Tessera

Design system 1.0

Resolution

A black stone cube floating above a misty volcanic plain under grey cloud

Independent since 20133 of 5 studios open

Every picture starts in cells. Point at it to look closer, or switch Resolution and it resolves tile by tile.

Cells200 × 060

Display, Inter Tight 400

Made to be seen up close.

Text, Inter Tight 400

An independent design studio. Identities, motion systems and digital products for companies that are judged on detail, from a sixteen-pixel favicon to a forty-metre façade.

Signal, DM Mono 400

Copenhagen11:20In the studio

Seoul18:20After hours

Mexico City03:20After hours

Basalt

#121110

Coal

#1B1A18

Overcast

#8B8D90

Fog

#B9BAB9

Chalk

#EDEBE7

Ink

#141312

Cocoa

#3B2A22

Umber

#8A6650

Sand

#E9C9A6

Ember

#C98A6E

Off-white stoneware stacked beside kraft boxes with a brown half-circle mark — Up closeOne made thing, near enough to see its surface. Cards and index previews.

A dark ferry at a wet pier at dusk, its hull striped in yellow, white and pale blue — In situThe work at the scale where people meet it. Full-bleed plates.

Folds of cocoa silk in low light — GroundMaterial or land with no message. Opens or closes a page and carries type.

Start a project See the work StudioShippedReview on Thursday

Buttons and links

A wave of tiles crosses the button on hover and focus, the cube turns a quarter and the label resolves from glyphs. Nothing moves.

Solid, large

Outline

Ghost

Sizes: 36, 40 and 52 px

Icon only, and working

Tech link, copy line, text link

Work⁸

Read the working principles before you brief us.

Fields

A square box on a firm line. Focus fills the label's tile and lights a row of tiles under the field; an error says what to change.

Text

Your nameThe partner who replies will use it.

Select

Discipline

With a unit

Budgetk EURA range is fine. Most projects sit between 60 and 400.

Error

Work emailAdd the @ and the domain, like ida@nordlys.dk.

Not editable yet

Project reference

Long text

What needs to exist, and when

Selection

Everything is square. A checkbox fills its tile, a radio lights the small tile of the glyph atlas and the switch turns its cube a quarter.

Segmented

Lead studio

Copenhagen19 people, since 2013London9 people, since 2017Seoul6 people, since 2023

Checkboxes and switch

Identity and guidelinesMotion principles

Index and tabs

Arrow keys move between tabs. Over the index, a preview follows the pointer: glyphs while it moves, the photograph when it rests. Work under NDA stays static.

Projects this year: 31
Typical length, weeks: 14
People on a team: 4–6
Studios leading: 5

Work index

ClientProjectDisciplineYear
Oro MezcalBottle and labelPackaging2024
Gale OutdoorWeather Report campaignCampaign2026
Seoul Design WeekFestival systemIdentity2025
Strand ArkitekterMonograph, 320 pagesEditorial2023
Under NDADigital product for a Nordic bankDigital2027

Studio hours, live

Copenhagen^HQ11:20In the studio19 people
Bredgade 34, 2nd floor1260 København KSince 2013
London10:20In the studio9 people
New York05:20After hours8 people
Seoul18:20After hours6 people

Capabilities

Positioning
Naming
Logo and type
Identity systems
Guidelines
Motion principles
Title sequences
Product UI
Design systems
Wayfinding

Status and progress

A full tile means on, open or done; an outline means off or waiting. Sand asks for attention, ember reports an error. Words always say which.

Pictures and plates

Pictures are drawn in glyphs and tiles while the page is in cells; a lens under the pointer brings the photograph back tile by tile. Clients invert tile by tile.

Three mezcal bottles with a black sun label on volcanic stone among agaves

Oro Mezcal2024A bottle and label you can read across a bar.

An open architecture monograph on a pale timber table beside a pencil

Strand Arkitekter2023A monograph of 320 pages, set in one size.

A cyclist in a concrete underpass lined with blue and white festival posters

Seoul Design Week2025A festival system printed four hundred times.

A dark atrium where a giant screen shows an orange disc cut by a white line, people looking up

Kōen RadioSeoul

A station that moves like sound

Scope: Motion identity, broadcast

Year: 2025

One disc and one line, animated to the station's own waveform, from phone screens to a forty-metre wall.

NordlysSince 2022Fleet identity
halvøSince 2024Packaging
KŌENSince 2023Motion
VERSOSince 2024Exhibitions
“They looked at our ferries longer than we ever had. The bands now read from a kilometre away.”
Sofie Lund
Head of Brand, Nordlys Ferries
StrandSince 2021Monograph
GALE /Since 2025Campaign
MeridianSince 2019Identity
FjellSince 2020Website

Person

Talk with Ida Holm

Managing partner, Copenhagen

Book a 20-min call

Section label

Selected work

Studios

Tile states

off, on, attention, error

Service row

Motion

Motion identities, title design and product animation that move the way the brand speaks.

Motion principles
Brand animation
Title sequences
Product motion

Dialogs and toasts

The tiles at the foot of a toast go out one by one while it lives; pointing at it holds them. Dialogs are native and give focus back where it came from.

Try them

Toast

Brief received

A partner in Copenhagen replies within two working days.

Dialog

TesseraBefore you send

Send the brief to Copenhagen?

A partner reads it today and replies within two working days.

A hairline inside the margin. Links turn a cube in beside them; below 900 px they move into a full-screen menu. Switch the width to try it.

Bar over a picture

Tessera

Start a project

Pagination

Footer over the ground, the one picture that never shows cells