When Finn Gaardboe founded StudioFMRG earlier this year, it wasn’t a whimsical departure or a dramatic career reinvention sparked by burnout or existential retreat. It was the natural progression of a long, methodical journey—one shaped by years of quiet introspection and a desire to reimagine what creative studios can be in today’s business landscape. Rather than rushing into an oversaturated market with yet another predictable agency model, Finn chose to build something more thoughtful: a studio that places storytelling, strategy, and soul at the core of every creative output.
Finn had observed a troubling pattern across the creative industry. Many design studios and agencies had either become creatively stagnant—recycling aesthetics with diminishing emotional impact—or too fixated on commercial performance, churning out formulaic solutions that failed to resonate on a deeper level. "I kept seeing the same ideas presented in slightly different packaging,” Finn recalls. “There was a lack of originality and a loss of risk. That’s when I knew it was time to do things differently.”
StudioFMRG emerged as a counterpoint—a place where creativity is nurtured with intention, not streamlined into predictability. The studio exists to bring design and storytelling back to their essential roles: to move, connect, and provoke.
Shifting from Templates to Thoughtful Innovation
StudioFMRG doesn’t fit into any conventional category—and that’s entirely by design. It neither mimics a traditional design studio nor operates within the boundaries of a typical advertising agency. Instead, it functions as a nimble, interdisciplinary creative entity where insight, experimentation, and cultural nuance converge to produce work that transcends aesthetic expectation and industry routine. As founder Finn Gaardboe puts it, the studio is “a small outfit with a panoramic view”—a practice capable of crafting immersive brand identities, nuanced editorial stories, integrated campaigns, and community-rooted ventures that respond to the real world rather than predefined templates.
This resistance to categorization is intentional. StudioFMRG doesn’t begin its projects with preset formulas. It begins with inquiry. Every assignment starts with a process of unlearning—of peeling back assumptions, scrutinizing context, and challenging expectations. It’s this investigative ethos that gives the studio its power: the ability to uncover narrative angles and brand expressions that feel wholly authentic, yet refreshingly unexpected.
Rather than following fleeting creative trends or replicating popular frameworks, StudioFMRG takes pride in experimentation and contradiction. Its team approaches each project like an expedition, exploring cultural textures and emotional truths. Each outcome is unique, not because of stylistic novelty, but because it is rooted in meaning. Whether building a visual identity for a future-facing fintech startup or shaping an editorial photo story that explores the complexities of modern masculinity, the studio prioritizes work that holds emotional gravity and cultural resonance.
The Role of Curiosity in Creative Development
At the core of StudioFMRG’s approach is a deeply held belief in curiosity as the starting point of all meaningful design. In an era dominated by efficiency and replication, the studio instead embraces the slower, richer process of asking better questions. This reflective stance allows the team to unearth deeper insights and cultural signals that often get overlooked in formulaic workflows.
Curiosity is not simply a phase in StudioFMRG’s process—it’s the engine. Rather than begin with a fixed aesthetic or strategy, the team immerses itself in the client’s world, exploring user behavior, industry patterns, and unspoken emotional cues. In this exploration, new opportunities for expression and connection begin to emerge. The studio’s approach is not linear—it’s circular, iterative, and adaptive. This makes room for unexpected discoveries, something Finn believes is essential to producing work that is both relevant and resonant.
Through a blend of human-centered research and intuitive design exploration, StudioFMRG reframes the creative process as one of discovery rather than delivery. The result is a body of work that feels less like a product and more like a shared narrative between brand and audience.
Designing for Connection, Not Just Recognition
StudioFMRG is less interested in creating design that merely looks good and more focused on design that feels right. In today’s saturated marketplace, visual differentiation is no longer enough. Audiences crave authenticity, coherence, and connection. Brands that succeed are the ones that manage to build emotional resonance—and this is exactly where StudioFMRG thrives.
The studio’s work is guided by a philosophy that combines visual storytelling, user understanding, and cultural fluency. Instead of designing to impress, it designs to express. Each brand identity or campaign is crafted with the end user’s emotional and psychological context in mind. Finn and his team consider not only what a brand should look like today, but how it might grow, shift, and endure over time—how it feels across media, touchpoints, and cultural moments.
