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Ritupriya BasuKeeping things small but flexible: Hugmun on finding their groove and the importance of agility
Hugmun makes a strong case for keeping things small and sweet. The Copenhagen-based studio’s body of work belies its humble, three-people-strong team. Perhaps the intimacy that they bring as a close-knit studio is what results in their tasteful work, allowing them to dig their heels into the stories of every brand they help build, ground up. Across their oeuvre, a degree of beauty and elegance is ever present, revealing itself in details, such as hand-painted watercolour illustrations sandwiched in packaging boxes. Each of their projects now live on a spanking new website, lovingly put together by the team. To celebrate the launch, we speak to Co-founders & Designers Tomasz Pawluk and Maria Milenko along with Client Director Harriet Elsom, who remind us about the importance of agility as a small team, and reveal the unlikely cocktail of “friendship, caffeine, and the need to pay high Scandinavian taxes” that keeps them going.
RB Hi, Tomasz, Maria and Harriet! Now that we’re in the new year, what is the team most excited about?
MM I am most excited about our new projects, of course! We are already working on several thrilling initiatives that are likely to be ready in 2024. We are concentrating even more on a genuine and intuitive approach to our projects. I think our new website demonstrates this well. The direction we want to go in is emotional and rich in visual experiences.
TP I’m very glad that we decided to refresh our website and projects; it showed us that we cannot tailor certain elements to market trends. I’m excited about the confidence we have gained recently. I hope it will be visible in future projects.
HE Agreed!
RB Take us back in time – what led you to found Hugmun all those years back?
MM Together with Tomasz, we almost spontaneously founded our studio, in the sense that we didn’t plan it far in advance. We already had our clients, and starting a company was a natural continuation. Before this, each of us, including Harriet, had already worked as creatives in large companies/agencies. However, we always felt that we wanted more control over the projects, we weren’t afraid of responsibility, and a personal approach was our foundation. By creating our own studio, we could make our own decisions and steer our development. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible while working under someone else.
RB Congratulations on the new website! It looks stunning, with its suite of absolutely arresting visuals. Why was now the right time for a refresh? What aspects did you change when moving from the old to the new website?
TP The premiere of the previous website was in 2020. Since then, a lot has changed. Although the old site didn't look bad (I hope☺), we felt it was time for a change. We wanted the projects to be showcased clearly and in their greatest beauty; because that’s what our work is about, we operate in the visual sphere as graphic designers, and it’s important to show what you’re good at. The old site was definitely less intuitive and had too much text. With the new site, we hope that a user will be able to immediately grasp our style, what we do, and in which areas we operate most often.
RB Over the years, has your creative process at the studio changed or evolved, at all?
TP It seems to me that we are becoming increasingly efficient. We are developing more and more intuition. As with many professions, over time your level of specialisation grows. However, we try to ensure that there is still room for ‘guessing’ in the process. Trying different graphic styles, mixing them. Let it all be about testing us and our clients. I think that this way, we can maintain a certain level of freshness.
HE We have previously presented up to three creative routes as part of the visual identity development. However, now we only present one or sometimes (not often) max two. This feels so much more genuine because what you are presenting is, in our opinion, the best approach. We don’t need to stretch to fill the quota of three. For the client too, it is much clearer this way. Of course, we work together with them if we don’t nail it the first time, but we work on a strong idea rather than ending up blending routes which was often the way before.
The more trust, the better the project.
RB Do you find yourself gravitating towards different kinds of projects now, as compared to when you started out?
HE It really depends – we can get enquiries from so many different types of businesses from all over the world, but it has to be a good fit for both. The sweet spot is working with a founder or leader of a business that is close to the heart of it, who is happy to contribute but also trusts in our creative intuition.
MM I agree with Harriet, we are gravitating towards different kinds of people behind the brands, rather than specific projects. Working with founders and leaders is also very important for us because we are involved in the process from the very beginning. Open, direct dialog is what we love. However, when it comes to the types of projects that attract us, they will definitely be committed brands that care about the environment.
TP We’ve been working with more conscious clients and, although it’s not a rule, we’ve noticed more trust from their side. And the more the trust, the better the project.
Having a small, close-knit group is our strength.
RB Even after eight years in the business, you’re still quite a small team. Was this the intention from the get-go, or was the small, intimate team dynamic something you grew into?
HE We are a small team with a wonderful ‘book’ of contacts stretching across different disciplines. No one project is the same, and we find this style of collaboration to be wonderfully dynamic to fit with our needs. This isn’t a finite thing either, we always have our eye on different artists.
TP In the beginning, I assumed that our team would expand over time, but it didn’t happen for various reasons, leading us to realise that having a small, close-knit group is our strength that we can leverage effectively. Currently, we operate on a contributor basis with other artists, which provides us with a wide range of possibilities to tailor our work to different projects and meet the expectations in areas in which we aren’t specialists. For example, the Botnia skincare project utilised hand-painted watercolour illustrations, which we can’t do ourselves, but collaborating with various illustrators has allowed our scope of work to expand. This sometimes results in time constraints for project execution, so we are considering hiring someone to join our team this year.
RB When approaching a new project, do you like to dive in deep from the very start, or allow ideas to slowly brew and come to you?
TP It seems to me that everything depends on where we personally are at that particular time in life. Sometimes certain graphic elements are brewing inside me, just waiting for the right moment to be released, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need time to mature. Sometimes certain ideas in their first iteration seem brilliant, but over time they lose their strength. Our entire process begins in our heads; we try to match a given brand to a certain style, to give it a DNA. Something can be superbly designed graphically, but may simply not fit in spirit; we try to control this strongly. Projects need to be tailor-made.
