work is rooted in humility, collaboration, and an enduring curiosity. In an industry often obsessed with personal branding and visual spectacle, Dylan represents a quieter, more thoughtful form of design leadership—one that values impact over recognition, clarity over complexity, and substance over style.
Throughout his career at Gretel, Dylan has contributed not just to the evolution of major brand identities but to the studio’s own cultural DNA. His reflections offer a rare look into the mind of someone who truly understands that great design is not about the designer—it’s about the message, the audience, and the moment. He sees graphic design not as an isolated act of creativity but as a dynamic process shaped by research, strategy, intuition, and dialogue. This holistic mindset is what enables his work to feel so timeless and adaptable, even as the design world constantly shifts.
Dylan’s belief that cities like New York continue to play a crucial role in nurturing creative energy challenges the narrative that remote work can replace physical collaboration. For him, proximity to culture, diversity, and unpredictability is essential—not because it guarantees better ideas, but because it opens the door to unexpected ones. Likewise, his thoughts on hybrid work highlight the importance of flexibility in the modern creative process. Being able to work alone when necessary and come together for collaborative problem-solving offers the best of both worlds.
Most of all, Dylan's approach encourages a recalibration of what success looks like in the creative industry. It's not about fame or building a personal empire—it’s about making work that matters, building systems that endure, and helping others see the world with fresh eyes. Designers, he suggests, are not the stars of the show. They are the stagehands, the architects, the translators who bring clarity and coherence to complex ideas.
In a time when so much creative energy is directed toward visibility and self-promotion, Dylan reminds us that there’s something deeply noble—and deeply needed—in simply doing the work well, and letting the work speak for itself.
