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Designing for Greatness With Frictionless
No. 03
Cole Londeree and Lídia Santos
from Studio Freight
Frictionless Capital isn’t loud but they’re not afraid to speak up. A small fund by design, they make their calls early, well before the crowd has caught on. Founders Logan Jastremski and Diego Pérez de Ayala had built a reputation for seeing what others missed by reasoning from technical first principles.
They came to Studio Freight looking to make the brand as resonant as their thinking. Design director Cole Londeree and senior designer Lídia Santos led the rebrand — carefully reshaping how the firm shows up in the world, from identity to digital. In written conversation, they reflect on the thinking and challenges behind the creative process.
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CF
Can you share more about the project and your focus?
LS
As a designer, I focused primarily on research and shaping the overall brand identity. And wrapping it with building the case study. I worked closely with Cole throughout the project, while Evan joined us midway focusing on web design elements. On the development side, Dallen and Shelby led the effort to bring the website to life.
What really stood out to me was the very intentional energy and attitude the Frictionless team wanted to bring — one that was rooted in the world of sports, inspired by the Mamba mentality and a sense of greatness and resilience. That mindset clicked with me personally, which made diving into this quite natural and exciting.
What really stood out to me was the very intentional energy and attitude the Frictionless team wanted to bring — one that was rooted in the world of sports, inspired by the Mamba mentality and a sense of greatness and resilience. That mindset clicked with me personally, which made diving into this quite natural and exciting.
CL
My role was to both oversee and actively create the work. This is part of every project at Studio Freight — all levels of designers are “pushing pixels.” Together with Lídia, I led the client from initial research and discovery to concept ideation and execution.
What struck me about our initial conversations?? with the Frictionless team was their desire to create something elegant, refined, and altogether different from others in their space. They were willing to take a highly conceptual approach, defying category in favor of allegorical parallels like sports, art history, and space exploration. Anything that stretched the limits of human accomplishment was on the table.
What struck me about our initial conversations?? with the Frictionless team was their desire to create something elegant, refined, and altogether different from others in their space. They were willing to take a highly conceptual approach, defying category in favor of allegorical parallels like sports, art history, and space exploration. Anything that stretched the limits of human accomplishment was on the table.
CF
What would say was the conceptual center of this work and where did it come from?
LS
Right at the beginning of the project, when we were still figuring out how to connect the world of investing with a bigger sense of greatness and courage, we put together a moodboard exploring what we called 'codes to greatness' — things like history icons, objects that convey precision, and artworks that really embodied that feeling. It helped set the tone for the brand direction and gave the team a shared visual language to build from.
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CL
The Frictionless team describes themselves as defiant. They’ve stuck to their guns when their predictions were unpopular (but ultimately accurate, see Solana), and identify as “truth-seekers in an industry dominated by bias narratives.” It was this defiance that drove the conceptual narrative of the brand. It gave us permission to be brash, distinctive, and even bullish with our initial moodboards. Ultimately our visual language landed on quiet confidence; Frictionless didn’t need to shout or argue a case because their expertise would bear out in their results.
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Join the Pantheon
Themes: Elegant, Stoic, Dynamic, Neoclassical Reimagined
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Stewarding Quality
Themes: Methodical, Timeless, Precise, Sophisticated
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Go Bar for Bar
Themes: Bold, Unapologetic, Audacious, Kinetic
CF
We moved fast on this one, but besides that, what was the biggest challenge?
LS
Photography actually felt like our biggest constraint throughout the project. First, portraying companies that invest in the blockchain space can be tricky, since there's not really a clear subject matter or visual language for what they do. Instead, we leaned into more abstract themes like resilience, unity, and movement to represent their values.
Second, we were asked to include photos of their portfolio founders.?? That can sometimes lead to inconsistency, since the image quality, lighting, and resolution can vary a lot. To solve that, we applied a visual treatment across all the photos, which helped bringing everything into the same visual language, while making the overall presentation feel more cohesive.
Second, we were asked to include photos of their portfolio founders.?? That can sometimes lead to inconsistency, since the image quality, lighting, and resolution can vary a lot. To solve that, we applied a visual treatment across all the photos, which helped bringing everything into the same visual language, while making the overall presentation feel more cohesive.
“we leaned into more abstract themes like resilience, unity, and movement to represent their values.”
Lídia SantosSenior Designer
CL
Visually depicting blockchain, specifically blockchain investment, was our biggest challenge. We didn’t feel that an illustrative approach (e.g. 3D renderings of blocks or tech imagery) would align with the teams defiant, category-bending ethos. Instead we embraced symbolism, creating a library of photographs that tonally depicted speed, growth, humanity and connection.
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LS
Photography is one of those elements that can easily fly under the radar but we put a lot of thought into making sure it carried that same resilient, visionary, and courageous attitude we were bringing to the brand. Since a good portion of the imagery was generated in Midjourney, a lot of time also went into creating the right prompts?? to get visuals that felt intentional and aligned with the overall vibe.
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CF
Were there any decisions that felt odd or wrong at first, but led to something?
LS
Using a script font felt pretty unexpected and unfamiliar at first — definitely outside the usual playbook of investment companies but it ended up being a key part of the brand identity (props to Cole for that call). It was one of those bold choices that really aligned with Frictionless’s motto: Frictionless is willing to do unpopular things. It pushed the brand in a direction that felt distinctive and confident.
CL
In addition to the script, our restraint with color was an initial challenge. To lean into desaturated photography united our image library, but it meant we had to sustain visual interest in other ways. The minimalist palette gave us a clean slate for experimental typography and sparing pops of our accent color.
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CF
Anything you wanted to do but didn’t make it into the final result?
CL
One of our initial moodboards used Greco-Roman imagery, and as a lover of art history this would have been a dream. Ultimately we leaned away from that in favor of more modern photography, but I am still so proud of where we landed. I’ll save the Venus de Milo for another project.
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CF
Well, I’m really proud of the work you did. Thank you for the care and attention you put into it. What part of the project was most satisfying?
LS
The Frictionless team was quite inspiring on their own, but seeing young founders taking the leap and trusting us to create something visually original was quite enjoyable. That kind of collaboration made the whole process smooth.
CL
Developing a relationship of trust with a client is one of the most satisfying parts of my role. For many small teams, the decision to engage with an agency like ours is a vulnerable moment. Behind every project is years of personal investment. We don’t take that lightly. So to arrive at a point where a client is willing to take risks based on our expertise is very fulfilling.
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