Saundra Marcel

Designer & Brand Author

Saundra Marcel is a Designer & Brand Author with 20+ years of experience and a reputation for thoughtful approaches to brand-building. Marcel holds an MFA in Design Criticism from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA in Visual Communication Design from the University of Dayton.

In her early career she worked as a multi-disciplinary designer at Real Art, a creative agency specializing in digital/physical experiences. Her projects have always exhibited her unique talent of fluently unifying words and design. In 2008, she established Design Minded, with the vision of bringing together design and thinking into a “mindful” studio practice.

Marcel is known for her considered approach and attentiveness to business objectives. She has an innate ability to unify stakeholders around meaningful ideas, bringing cohesion and clarity when needed most. She leads with kindness, and puts great care into her work. These qualities have earned her the trust and respect of many clients, who rely on her to confidently lead them through the creative process.

Marcel works with companies of all sizes, from publicly-traded to startups and everything in-between. In the span of her career, she’s helped create hundreds of brands. Notable companies she’s worked with include American Express, Arc’teryx, Calendly, Dashlane, Ellevest, lululemon, NYCxDESIGN, Toys”R”Us, and Twitter; among others.

In 2017, Marcel began collaborating with Pentagram, the world’s largest independent brand consultancy. In this capacity, she works side-by-side with the firm’s distinguished partners and design teams to author brand identities. For their impressive roster of global clients, she is recognized for her approach to verbal identity creation, focusing primarily on words and narratives.

Marcel writes about the business of design, and has been published in AIGA, Design Bureau, Metropolis, Domus Magazine, and more. She contributed to the book Point of Purpose: How Purposeful Brands Seduce Customers and Fuel Profit. She moderates panels on design topics and guest lectures at various universities.

Through the years, her work has received recognition from Print and How Magazines, the American Advertising Federation, SXSW Festival, and Cannes Lions Festival. In the media, her projects have been covered in AdWeek, Engadget, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and WIRED Magazine; among others. Marcel is originally from Grand Island, New York, and currently resides in New York City.