With its website and journal, New Apology reframes its process as a design tool, not a trade secret

A collaborative, intuitive creative process lies at the heart of everything that New Apology does. The design studio treats their process as king, approaching it with a sense of honesty and openness each time they take on a new project. Their style-agnostic approach – which instead focuses on decoding exactly who a client is and what they want to say, and then expressing that through design – has come to define their body of work. This process is not something that they’re trying to shroud in a sense of mystery. In fact, in an attempt to open it up and give clients and the world a real look at the inner workings of the studio, New Apology has launched a redesigned website that feels more like a home than a portfolio. “We wanted our website to be as much about our approach and our people as it is about the work,” says Founder Lyman Ballif. And so it is. Treated as a container that holds the many stories of the studio and the people who make it tick, the website embraces the essence of the early internet. A journal on the website, which was designed to feel like “the Tumblrs we had in high school,” as Ballif says, offers an intimate view of the studio and the making of its many projects. Here, we catch up with Ballif to look back at New Apology’s first year, discuss why they call what they do “non-verbal communication,” and understand why they want to continue pulling at this thread of transparency. RB: Hi, Lyman! How are things in Provo?