Strategy
Mara Osei-Peters
Seven years at Wieden+Kennedy Portland, working on Nike, Levi’s, and Procter & Gamble. Led the brand strategy for three global launches before leaving to co-found Amoral.
About the studio
Four founders.
One studio.
Since 2017.
An independent brand strategy firm of 14, working from a single floor in DUMBO.
A note from the four of us
We started Amoral in 2017 because the agencies we came up in had a problem they refused to name: most brand work is forgettable because it is built to be approved, not to be remembered. Four of us — two from Wieden+Kennedy, two from Pentagram — left to make the work we wanted to read ourselves.
Eight years later we are still independent, still founder-led, and still small on purpose. Fourteen people total, all in Brooklyn, no contractors on strategy work. Every engagement is owned by one of the four of us from kickoff to the last round of edits. There is no bench of juniors learning on a client's dime. If we put our name on the work, we do the work.
We stayed independent because the day you take outside money the meeting after the next one becomes a margin conversation instead of a strategy conversation. Our flat fee is published on every engagement letter. There are no markups on production, no markups on freelance, no markups on media. We make our margin by selling hours, not by reselling other people's labor.
If that sounds like the kind of shop you have been looking for, the next step is a 90-minute paid strategy diagnostic we call the Autopsy. It is the best introduction to how we think, and it is the only thing on this site that costs money.
The four of us
Two from Wieden+Kennedy. Two from Pentagram. One studio.
Design
Jonas Krebs
Eight years at Pentagram New York across the consumer and culture practices. Designed identity systems for two Michelin-starred restaurant groups and a national museum before joining as a co-founder.
Writing
Eli Marchetti
Five years at Wieden+Kennedy and six at Pentagram London, where he ran the writing practice across twenty-two client engagements. Named to Adweek’s Creative 100 in 2022.
Research
Priya Ramanathan
Six years at Pentagram’s brand strategy group in New York, where she ran the firm’s category audit practice. Authored the original Permissionless Brands essay for Amoral in September 2023.
How the studio is built
Four numbers that explain the structure.
- 14 Strategists, designers and writers on payroll. No contractors on client work.
- 4 Founding partners lead every engagement from kickoff to the last round of edits.
- 2.8yrs Average client tenure — four times the 0.7-year industry average reported by RSW/US Agency Search in 2023.
- 2017 Founded in a 600-square-foot room above a bagel shop on Jay Street, Brooklyn.
Start with an Autopsy.
A paid 90-minute strategy diagnostic with one of the four founders. The fastest way to see how the studio thinks.