StudioFMRG’s notion of design includes the intangible: the tone of a message, the pace of a campaign, the atmosphere of a visual story. By carefully calibrating these elements, the studio creates experiences that feel less like marketing and more like moments of recognition and relevance. In doing so, it helps its clients build brands that are not just seen, but felt.
Strategy Anchored in Empathy and Research
While StudioFMRG is deeply intuitive in its creative methods, its strategy is grounded in rigor. Every project is anchored in research—whether it’s market landscapes, user behavior patterns, or sociocultural dynamics. But unlike studios that treat research as a checkbox, StudioFMRG uses it as a tool for empathy, interpretation, and narrative building.
Before a single mood board or concept sketch is created, the team dives deep into understanding the real world of the brand—its users, their desires, frustrations, and aspirations. It’s this commitment to context that allows the studio to uncover what truly matters. From this foundation, creative decisions are not arbitrary but intentional—built to serve both function and feeling.
StudioFMRG’s method weaves together competitive analysis, brand workshops, stakeholder interviews, and visual exploration. This multi-modal approach ensures each creative strategy is both practical and poetic. It’s not just about positioning—it’s about finding a brand’s voice and designing an ecosystem around it. It’s not just about what a company says, but how, when, and why it says it.
Versatility Rooted in Experience
What allows StudioFMRG to move fluidly between branding, campaigns, and editorial design is the cross-disciplinary background of its founder. Finn Gaardboe has spent years across fashion, advertising, and brand consulting, amassing a wide-angle understanding of how creative work functions in different contexts. This breadth is rare—and incredibly valuable.
Finn’s perspective allows the studio to serve clients at various stages of growth: from scrappy startups trying to carve a niche to established institutions seeking reinvention. StudioFMRG understands the pace and pressure of early-stage growth but also appreciates the complexity and nuance required when repositioning a legacy business. This versatility makes the studio especially adept at crafting tailored approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
Rather than clinging to a singular aesthetic or method, StudioFMRG approaches each project with fresh eyes and custom-built frameworks. It’s this flexibility, paired with depth of experience, that makes the studio capable of delivering work that is both stylistically distinct and strategically sound.
Emotional Intelligence as Creative Capital
One of StudioFMRG’s most defining traits is its emotional intelligence—a rare but essential asset in the creative world. The studio doesn’t just interpret data or follow briefs. It reads between the lines, senses tone, and identifies unspoken dynamics. This emotional awareness is what allows the studio to craft work that not only solves problems but speaks to people on a human level.
This kind of creative sensibility can’t be faked. It shows up in the way the studio works with clients, in the care it puts into its typography, imagery, and pacing, and in the emotional arcs embedded within its narratives. Whether the project is a hyperlocal community campaign or a global brand refresh, the studio ensures the output maintains human warmth and coherence.
By prioritizing emotional nuance, StudioFMRG helps brands not just look better, but be better—more empathetic, more expressive, and more responsive to the real experiences of their audiences.
Beauty as a Necessary Element of Value
At the heart of StudioFMRG’s philosophy lies a bold and often countercultural belief: beauty is not a luxury, nor is it an accessory to strategy. Instead, beauty is a core value—essential to meaningful design, effective communication, and emotional resonance. While the creative industry has often marginalized beauty to the final polish on a deliverable, StudioFMRG brings it forward as a primary force in shaping brand perception and building trust. “Too often, beauty is considered an indulgence,” says founder Finn Gaardboe. “But to us, it’s a design imperative. It guides clarity, evokes confidence, and generates lasting emotional impact.”
This redefinition of beauty breaks from mainstream interpretations. StudioFMRG does not conflate beauty with perfection, nor does it reduce it to surface-level appeal. In this studio, beauty can be understated, raw, fragmented, or even uncomfortable—so long as it feels intentional and rooted in truth. The design language used is one of visual honesty, not performative gloss. Through this lens, beauty becomes a strategic asset, not a superficial adornment.
