Meet Otto, the independent studio behind Olivia Dean’s album campaigns

Teo Villacci and Liam Kay started freelancing just after the pandemic, taking on whatever work helped them survive – tiny budgets, unfamiliar industries, sometimes no payment at all. That scrappiness taught them something valuable: how to be resourceful, how to make every concept count, and how to find inspiration in unexpected places. Those lessons now underpin Otto, the Leeds-based design studio the pair have built into a practice spanning Olivia Dean album campaigns, Goalhanger podcast branding, and packaging for mushroom supplements. Their process runs on feeling – they almost never start with a logo, instead letting the identity emerge from understanding a project’s wider world. In this conversation, they discuss how constraint breeds creativity, why cross-industry experience makes them braver, and how they plan to grow without losing what they love most about the work. TBI: Hi Teo, hi Liam! How are you both? OS: Hey, we’re both well, thank you! Coming off the back of a crazy year, we’re feeling a mixture of excitement and slight nerves. We can’t wait to see what this year has in store.