Lake Flato

Listening to the Land

Lake Flato, a Texas-based architecture firm that works globally, is known for its regionally inspired, environmentally responsive designs that blur the lines between indoors and out. Through extensive research, including interviews with team members, collaborators, and clients, we came to understand Lake Flato as a practice deeply rooted in place, people, and purpose. Our approach to both brand and digital experience was grounded in a number of guiding principles drawn from that discovery: a sense of poetry, a connection to place, and a collective voice. These ideas shaped how we represented the firm, not just as a maker of beautiful spaces, but as a community of thoughtful, collaborative designers working in harmony with the land.

A Living Logo

The new identity reflects Lake Flato’s character: warm, grounded, and human. In our research, we learned the original logo no longer reflected the personality of the studio, but some elements, especially the beloved dog mascot, held deep emotional resonance. We elevated the dog into a living logo, inviting team members to redraw it over time, reinforcing the studio’s culture of sketching and play. We paired this with Arizona, a humanistic sans-serif typeface, and a color palette drawn directly from the Texan landscape—evoking ash trees, limestone, prairie grasses, and cypress wood—to create a brand system as tactile and varied as the places Lake Flato designs for.

Digital Exploration

We carried those principles into the digital experience, designing a website that invites exploration while staying grounded in clarity and accessibility. The site architecture prioritizes intuitive pathways and visual storytelling, pairing crisp project photography with Lake Flato’s signature watercolor and ink sketches. A flexible grid system allows for structured spontaneity, supporting layouts that adapt between symmetry and asymmetry. Under the hood, we engineered the site to minimize energy consumption and meet high accessibility standards, ensuring the experience reflects the firm’s values—thoughtful, inclusive, and in tune with its environment.

Client: Lake Flato
Era: 2024 - 2025
Type: Identity, Digital
  • Principals: Michael Ellsworth, Corey Gutch
  • Creative Direction: Michael Ellsworth
  • Identity Design: Òscar Viñas
  • Interactive/UX Direction: Corey Gutch
  • Interface Design: Òscar Viñas
  • Web Development: Shaun Kardinal
  • Research and Strategy: Raya Leary
  • Account and Project Management: Trish Chua
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