About · DDC®

Corporate-trained and fully recovered.

A decade of design rooms taught me the standards. Leaving taught me the rest. Now I embed with founders and teams building things meant to last. High standards. Low ego. No agency bloat.

See the Work
Em Smale, founder of Daytime Design Co.
Est. 2023 · MPLS Still evolving ✳︎ Your creative department

The Story So Far

We're not new here. But we're constantly evolving.

three chapters in, the line keeps going

A decade in Fortune 50 design rooms.

Google, Ford, Delta, Polaris, UnitedHealthcare, and more.

2013 to 2023

The corporate decade

A decade inside design rooms at Google, Ford, Delta, Polaris, and UnitedHealthcare. Leading teams, building brand systems, shaping products used by millions. A director role and Fortune 50 standards before 30.

2023

The leap

Everything on paper said stay. Everything else said build. Daytime started small on purpose: fast brand projects for founders, shaped around real life instead of the other way around. Then the work grew, and the studio grew with it.

"I walked away from the title and the salary to build something different."

$200k. Director before 30. And a studio waiting to exist.

Growing clients, growing projects, growing the studio.

Embedded with legacy-makers. 2 apps in flight, full brand ecosystems, enterprise work, elevated work.

Now

Daytime, year 3

Brand, web, and product, end to end. The same standards, a studio's speed, and a client list that keeps raising the bar.

We've never taken ourselves more seriously than we do right now. Equally, we've never had more fun breaking the rules.

✳︎ TBD

The next chapter is being written.

The Flexible Logo System

One name. Many expressions.

Most studios have one logo and guard it. Daytime does the opposite. The wordmark flexes to show whichever side of the personality fits the moment, and every version is still unmistakably Daytime. Because Daytime isn't the vibe. It's the container that holds many vibes.

Smart

Sharp, precise, built to actually work. Design fluency, not decoration.

Em Smale, founder and creative lead of Daytime Design Co.

Meet Emily

The founder and creative lead behind Daytime.

I'm Em. I've been doing this long enough that most of it is instinct now, and I still love it like it's new.

Good people doing awesome things, and a technology curve that keeps changing what we can build. I don't get tired of either one.

I work with leaders who already have something real on their hands and are ready to elevate it. Clients often tell me I was the missing piece. I could hold the strategy and carry it all the way through execution. Quickly, beautifully.

  • 01Complex, messy ideas → clear visual systems
  • 02Speed without sacrificing quality
  • 0310,000-foot thinking and pixel-level execution
  • 04Calm, momentum, and confidence in high-stakes work

The standard you set determines what everything else must rise to.

Great design isn't about aesthetics alone. It's about judgment, clarity, and decisions that compound over time.

Everything compounds. Raise one bar and the rest follow.

How We Work Now

Modern tools. Human judgment.

(01) AI, used deliberately

We build with AI every day, to move faster on the mechanical so human judgment, taste, and strategy get more room, not less. The thinking is never outsourced.

(02) Always learning

Chronic course taker, professionally. New tools, new methods, new platforms, tested weekly and adopted only when they raise the standard for clients.

(03) Intention over hustle

Five focused days. Sacred evenings. Profitable, proud work. Proof you don't have to grind to build something premium.

© The Operating Model (DDC® · 26) Lived daily
LIVE a good life → and do the ← BEST WORK of it. That's the whole model.

The Daytime Approach

Design isn't decoration. It's leadership.

Every partnership walks the same path. Start focused, take ownership of the visual layer, grow into a long-term seat at the table. Most clients enter at foundation and expand from there.

(01) Foundation

A focused first engagement. Setting the creative standard and building trust in real time.

(02) Direction

Owning the visual and experiential layer end to end. Shaping the foundation, setting direction, making high-level decisions quickly.

(03) Partnership

As clarity grows and trust deepens, support expands. Without losing quality, cohesion, or momentum.

Em in the studio

Who We Vibe With

Built for legacy makers.

The businesses are legacies in the making. These are the people building them.

✳︎ The builders

Something real, ready for a higher level.

✳︎ The reinventors

New offer, new market, new standard.

✳︎ The decision-makers

Trust judgment, keep moving.

✳︎ The partners

Want a partner, not just output.

You don't need convincing that design matters. You already know, and you're ready to use it well.

Off the Clock

The life behind the work.

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If this feels aligned

Start the conversation. We'll take it from there.

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