The Lisbon worktable, where every identity starts by hand
a stairwell, a borrowed printer and one client.
Compass started in 2014 on a stairwell landing in the Baixa: Inês Moura, Mads Kjær, a bakery that needed a new sign, and a printer borrowed from the architect upstairs. Proofs went up on the stairwell wall, and the neighbours left notes on them on their way past.
In 2019 Mads moved home to Copenhagen and opened a second studio on Blågårdsgade. Projects are staffed from both, so a Lisbon hotel might get its signage from Nørrebro and a Danish restaurant its menus from the Baixa.
We are twenty-two people now and plan to stay about that size. It keeps every project within reach of the people who started it, and the person who presents the work is the person who made it. When there is more work than we can do well, we turn some of it down.
four things we hold to, on every project.
01
stay small
Twenty-two people, two studios and no account managers. The people you meet at the first meeting are the people who finish the work.
02
go to the source
We start where the thing is made: the kitchen, the kiln, the vineyard, the site hut. A morning with the maker tells us more than a week of workshops.
03
design for the tenth year
An identity has to hold up through ten years of menus, signs and invoices. We build fewer parts and make each one easy to maintain.
04
leave room for the people who use it
Guests, staff and readers finish the work. We leave our systems loose enough for a chef to chalk up the specials by hand.
03 / In numbers
2014
Founded in Lisbon
22
People
2
Studios
140+
Projects
11
Countries
0
Free pitches
two studios
Visits by appointment
lisbon
38.7223° N, 9.1393° W
Rua dos Fanqueiros 118, 3º
1100-232 Lisboa, Portugal
copenhagen
55.6936° N, 12.5456° E
Blågårdsgade 17
2200 København N, Denmark
Careers
Contact
Remix project