innovative. resourceful. fun.
the team
L Studio worked as a team on every project so that our clients received the benefit of our individual expertise as well as the creative collective. We were a collaborative team of strategists, designers and digital technicians. We challenged each other to be innovative and resourceful and believed the process should be efficient, fun and rewarding for everyone.
marianna leuschel
creative director
Marianna founded L Studio in 1996 to bring together her interests in sustainability, land use and communications. After managing the studio as creative director for 20 years, Marianna has refocused her considerable experience for the near term, working on select projects as a communications advisor and collaborating with design partners. She can still be found in her studio in Sausalito, or enjoying waterfront life on her new houseboat, dreaming about possibilities for the next chapter in her career.
janna elman
digital design and production
Janna spent two years at L Studio working collaboratively with the design team. With a BFA in communication design, and minors in architecture and anthropology, from Washington University in St. Louis, Janna brings a multidisciplinary view to every project. Her strength is creative solutions and a keen understanding of working with clients. During Janna’s years at L Studio, her passion for doing good works through design blossomed with the studio’s commitment to sustainability.
michelle shibata-schwartz
lead designer
Michelle interprets, defines and creates. She joined L Studio in 1998, and was responsible for translating ideas and strategy into visual language. She led design for almost all of L Studio’s major projects, defining the look and feel of materials in simple, subtle and effective ways. Each design solution responded to a unique set of project parameters. She is a prolific and truly masterful designer.
alexandra hammond
creative consultant and project manager
Alexandra worked in-house at L Studio for seven years and continued as a consultant and collaborator on a variety of projects from her office in New York City from 2013 through 2016. A native Californian, she maintains a strong connection to the Western Landscape and brings a holistic, interdisciplinary view to each project. As a visual artist, writer and commentator, Alexandra brings an informed take on current trends and cultural patterns as well as the practical expertise to manage and execute projects. She came of age professionally at L Studio under the mentorship of Marianna Leuschel and carries the studio’s commitment to quality and client service to each new project.
grace dougan
studio manager
Grace Dougan provided all around studio support at L Studio, from weekly tasks of keeping the studio running to long term business strategy and planning. Grace fulfilled the role of our studio’s bookkeeping, accounting, human resources departments. She was our studio muse, challenging our team to operate at the highest level of professionalism and proficiency. L Studio was one of Grace’s first clients with her business, Grace Dougan Consulting, which provides her small business clients with a full range of management services “in-house”.
civiane chung
digital design and production
A transplant from Toronto, Canada, Civiane was responsible for translating creative ideas into reality for both print and digital media. Her mind revolves around white space, type size, dpi and color mode. In her 9 years at L Studio she has honed her design and digital production skills, learned the ins and outs of project management and has come to realize that it’s extremely helpful to have patience and a sense of humor when deadlines loom. She is happy to have been a part of the amazing L Studio team and she is looking forward to what the future may bring.
lucy
chaser of mail carriers
When you heard barking in the background while talking with someone at the studio, that’s Lucy. Beyond her propensity to notify us of the arrival of our mail, UPS and FedEx deliveries, she is a very sweet and quiet studio companion, giving us a reason to take a walk along the waterfront. She eases the tension of project deadlines with her calm, gentle presence.
project partners.
In addition to our core team at L Studio, we enjoy the collaboration with a number of other professionals who we partner with on projects, bringing the benefit of a wider range of expertise to our clients.
mary breuer
breuer consulting
Breuer Consulting is a small, highly selective consulting and executive search practice working with a wide range of professional organizations focused on the built environment. Mary’s deep market knowledge gained over her long career has given her invaluable perspective related to organization design, marketing strategy and a wide range of competencies beyond search. The many collaborations with L Studio over the years have included client perception surveys, positioning strategies, market research and organization design for architecture, planning and engineering firms, helping them refine their market positioning and business strategies to meet the evolving goals of their organizations.
