Log 001: Design Is a Spell: On Intuition, Ritual, and the Studio Process

Not every design starts with a strategy deck.
Some begin with a feeling.
A memory.
A strange dream you couldn’t shake off for days.

At Lunary Studios, we don’t just design—we conjure.

To us, a design practice is a form of spellwork. The studio becomes an altar. Our process: part ritual, part research. Because what we’re making isn’t just visual—it’s energetic. It’s meant to move people. To haunt them a little. To hold them in the right kind of tension.

So how do we approach that?

Let’s break it down.

1. Intuition Is Data

We trust the gut.
The ache.
The magnetic pull.

Before the design comes the download. The images that float in at random—an oil-slick rainbow on wet asphalt, a song your tío played in the garage, the way a peach feels in July. That’s the archive. And we believe it’s more intelligent than trend reports.

At Lunary, our creative briefs don’t start with keywords. They start with moods. We sit with them until they speak.

2. Ritual Builds the Frequency

We don’t rush the ritual.

Whether it’s burning palo santo before a brainstorm or queuing up an ambient mix that loops like a spell, the conditions matter. We’re designing through the body, not around it.

Candles. Tea. Layered textures. Dim lighting.
This is not aesthetic fluff. This is studio technology.

Design isn’t just what’s on the screen—it’s what lives in the in-between. The liminal space where ideas start to take shape without explanation.

3. Feedback Is Alchemy

We don’t believe in killing ideas. We transform them.

Feedback here isn’t “change this font.” It’s:

“What is this shape trying to say?”
“Could the layout breathe more?”
“Does this feel like them?”

We practice soft critique with sharp instincts. We ask the visuals to reveal more. We treat the process like a slow reveal, not a race.

4. Finishing the Spell

A project is done when it feels sealed. When it clicks in the gut, not just in the mockup. When the frequency is clean. When the intention behind it is stable and charged.

This is what we mean by spellwork.
Not magic in the woo-woo sense.
But magic in the sense that design can shift something in someone—quietly and permanently.

That’s what we’re here to make.

Design is a spell.
We’re just the ones brave (and weird) enough to cast it.

Written from the altar at Lunary.
Black coffee. Rain sounds. A candle that smells like scorched jasmine.