Redefining Aesthetics Through Purpose
StudioFMRG’s approach to beauty is neither homogenous nor trend-driven. Instead, it is guided by nuance, purpose, and cultural insight. Each brand identity, campaign visual, or editorial treatment is crafted with a bespoke sensibility—reflecting the context in which it lives and the values it seeks to express. Whether it manifests in minimal typographic systems or rich visual narratives, beauty is designed to convey something deeper: a sense of alignment, trustworthiness, and emotional clarity.
Design decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are drawn from research, empathy, and strategic alignment. The studio employs aesthetics not for decoration, but as a vehicle for meaning. This philosophy helps StudioFMRG design brand experiences that resonate not just visually, but viscerally—leaving audiences with a sense of connection, not just recognition.
The Strategic Utility of Visual Emotion
In a digital landscape saturated with sameness, beauty plays a crucial role in differentiation. But at StudioFMRG, differentiation is not about flamboyance—it’s about presence. Beauty becomes a tool for positioning, anchoring a brand’s values and making its promise legible in every detail. From iconography to typography, color theory to motion, every design element is orchestrated to evoke emotion and build affinity.
This form of visual storytelling transcends functionality. It enters the realm of memory and feeling. When executed with intention, beauty doesn’t just attract—it sustains. It creates brands that people not only admire but feel emotionally aligned with. This kind of connection drives long-term loyalty, turning passive consumers into active advocates.
StudioFMRG understands that in a world of endless digital noise, emotional intelligence embedded within design is not optional—it’s the difference between brands that endure and those that evaporate.
Balancing Elegance and Utility
One of the studio’s most distinctive capabilities is its ability to marry refinement with practicality. StudioFMRG doesn’t see beauty as existing in opposition to function. In fact, it sees well-designed experiences as those that bring beauty and utility into harmony. A clean user interface, a tactile packaging system, or a narrative-rich art direction can all serve practical needs while delivering aesthetic pleasure.
This dual awareness—of what looks good and what works—allows StudioFMRG to design across touchpoints with seamless cohesion. Whether it’s digital platforms, spatial branding, editorial layouts, or printed collateral, the studio maintains fidelity to both elegance and efficiency. The result is design that not only communicates clearly but also lingers in memory.
By respecting both the rational and emotional demands of design, StudioFMRG crafts identities that feel intelligent, intuitive, and emotionally charged.
Creating Beauty That Reflects Cultural Intelligence
StudioFMRG does not treat beauty as static. Instead, it sees beauty as a reflection of cultural shifts, audience expectations, and societal narratives. In today’s hyper-aware marketplace, design must be more than visually stimulating—it must feel culturally intelligent. This means designing with context, with social sensitivity, and with an ear to the rhythm of current discourse.
The studio’s projects often draw inspiration from subcultures, emerging art scenes, public dialogue, and interdisciplinary collaborations. This helps create visual systems that feel grounded in the world, not abstracted from it. It’s about translating cultural resonance into design language—one that speaks directly and honestly to the people it hopes to serve.
Whether it’s in the nuanced art direction of a fashion editorial or the poetic restraint of a fintech brand identity, StudioFMRG ensures its visual output feels timely yet timeless, provocative yet purposeful.
Emotional Value as a Brand Asset
Beyond market differentiation, beauty contributes to a brand’s emotional value—something often overlooked in traditional metrics. StudioFMRG works from the understanding that people are not purely rational actors. They make decisions based on intuition, memory, and feeling. Beauty—when embedded intentionally into design—can reinforce brand promises, deescalate cognitive overload, and elevate everyday interactions into moments of delight.
This is particularly potent in industries where trust and clarity are paramount—such as technology, finance, wellness, and education. A beautiful experience signals care. It shows the brand values its audience and pays attention to the small details. This creates a sense of psychological safety and affinity that is difficult to quantify, yet indispensable for lasting relationships.
In this way, StudioFMRG helps clients move beyond transactional design to build deeply felt, experiential brands. It’s not just about what people see—it’s about how the brand makes them feel, and what that feeling inspires them to do next.
