Specify the maintenance, or you specified nothing
Every system I have watched decay did so because the handover document described how it was built and never who would keep it alive. Name the person. Name the budget line. Then draw.
The working circle
Four people Marisol builds with most often. Flip through the stack — each card is a standing collaboration, not a contact.
-
DA
Deji Abara
Infrastructure lead · Kindred Core
“Marisol writes the spec everyone else quotes six months later.”
Circle · 01 of 04Lagos -
RV
Renata Voss
Type director · Atlas Press
“We argue about hairlines for a living. It has never once been wasted time.”
Circle · 02 of 04Lisbon -
TK
Tomás Keil
Research · Slow Signals Lab
“She turns three weeks of field interviews into one page that actually changes the roadmap.”
Circle · 03 of 04Vienna -
AN
Amara Nwosu
Programme director · Kindred Grants
“The only designer I know who budgets maintenance before launch.”
Circle · 04 of 04Accra
01 / 04 — Deji Abara
How the circle works
The Atlas does not rank people. It records who keeps showing up for whom, and for how long.
A circle is formed when two practitioners complete three funded projects together. It cannot be requested, purchased, or endorsed — only accumulated. Marisol's circle has been stable for four consecutive review cycles, which places it in the top decile for continuity across the directory.
Cards surface the collaborator's own words, taken verbatim from the closing review of the most recent shared project. Nothing here is written by Marisol.
- Circle age
- 6 years, 2 months
- Shared work
- 33 projects across 4 practices
- Continuity
- Top 10% · directory-wide
- Open seats
- 1 — research or motion
Selected work
Twelve entries verified by the commissioning body. Ordered newest first.
- 2026
Public
Meridian Transit Wayfinding
A sign system for 41 stations, built on a two-weight type family and a tactile colour logic legible at 3 metres.
- 2025
Editorial
Slow Signals Annual Report
248 pages of longitudinal field research, set in a single column with margin apparatus.
- 2025
Product
Kindred Grants Platform
Application flow redesign that cut median completion time from 51 to 18 minutes.
- 2024
Identity
Harbour Light Identity
A marine research institute mark derived from lighthouse flash intervals.
- 2023
Systems
Atlas Press Type Programme
Commissioning framework for six original typefaces released under an open licence.
- 2022
Open
Field Kit for Small Museums
A printable identity toolkit adopted by 190 institutions in its first year.
Practice signals
Directory-computed indicators. Refreshed at the close of each quarter; no self-reported values.
Repeat commission82%
Clients returning within 24 months.
On-scope delivery94%
Closed without scope renegotiation.
Maintenance budgeted71%
Projects with post-launch care funded upfront.
Open licensing45%
Outputs released for public reuse.
Team continuity6.2y
Mean length of active collaborations.
Mentorship hours210
Logged with Atlas apprentices in 2025.
Field notes
Short public writing. Unedited, undated beyond the month, and occasionally wrong.
Against the portfolio grid
Nine equal thumbnails tell a viewer that nine things mattered equally, which has never been true of any practice I know. Hierarchy is honesty.
The station test
If a sign cannot be read while walking at speed, carrying a bag, in poor light, by someone anxious about missing a train, it is decoration. I apply this to interfaces too.
What six years of one collaboration buys you
Mostly it buys shorthand. Deji and I resolve in twenty minutes what used to take a fortnight, because we no longer relitigate first principles on every brief.