About Designlounge | Brooklyn Design Studio for Schools

If you’re leading communications at an independent school or nonprofit, you’re managing a constant flow of work—deadlines, approvals, revisions, and the pressure to get it right.

Designlounge is a design studio that works in that environment. We create new visual identity systems when needed, or work within the ones you already have. Some projects are one-offs, but most grow into longer collaborations, often spanning several years.

We pay attention to how your organization runs—how decisions are made, who’s involved, and what’s realistic—and we shape our process around that. We keep things clear, on schedule, and within budget.

The goal is simple: to be a dependable part of your team.

Team

Michael Wiemeyer

I grew up in Germany and studied design and visual communications in Düsseldorf—a training that was rigorous and concept-driven, but equally committed to following an idea into unexpected territory. That foundation has stayed with me. I co-founded Designlounge with Kathryn in 2002. From 2004 to 2019 I also taught design and typography at Parsons School of Design, working with students on how to see, how to push past the first idea, and find what's actually interesting underneath it.

Typography is at the center of almost everything I do. It is a craft with a deep history and a precise set of tools—and at the same time capable of extraordinary expressiveness. A shift in typeface, weight, or spacing can change the emotional register of an entire piece. I walk around the city and observe type in all its forms, which led to a project called the Topography of Type.

I also make collages—an art form that shares a visual language with design but lives by different terms: no predetermined outcome, no knowing exactly what will develop, just following what feels alive. That openness isn't separate from how I approach client work. It's part of it. You can see my collages at michaelwiemeyer.com and on Instagram.

Kathryn Porter

I started my career in New York advertising agencies—Bloom FCA!, Publicis, and the Mingo Group — developing campaigns for a variety of companies. It was good training, but over time I found myself drawn to a different kind of work: design that doesn't push but pulls, that draws people into a subject, guides them through it, and gives them something to think about.

That's what we do at Designlounge, which Michael and I co-founded. The work is concept-driven and detail-oriented—rooted in understanding what a client is really about before anything visual begins. Good design, to me, comes from that kind of listening. It makes people feel something because it starts from something true.

I am also a figurative sculptor. I received two scholarships through the Art Students League of New York, and I maintain my own sculpture studio in Brooklyn. The same quality of attention I bring to sculpture I bring to design: the care about what something looks like, how it feels, what it makes you feel. You can see my work at kathrynporter.com.

Design and Art

We are graphic designers and also visual and fine artists. One does not exclude the other——both continuously shape each other. Our work in design is grounded in the same habits we bring to the art studio: testing ideas, following intuition, and not being afraid of the unexpected. Below are few samples. See more at our personal art websites (links in bios).