Beauty as a Long-Term Strategy
StudioFMRG does not approach design as a quick fix or a launchpad for short-term hype. Instead, it views beauty as a cornerstone of long-term brand equity. From the very first conversation, the studio imagines how the work will evolve, age, and adapt. It considers what will still feel relevant in five, ten, or even twenty years. This foresight allows the studio to develop visual identities that are built to last—resilient to trend cycles and reactive branding.
This strategic patience ensures that every piece of work has enduring substance. StudioFMRG helps brands anticipate their growth, rather than constantly react to market trends. Its design systems are scalable, flexible, and emotionally intelligent—capable of evolving while staying true to the brand’s original promise.
This is beauty in its most sophisticated form—not just cosmetic excellence, but a blueprint for longevity, resonance, and trust.
Research and Resonance Drive Every Project
StudioFMRG’s design process doesn’t begin with aesthetics—it begins with inquiry. Every project, whether a grassroots community initiative or a data-driven enterprise, is built upon a methodical and deeply empathetic foundation of research. For Finn Gaardboe and his team, understanding a client’s world means immersing themselves in it. Their goal isn’t just to produce something visually compelling, but to cultivate meaningful experiences that truly connect with audiences.
In its formative work, StudioFMRG has demonstrated a rare commitment to depth. Sole Mates, a purpose-led running club grounded in community values, and StatBrak, a sophisticated data platform with a contemporary visual edge, both reflect the studio’s ability to translate complex narratives into tangible design systems. These projects serve as living case studies, showcasing StudioFMRG’s capability to merge strategic research with narrative fluency and visual elegance.
The studio’s design ethos is built around three enduring principles: insight, integrity, and impact. These principles guide every interaction, from the discovery phase to the final expression. Through qualitative research, cultural immersion, and strategic mapping, StudioFMRG ensures every creative output is rooted in the real world—not merely in aesthetic theory or fleeting trends.
Listening Before Leading
One of StudioFMRG’s most distinct traits is its commitment to listening. Many creative studios dive straight into ideation. This studio, however, takes a more investigative path. Every brief is treated not as a prompt for execution but as an invitation to learn. StudioFMRG asks the harder questions: What is unsaid in the brand’s current positioning? What truths are hiding in plain sight? Who isn’t being heard?
By engaging directly with stakeholders, customers, and communities, the studio captures subtleties others might overlook. These interactions fuel more honest insights—insights that shape the emotional core of the work. Whether through user interviews, brand workshops, or field research, StudioFMRG begins by absorbing the human texture of a brand before attempting to shape it.
This sensitivity allows the studio to craft work that speaks in more than slogans. It ensures that every visual, message, and interaction feels authentic and aligned with the brand’s deeper purpose.
Translating Complexity Into Clarity
StudioFMRG has a talent for working within intricate systems and making them accessible without oversimplifying. This is particularly evident in projects like StatBrak, where a complex data platform required not only strategic refinement but a compelling visual and tonal identity. The goal was not just to make the interface clean, but to make the entire brand ecosystem legible, intuitive, and relevant to its users.
Here, research is not separate from design—it is embedded within it. Every interaction point is informed by behavioral insight and cultural interpretation. The visual decisions—color choices, layout structure, iconography, typography—are all influenced by how users engage with content and how they emotionally respond to the brand’s voice.
StudioFMRG views design as a cognitive and emotional experience. Its ability to convert intricate or abstract concepts into accessible, elegant brand systems gives clients more than just a visual refresh—it offers clarity, confidence, and coherence.
Culture as a Lens, Not a Layer
Cultural relevance is not something StudioFMRG adds to projects after the fact—it is central to its methodology. The studio believes that a brand only resonates when it participates meaningfully in the cultural realities of its audience. This requires not only listening, but understanding: understanding the unspoken codes, histories, identities, and nuances that shape how people perceive and engage with brands.
Finn and his team delve into context—economic, social, geographical, and emotional. They don't just reference culture; they analyze it. This analytical lens allows the studio to design brand systems that aren’t just presentable, but present within the culture they aim to serve. Whether it’s a local initiative with deep community roots or a forward-facing technology brand, StudioFMRG ensures its work aligns with both the moment and the movement.
This ability to create work that feels both timely and timeless is one of the reasons StudioFMRG’s creative solutions resonate so powerfully across varied audiences and industries.
