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About the Studio

Brand is the
business case.

Twenty years building brands that move markets, earn trust, and turn design into a competitive advantage.

The Founder

Simon Matan.
Strategic brand director.

I've spent 20 years at the intersection of brand strategy and financial services, a space where design is not decoration, it is trust made visible.

I built my craft in New York, nine years working with some of the world's most demanding luxury and financial brands: Elizabeth Arden, Coach, Estée Lauder, and others on 5th Avenue who understood that perception is the product. I studied at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), where I learned that the strongest visual ideas always begin with the clearest strategic thinking.

I returned to Europe and joined 888 Holdings, a global digital entertainment and fintech company. Over nearly a decade, I built and led the entire creative operation from the ground up, brand systems, product identity, digital campaigns, global launches across multiple regulated markets. I wasn't just a designer; I was a business leader who happened to think in brand.

Simon Matan Studio is the distillation of everything that experience taught me: that premium brands in regulated, trust-sensitive industries don't just look different, they think differently. That's what I bring to every engagement.

Simon Matan, Studio Founder

Simon Matan, Founder & Creative Director

By the numbers

20+
Years building
brand identities
9
Years in New York
working with global brands
40+
Brand & digital
projects delivered
3
Industries:
Fintech · Wealth · Hi-Tech

Experience

Where the craft
was built.

2024, Present
Founder & Creative Director
Simon Matan Studio, Israel / Remote
Strategic brand and digital studio specialising in Fintech, Wealth Management, and Hi-Tech companies. End-to-end: brand strategy, visual identity, digital experience design.
2014, 2024
Head of Creative / Senior Creative Director
888 Holdings, Global (London HQ)
Established and led the global creative function for a FTSE-listed digital entertainment and fintech company. Brand architecture, product identity, performance marketing, and creative operations across 10+ regulated markets and multiple product verticals.
2005, 2014
Brand & Creative Director
New York, USA
Nine years in New York working with luxury and premium consumer brands on 5th Avenue. Clients included Elizabeth Arden, Coach, Estée Lauder, and Magic. Graduated from the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York.

What we believe

Eight principles the
studio doesn't compromise on.

Every project starts with clarity about what we believe and why. These principles aren't values-wall decoration. They're the operating system behind every strategic decision.

01
Design is a business argument, not an aesthetic preference.
Every visual decision has a strategic rationale. We don't decorate, we solve. If it doesn't serve the business goal, it doesn't belong on the page.
02
Trust is built before the first meeting.
In Fintech and Wealth, your brand speaks before any human does. If the visual identity doesn't signal credibility, the conversation never starts.
03
Clarity is the rarest form of intelligence.
Complex industries hide behind complex communication. The brands that win are the ones that make the difficult look effortless, clear, confident, and without apology.
04
Positioning before pixels.
We never open a design file before the strategic question is answered: who are you for, why do they choose you, and what makes that choice feel inevitable?
05
Premium perception commands premium pricing.
Your brand is not just a logo. It's the reason a client chooses you over a competitor charging half as much. Design-led brands compete on value, not on cost.
06
Consistency is what turns a brand into an asset.
A brand that looks different every time it appears is a brand that cannot be trusted. Systematic consistency compounds over time, it's the interest rate of brand equity.
07
The right client is worth ten wrong ones.
We choose who we work with carefully. Not out of arrogance, out of respect for the work. The best outcomes happen when the client and the studio are genuinely aligned.
08
Speed is not the enemy of quality. Confusion is.
We move fast when the brief is clear. Every delay we've ever seen in a project traces back to an unanswered strategic question, not a design problem.

Work with the studio

Ready to build a brand
that earns trust?

The first call is 30 minutes. No pitch, no pressure, just a clear conversation about where your brand is and where it needs to go.

Book a Discovery Call → See our work

[email protected] · Available for new projects