Founded in 2019, Fireflies Collective is a multidisciplinary art and design studio based in Brooklyn, New York. We work with brands, startups, and cultural institutions to create visual identities and experiences that stand apart.
Two designers, one frustration.
Maya Chen and Eliot Frost spent five years at the same Manhattan agency, watching strategy and craft drift apart on every project they touched. They wanted to work somewhere the two things were inseparable. The conversations that became Fireflies started over coffee in Fort Greene and stretched late into the night for the better part of a year.
A converted warehouse in Williamsburg.
Maya and Eliot signed the lease on a former textile loft just off Bedford Avenue and opened the studio in February with three people, two desks, and a fledgling roster of small clients. By the end of the year we'd shipped our first museum identity — a system for the Brooklyn Museum's emerging artist series — and quietly set the tone for everything that came after.
A rethink, and a new practice.
With in-person work paused, we leaned hard into digital design and built our first dedicated UX practice. Sofia Petrov joined as our first illustrator that summer; her hand-lettering and editorial style started showing up in client work within weeks and shaped the studio's visual voice ever since.
Across the country.
The Los Angeles studio opened in the Arts District to support a growing roster of motion and entertainment clients, giving the team an excuse to spend a few weeks each year working across time zones. Lars Hoekstra joined that fall to lead motion design and quickly became the person every brand spot ran through.
Two new studios.
We outgrew our Brooklyn space and took over the floor below, opened a small London office above a Shoreditch letterpress, and began the conversations that would become our Paris studio. We also hit one hundred shipped projects, somewhere between an AIGA award and a third cup of coffee.
Fireflies Collective is a team of twenty-two across six studios on two continents. We've partnered with companies ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 brands, but the through-line hasn't changed since that first Williamsburg lease — research and strategy expressed through bold, unexpected visuals, made by people who take both halves of the job seriously.
We obsess over details. Every pixel, every curve, every word matters.
We push boundaries and challenge conventions to create work that stands out.
We embed ourselves in your world to create work that truly represents you.
Beautiful design is powerful, but design with intent changes the world.
A few milestones from the years between then and now.
We're always looking for exciting projects and talented people.
Insights on design, creativity, and culture.
A candid look inside how Fireflies Collective moves from blank page to finished work — the rituals, the chaos, and the method in between.
Honest reflections on what makes creative collaboration actually work — from structured critique to shared ownership and the courage to let go of your ideas.
Why the most memorable design makes people feel something — and how we approach emotional resonance as a core design principle.
Design insights, studio news, and the occasional behind-the-scenes story — delivered monthly.
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