Collaborating with Visionary Clients
A powerful brand system isn’t created in isolation—it emerges from collaboration. StudioFMRG’s most compelling work has been shaped by its partnerships with clients who bring clarity, curiosity, and courage to the table. With Tusk and StatBrak, for example, StudioFMRG was given the space to explore, challenge, and reimagine without being limited by conventional expectations.
What defines these relationships is mutual trust. The clients come to the table not just to approve designs but to co-create ideas. This openness allows for work that transcends the predictable. It enables StudioFMRG to push into more imaginative, layered, and experimental territory—always with strategic discipline in mind.
The studio values clients who are as excited about meaningful storytelling and design thinking as they are about business goals. These collaborations not only produce impactful results—they also serve as a reminder that good design is a shared endeavor, where bravery and intention meet.
Designing Brands That Resonate Long After Launch
Resonance is not a buzzword at StudioFMRG—it’s a benchmark. The studio evaluates success not only by launch-day performance or design awards but by how the brand evolves, endures, and embeds itself in culture. To create something resonant is to create something that stays with people—not just visually, but emotionally and intellectually.
This long-view perspective is embedded in the studio’s process. Brands aren’t created just for today’s audience—they are built for the people the brand will meet tomorrow. This means designing with expansion, change, and relevance in mind. Whether a brand is preparing for a major funding round or simply launching its first product, StudioFMRG ensures the identity system can grow without losing its coherence or soul.
Every output is crafted to align with a brand’s present while anticipating its future. This allows clients to scale with consistency, retain emotional relevance, and deepen audience trust over time.
Crafting with Empathy, Delivering with Precision
StudioFMRG blends emotional intelligence with operational precision—an uncommon duality in the design world. It is just as comfortable sketching initial visual concepts as it is running stakeholder mapping sessions or planning phased brand rollouts. This is where the studio’s strength lies: in its capacity to move fluidly between intuition and execution.
Behind every visual system lies a narrative framework. Behind every typographic decision lies user behavior research. And behind every campaign concept lies an effort to distill complex insights into compelling stories. This multi-dimensional process makes StudioFMRG’s work rich in detail, but never cluttered; emotionally resonant, but always strategically sound.
With each project, the studio doesn’t just aim to solve a design problem—it seeks to reflect a brand’s values, honor its audience, and amplify its impact.
Narrative Power Through Contrast and Tension
Storytelling is not simply a tool at StudioFMRG—it’s a philosophy. And at the heart of effective storytelling is contrast. One of the studio’s standout editorial projects, Memories of Youth, exemplifies this belief. Created in collaboration with photographer Bryan Tang, the piece examines the multifaceted nature of masculinity. It juxtaposes softness and strength, performance and introspection, capturing complexity with cinematic subtlety.
“Without tension, stories fall flat,” Finn notes. “We look for those moments of contradiction and vulnerability. They’re often the most human, and the most compelling.”
This narrative mindset is embedded in the studio’s creative DNA, ensuring that every brand it touches doesn’t just look good—it communicates with emotional gravity.
Designing with Long-Term Vision
While many branding agencies focus on short-term outcomes—launch-day aesthetics, early-stage messaging, and promotional sprints—StudioFMRG is playing a longer game. From the first engagement, they imagine the brand years into the future. “We think about how the identity will evolve as the company grows—how it will live in physical spaces, public consciousness, and emotional memory,” Finn says.
This future-facing approach means every decision—from typography to tonality—is made with foresight. The studio combines instinctual creativity with strategic depth, using moodboards, handwritten sketches, field notes, and structured market analysis to shape brands that are built to endure, adapt, and inspire.
Finn’s approach starts from a place of intuition, then transitions into a disciplined framework: user research, industry immersion, brand positioning, and visual storytelling. “It’s about finding the right balance between spontaneity and structure,” he explains.
Interdisciplinary Experience as Creative Currency
Finn’s diverse background in fashion, branding, and advertising gives StudioFMRG a rare agility. This cross-disciplinary lens allows the studio to navigate different brand ecosystems—whether it’s a startup in need of rapid traction or an established enterprise exploring a new direction.