RB A large chunk of your work is for skincare and beauty brands. Do these projects just happen to come to you, or is it an industry you’re particularly interested in?
TP It started with a project for Oio Lab in 2019. We were on a strong wave then, and it was a moment when a new client comes to you and you immediately know how to do it, and even better when the client is conscious. In this case, we felt an invisible bond with the brand owner Joanna Ryglewicz, who has a personality very consistent with ours. When you feel a connection like that, the project cannot fail. Oio Lab opened a few doors for us, skincare and beauty brands started approaching us on their own. Maybe one day we will only design in such a narrow specialisation, time will tell. Answering your question, yes, this industry interests us, it naturally drew us in, and we want to play into it. We are personalities who like to experience physical elements in design, in this case, packaging and its almost unlimited possibilities.
RB I’ve also noticed your approaches to packaging across a few projects – with special paper stocks and an experimental approach to materials. What’s the most important thing for you to consider when designing a part of a product which, essentially, is disposable?
TP This is definitely again about tailoring to the client’s needs, but of course, we try to apply our intuition and satisfy our graphic cravings (however that sounds, hehe). Generally, we try to find a connection between three aspects of the packaging appearance. It has to be attractive to the consumer, our client, and we must like it too. Many elements are consulted with printing houses and a lot of aspects are left to the experts in paper and printing. Because if someone is a specialist in something, it’s really worth seeking their help, as it often brings great benefits.
If someone is a specialist in something, it’s really worth seeking their help.
RB Could you take us through a few projects that are close to your heart, and are emblematic of the kind of work you’d like to keep doing more of?
MM It’s definitely hard to choose one or even a few of the most important projects. But for sure, Oio Lab is close to our hearts; we’ve been working with them the longest and, in a way, we are growing together. It’s incredible because we can continuously refine the branding that was created years ago.
From our latest projects, we are very proud of our collaboration with the brand Botnia. Justine, its founder from California found us herself and, despite a large number of products and their needs, trusted our relatively small team. Additionally, both these brands are very focused on creating natural, high-quality products, while having very strong characters and styles that are distinct from each other.
We also love Murrē, whose style is very close to our tastes, allowing us to fully express ourselves by choosing typography and creating artistic, collage-like objects for packaging.
I also can’t forget to mention The Farm Society! They develop solutions for urban agriculture and indoor vertical farming in Trondheim, and we love everything about them – their take on sustainability, their CEO Cathrine who brought us into the project, and, not to be modest, the fact that I could create illustrations for them. We're proud that this project has been recognized with two prestigious awards at the Transform Awards Nordics: 'Best Visual Identity by Sector' and the 'Grand Prix' for our work.
HE For me, because I am working closely with the people during the projects, I love it the most when we have a combination of nice people and brands that think differently, with a genuine product. We are so lucky to have clients like this, like The Farm Society or Botnia.
RB At Hugmun, how important is it for the team to find time to experiment and work on personal projects, outside of client work?
TP We try to make it increasingly important. We notice that working on our own projects adds a great deal of confidence in other processes and more ease in making decisions at later stages. I try to find time to design typefaces, but it usually takes me a year for one type, so it’s not easy. Maria?
MM Haha, I agree with Tomasz. It’s ultra-important, even if sometimes between daily chores our work on personal projects is limited to discussions about ideas or a few notes on the phone, it matters. Fortunately, I create my illustrations quite quickly; I don’t need a whole year ;) I’ll let you in on a secret – next year there’s a planned exhibition of my illustrations in a certain beautiful European city. I don’t want to reveal too much for now because, as it is in our profession, it’s hard to find time for personal projects, so the work on this is ongoing.
RB What do you think is the one thing that you’re yet to crack or perfect as a studio?
HE From a process point of view, nothing is ever perfect, so I’d say we are working best when learning and evolving. You can feel like you’ve cracked it one time and the next project can bring a whole new bunch of challenges, but we try to remember that ultimately this is a good thing.
MM What Harriet said! And… To separate life from work a bit more. When working on our own, it’s easy to get lost in the constant hustle, because our work never really ends. But I have the impression that as we make more and more progress, we have the privilege to sometimes say no. Dedicate more time to our families and friends. This is ultimately also good for our studio, as we are more creative when we are more relaxed (I think I just contradicted myself by showing that the ultimate goal is work, haha).
We are not afraid to push each other when needed.
RB You’ve worked on a breadth of projects so far. What keeps you going?
HE A great connection between us. We seamlessly work on the ‘same page’ but at the same time are not afraid to push each other further when it is needed. I have a huge admiration for M&T’s process and design, they never fail to surprise me (in a good way). We have a strong bond and mutual respect. I am not sure everyone can call their colleagues good friends, blending professionalism and fun at the same time.
TP Thank you Harriet, I feel the same ☺.
MM Absolutely! I would summarise it like this: friendship, caffeine, and the need to pay high Scandinavian taxes ;)
RB As 2024 takes off, is there anything that you’d like to achieve this year? Any goals or resolutions as a studio, so to speak?
HE As always, different challenges are welcome. And it would be so nice to get together more in person as a team. We work really well from two different cities but nothing beats the time we have as a group. Usually our time is spent chilling, eating and drinking nice things, as well as working, but we think that is very important.
TP Yes, more frequent meetings as Harriet mentioned would be great!
It would also be good to find someone who shares an interest in designing in similar areas as ours. Then we would gladly hire such a person, and maybe it's time to expand our team? We would also like to rent a larger office, it seems like it’s time for a more serious step.
MM Yup, we are thinking big, so – more meetings between Oslo and Copenhagen, a larger office, and maybe a new colleague.
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