breuerconsulting.com
kristin coates
coates consulting
Kristin combines her experience, intuition, and creativity to develop hospitality and wellness brands. Through community relations, experience design, and storytelling each project touches the lives of visitors and locals alike. Regardless if the project is in the far reaches of the Central American rainforest, the Fijian Islands, or in the American parklands, each project supports the local economy, local environment, and local culture. Over the years, L Studio and Coates Consulting have collaborated on many brand development, community relations, and communications projects.
coatesconsulting.net
joshua dowden
joshuadowden.com
Joshua is one of our newest web development partners. Prior to becoming a full time freelancer in 2012, Joshua was the Senior Director of Operations for Green Plumbers, a global trade association whose goal is to integrate sustainable environmental solutions through improved technology and education. As a full stack web developer with 17 years of experience, Joshua has developed: WordPress, Magento, Shopify, Drupal, CiviCRM, HTML5, PHP, jQuery, and Ruby on Rails websites and applications for numerous companies. Joshua holds a B.A. in Sociology from UC Santa Barbara.
joshuadowden.com
peter gruender
watermark press
When it comes to the art of bringing wonderful creative ideas to ink on paper, Peter Gruender is a master. Peter has dedicated his career to the craft of printing and has been our primary print rep at L Studio since we were open for business. He shares our commitment to environmental and sustainable printing through the utilization of the latest equipment technology, FSC Certified substrates, recycling efforts, and inks. He works with us to determine the highest quality solution with the least environmental impact while optimizing price. And his service is unparalleled so we will often extend his services to our clients directly.
watermarkpress.com
renée harcourt
renée harcourt design
After a full time career as a singer, songwriter and touring musician, Renée Harcourt has come full circle and returned to her other love, graphic design. She is as passionate about imagery, typography, color and space as she is about music and songwriting. Renée is continually surprised and delighted by the creative process, whether it’s writing a song or developing a new brand. As partner and senior designer at i4 Design, Renée was part of a creative team that provided stunning print, packaging and web design to long term clients such as The San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Cavallo Point, and UC Berkeley among others. Together, Renée and Marianna have been creating amazing materials for a variety of industries for over two decades.
reneeharcourtdesign.com
toni ann lee
project manager
Toni has been a part of the L Studio team since its inception. She took the lead on project management and production for the studio for 15 years, managing clients and vendors, and coordinating production internally with the team to take projects from concept through delivery of the printed product or fabrication. In 2011, she opted for a lifestyle change and moved from San Francisco to Grass Valley, California with her partner where they are manufacturing the XPCamper, a new pop-up camper designed for the overland adventurer. While we miss her presence here in the studio, Toni continues to partner with L Studio on select projects remotely for existing clients and on new projects that demand her expertise and production know how.
martin schapiro
martinschapiro.com
Martin Schapiro is a L Studio collaborator in visual design and web development. His experience in coding for WordPress brings CMS and blogging capabilities to L Studio’s clients. Martin solves problems with dynamic code, creating engaging sites from front end to back end through smart design. He has worked as graphic designer and web developer for 6 years in the Bay Area and, most recently, in Washington, DC. Trained originally as a painter, Martin became interested in technology as a creative tool while prepping his source photography for the canvas.
martinschapiro.com
leslie stone
leslie stone associates
Leslie Stone has been telling stories throughout California for over 20 years. The work of her interpretive design team can be seen in places such as Yosemite National Park, the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, Muir Woods, Santa Cruz Sanctuary Scenic Trail and State Parks, and Marin County Parks, to name a few places. Leslie and her team of talented and enthusiastic specialists are passionate about their work, and include writers, exhibit designers, landscape architects, planners and artists. They have been collaborating with L Studio for many years and feel connected through our shared values and commitment to creating a better world through design.
lsa-design.com
chad upham
covive
Chad blends leading-edge sustainable business expertise with more than fifteen years of branding and design experience. With an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio School of Management in San Francisco and a BFA in Graphic Design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Chad is expert in organizing ideas and information into clear, adaptable visual frameworks. As a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) specialist, Chad guides the development of authentic, measurable sustainability reporting and communications. Through his work, he seeks to inspire hearts and minds to global citizenship.
covive.com