You can tell within five seconds if a brand doesn't know what it's for.
Most people can't tell you why. That's the part I fix.
I'm Parker. I run Manx Studios, building the brand strategy and identity behind that first five seconds, right down to what you actually post on a Tuesday.
Hey, I'm Parker
A psychology degree and a background in animation, which sounds odd until you watch it work.
Psychology explains how people actually read a brand and decide whether to trust it. Animation explains why the way something looks changes whether they bother reading it at all. I run Manx Studios from Melbourne on both.
Psychology student. Writer, artist, and dungeon master. Runs an accessible-design course called Beyond Alt Text.
"Manx comes from Manxmouse, a children's book about a badly made creature who comes to life anyway and walks straight at the thing everyone warns him to fear."
Same energy I want from a first draft.
Services
How you can work with me
Every project starts the same way. Tell me what isn't working, and I'll tell you what actually fixes it.
Discovery call or questionnaire, a positioning statement, target audience profile(s), three to five messaging pillars, and a competitor snapshot. Delivered as one strategy document.
Everything in the Strategy Intensive, plus a primary logo (and a secondary mark if needed), a colour palette with hex and CMYK codes, a typography system with pairing rationale, a brand guidelines document, one to two mockups, and two to three rounds of revisions.
A strategy check-in, visual updates to your existing identity, an updated guidelines document, and one mockup showing the refresh in use.
A tone of voice description with do and don't examples, key messaging pillars, and sample copy in the new voice: tagline, About section, one to two social captions.
A packaging concept for whatever suits the product, box, bottle label, or pouch, with two to three mockup views (including one in-context or lifestyle shot) and a dieline or print-ready template if needed.
A colour contrast check, a font legibility review, and a recommendations document, or built directly into the identity if bundled with another service.
For brands that need small updates on a regular basis without renegotiating a project every time. A set number of hours or deliverables per month, agreed in advance, with priority turnaround.
The course
Beyond Alt Text
Creating digital content everyone can use.
Most design education treats accessibility as a checklist you run through at the end. Add alt text, bump up the contrast, call it done. Beyond Alt Text starts from a different place: accessibility isn't a compliance step, it's a skill, and it changes how you plan a post, a graphic, or a campaign before you've even opened the software.
What you'll learn
- The social model of disability, and why it changes how you think about "accessible" in the first place
- Barrier frameworks, so you can spot what's blocking someone before it becomes a problem
- Colour and contrast that works for real vision, not just a design trend
- Typography choices that hold up for people who read differently
- Designing for cognitive load, ADHD, and fatigue, as part of the brief, not an afterthought
- Making video content actually accessible: captions, structure, pacing
- How to run your own accessibility audit, step by step
- Building accessible defaults into your process so you're not retrofitting later
Six modules. Eleven lectures.
From the theory behind accessible design to actually applying it in your own content and graphics.
Who it's for
Marketers, social media managers, content creators, and graphic designers who want their work to hold up under real scrutiny, not just look good in a grid. No design background required. You need to care about the people trying to actually use what you post.
Enroll nowWhy people don't leave halfway through
Psychology-backed strategy
Every decision comes from how people actually read and decide, not a trend board.
Accessible from the start
Colour, type, and layout get checked against real accessibility standards while the identity's being built, not patched after launch.
The reasoning, not just the file
Every choice comes with an explanation you can point back to, so you're not stuck guessing next time.
"The level of detail in these designs is amazing, 100% what I wanted. I love how they understood my vision and made it come to life."
— RattCandi, client
The work
A few projects, briefly
Some of this is client work. Some of it is a made-up brand that exists so I had somewhere to put an idea. Both are on here, and I've said which is which.
Facecard
A skincare brand built on "Made For Real Skin," where honesty is the actual product, not another layer of tone on the same promises.
Changeling
A confectionery brand for people tired of treats needing a health claim first. Fae folklore instead of a wellness pitch.
Provenance
A high fashion campaign about verification culture: how fashion imagery asks to be judged and authenticated, turned back on the viewer.
Umeed Psychology
Ongoing content, reporting, and campaign strategy for a Melbourne psychology practice, checked against AHPRA guidelines the whole way.
More of it lives here
The rest of the portfolio lives in three different places depending on what you're after.
Not sure where to start?
That's normal. Most people come to me knowing something isn't working and not exactly what. Tell me what's frustrating you about your brand right now, and I'll tell you what fits. If I'm not it, I'll say that too.
Get in touch
Manx Studios acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we operate, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.
© Manx Studios