Studio Stoked

09/17/2026

So school's back. Which means I now have: my son's homework, cooking (because he's always hungry), driving (practice, school, everywhere), my actual work, cleaning, and apparently I'm supposed to be making reels too?
Yeah, but nah.

If you need brand strategy, packaging, or something that actually sells, book a call.

I'll show up on time, I won't film it, and you'll get someone who actually knows what they're doing instead of watching me pretend I have my s**t together on Instagram.

09/16/2026

No, I'm not going to fly to you.

Neither is any decent packaging designer.

I am Australian. I live in Croatia. Most of my clients are in the US, the UK, or somewhere else entirely. I have never been in the same room as most of them. I have rarely been in the same country as the printer producing their packaging.

Every single project has still been delivered.

Because the three things founders worry about when hiring internationally are almost never the actual problem.

Language. Not a real issue if the designer's portfolio and emails read cleanly.

Proofs. A digital proof and an offset print run will never match perfectly regardless of where anyone lives. Colour shifts happen. A local designer standing in a print shop is not going to change physics. What matters is that your designer specs files properly and flags issues before they become 10,000 reprinted units.

Meeting in person. Zoom exists. Email exists. If you need to shake a hand to trust someone, you were going to have trust issues no matter what.

The actual thing that matters when you hire a designer is whether their work looks like the work you want to make. Whether the budget and timeline work. Whether neither of you is an internet weirdo. Whether you vibe. Professionally speaking.

I could be next door or in a lighthouse on an island. Braless on the couch or in a boardroom. The work gets done the same way.

If the fit is right, the location is irrelevant. If the fit is wrong, being in the same city will not save you.

If your product is genuinely good and you have been treating international as a barrier, you know where to find me.

studiostoked.com

08/28/2026

Client: do you see a difference?
Me: yes I fu***ng do.

Paper matters just as much as the colours you choose.

08/21/2026

08/20/2026

Throwback Thursday: Winston & Co

Remember when dog treats just came in plastic bags your dog ate faster than the actual treat? Yeah, these weren't it.

Winston & Co understood something most pet brands still don't: if you're going to spend actual money making your dog happy, the packaging shouldn't look like you're ashamed of yourself. This is for the person who won't just chuck a biscuit on the kitchen floor and pretend they've shown love. The person who gets that treating your dog well and having taste aren't mutually exclusive.

The restraint on this is what kills it. No pastels, no paw print graphics, no "fur baby" copy. Just cream, a line drawing that actually has character, and the knowledge that your dog doesn't care how nice the packaging is but you do. And that's valid.

Luxury pet products are mostly rubbish. This one wasn't.

08/19/2026

Sent my client a comprehensive strategy doc. He replies: "Marta, what in the world did you send me!?"

I panicked. Did I send the wrong file? Did I accidentally send something I shouldn't have?

(I don't have nudes on my phone anyway. If I did, I'd probably accidentally mass-send them to the class WhatsApp group.)

Then I realised, he just saw what actual strategy looks like for the first time.

Clients don't really get it until they see it.

studiostoked.com

08/17/2026

Most brands never get the forklift problem.

They get the 3,000-units-in-the-garage problem. Same money, worse ending.

It's rarely the product. It's a label that mumbles on shelf while a worse product next to it says something clearly.

I do the strategy first, then the packaging, then I argue with your printer about the blue.

One brand at a time, so if you've got a print run coming, book the call before you've committed to the die line.

08/14/2026

I’m going to unwankify the word strategy.

Because apparently strategy now means putting a beige circle around “purpose” and charging someone 4,000 dollars to tell them they need to be trustworthy.

It’s actually much less exciting.

You’re standing in a petrol station at 4pm, hungry, looking at a shelf thinking, which one of these is least s**t?

And that’s where you start.

Not with the wrapper.

Not with the logo.

Not with “how do we disrupt the protein bar category?”

You look at the bag of nuts.

You look at the jerky.

You look at the thing you already know what the f**k is.

And then you work backwards.

That’s strategy.

Basically: what is the person actually choosing between, and why the hell would they choose you?
Start there.

08/13/2026

Nobody warns founders that the wobble is delayed. Everyone braces for launch, gets through it, exhales, and then the drop turns up two months later when they've stopped watching for it. That's the part that breaks people, not the drop itself.

The other thing nobody says out loud is that a smaller audience is the correct outcome for most of the brands I work with.

Not every product is a t-shirt. Some of them require the customer to have made a decision about herself before she even gets to the checkout, and there are simply fewer of those women than there are people who'll scroll past you.

Building for the second group is how you end up with a large following and a quiet bank account.

Save this for the week you think you've ruined everything.

DM me if you're in it right now and tell me where you're at.

08/12/2026

Portfolio update: still five case studies.

You know that feeling when a tattoo artist takes a photo of your work? It's perfect. They tell you it's perfect. Then they never post it. And you're sitting there wondering is it actually not good enough? What's wrong with my piece?

That's my clients this year. Skincare strategy finalised. Hair and lash serum sorting samples right now. Sparkling sugar-free drink booked, waitlisted. One protein bar on hold because food scientists apparently exist. But we're getting there.

Their work is sitting perfect and unposted while I'm building the actual brands instead of documenting them.

17 years in and somehow people are still paying invoices to get on my waitlist. Which tells me everything I need to know about whether it's good or not.

If you go to my site wondering where the work is, it's there. On my desktop. In a folder marked "website update 2026". Sitting perfect. Unposted. Real.

Waitlist is open for Q4. I would love to add you to my list :)

Photo credit matea les