“I’ve seen firsthand what a brand requires at every stage—from scrappy beginnings to legacy reinvention,” Finn shares. “That breadth allows us to meet clients where they are and help them grow with authenticity and intent.”
This experience-rich foundation equips the studio to craft brand identities that are not only stylish but also sustainable, both culturally and commercially. The ability to fluidly move between aesthetics and strategy, between intuition and analysis, is what sets StudioFMRG apart in a crowded market.
Navigating the Creative-Commercial Tightrope
One of the most demanding aspects of running an independent studio is balancing artistic integrity with operational sustainability. Finn is candid about the challenge: “It’s a daily negotiation. How do you stay true to your creative instincts while ensuring your business survives and thrives?”
The answer, for now, lies in discipline and discernment. StudioFMRG is selective with its partnerships, choosing projects that align with its values and allow room for depth. Time is treated as a finite resource, and team energy is protected. The studio avoids creative burnout by focusing on work that genuinely excites and empowers.
“There’s a temptation to say yes to everything, especially in the early stages,” Finn acknowledges. “But long-term success is about knowing what to say no to.”
Expanding Without Diluting
StudioFMRG is not chasing scale for appearance’s sake. Its aspirations are not measured in headcount or office square footage, but in cultural influence and creative integrity. Finn’s vision for growth is thoughtful—more about refining craft and increasing resonance than landing bigger budgets.
“We’re interested in redefining how creativity contributes to business outcomes,” he says. “Design shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be a driver of loyalty, clarity, and emotional engagement.”
This vision could manifest in unexpected industries—from fintech to fashion, food systems to editorial journalism. What unites all potential collaborations is a shared mindset: a belief in story-led strategy, aesthetic discipline, and human connection.
Setting the Stage for What’s Next
As StudioFMRG charts its path forward, its goals remain grounded. Finn isn’t measuring success by flashy press coverage or awards. Instead, he defines it as staying financially healthy, creating work that his team and clients are proud of, and continuing to evolve without compromise.
“This first year is about building a solid foundation,” Finn says. “If we can create projects that resonate, build real relationships, and feel confident stepping into the next chapter, that’s a win.”
StudioFMRG is poised not just to thrive, but to lead a quiet revolution in how creativity serves business—less about scale, more about meaning; less about templates, more about transformation.
Final Reflections:
As StudioFMRG finds its footing in a saturated creative landscape, its founding ethos offers a refreshing alternative to the traditional studio model. This is not a practice born from ego or aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake. It is, at its core, a creative venture that sees design, storytelling, and cultural relevance as essential drivers of business transformation—not just nice-to-haves at the end of a strategy deck.
Finn Gaardboe’s vision for StudioFMRG is anchored in an understanding that modern brands cannot rely on surface-level polish or recycled ideas. To resonate deeply and endure, brands must be built on integrity, curiosity, and the willingness to explore complexity. StudioFMRG doesn’t position creativity as an isolated phase or a postscript—it integrates it from the very beginning, treating beauty, research, and emotional narrative as strategic levers. In a world where differentiation is increasingly elusive, this approach gives brands the tools to stand out through substance, not spectacle.
What’s most striking is the studio’s commitment to long-term thinking. While many creative teams chase short-term wins, StudioFMRG thinks in decades. It imagines how a brand grows with time, evolves with culture, and maintains its voice across shifting landscapes. This isn't just good design—it's design with foresight.
The studio’s future is not being defined by speed or scale, but by depth and resonance. Whether it's an editorial exploration of masculinity or a strategic brand identity for a tech startup, each project is approached with the same foundational belief: that meaningful work starts with empathy, curiosity, and craftsmanship.
StudioFMRG doesn’t pretend to have all the answers—it thrives on asking better questions. It welcomes tension, embraces ambiguity, and favors slow creativity over fast trends. For clients who value substance over slogans and who understand that true brand equity is built over time, StudioFMRG offers not just a service, but a creative partnership.
As it moves into its next chapter, the goal remains simple yet profound: to stay alive, stay inspired, and keep creating work that resonates—work that doesn’t just look good, but feels right. If that’s the bar, StudioFMRG is already succeeding.
