Studio Magic Hour partners with organizations across the food system to bring care, creativity, and clarity to complex design challenges. We offer four primary ways to collaborate, each rooted in community-centered, participatory design practice.
We typically work with non-profits, coalitions, government entities, funders, and cross-sector initiatives navigating complex, multi-stakeholder projects.
We're here to help you design more equitable food futures.
Our Services
Multi-month, embedded collaborations that bring design strategy and sensemaking into the front end of grantmaking—supporting funders in exploring complexity, clarifying direction, and shaping strategy before investments are set.
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We lead custom full-scale design projects—from discovery research and sensemaking to co-creation, concept development, and pilot design—guided by the goals of your organization and community.
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Ongoing advisory support for teams already doing the work, bringing clarity, alignment, and forward movement.
We design and facilitate one- to three-day workshops that help teams and networks make sense of complexity, generate creative ideas, and co-create meaningful solutions.
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You’re bringing together diverse collaborators to collectively create an initiative or program—and want alignment, momentum, and actionable solutions to move forward.
A good fit for you if:
1–3 days (in-person)
Co-design workshops
Investment: Starts at $10,000
WHAT IT IS
FORMAT
One- to three-day community-centered intensives that help teams, coalitions, and networks make sense of complex challenges and opportunities and co-create actionable next steps. Each co-design blends systems thinking, creativity, and skilled facilitation to help partners surface key insights and turn them into meaningful solutions.
Where collaboration sparks clarity
Design advisory
A good fit for you if:
You or your team are already doing the work, but facing complexity, competing priorities, or uncertainty about what to do next.
Investment: $3,000 – $5,000 / month
WHAT IT IS
Individual or team series | 3- or 6-month packages
FORMAT
Ongoing, personalized advisory services for individuals, teams, or funder collaboratives implementing design work. Together, we clarify direction, navigate real-world constraints, and support aligned, equity-driven decision-making.
Support to move equity-centered work forward with clarity and accountability
You need added design capacity and expertise to lead one or more phases of a design project.
A good fit for you if:
Custom design services
Investment: Custom quote
WHAT IT IS
FORMAT
Custom design projects guided by the goals of your organization and community partners. Engagements can take the form of full-length projects (from start to finish) or project phases (such as design research/learning, co-creation and concept development, or pilot implementation).
Custom-scoped project engagement | Remote + on-site as needed
From vision to implementation
Strategic design partnership for funders
A good fit for you if:
You’re a funder or backbone organization navigating a new or evolving focus area and looking for space to explore what’s emerging before decisions are made. You value collaborative inquiry and want to shape funding strategy with intention. You’re seeking greater clarity and coherence as you consider how to move forward, and you want design strategy to support thoughtful, grounded decision-making at the front end of your work.
Investment: Custom quote
WHAT IT IS
FORMAT
Multi-month collaborations with funders who want to bring design strategy, reflection, and sensemaking into moments of exploration and early strategy formation. Studio Magic Hour becomes an embedded creative partner—designing convenings, facilitating collaborative inquiry, and supporting funders as they make sense of complex issue areas before strategies and investments are set. This work focuses on exploration, sensemaking, and strategy formation, supporting clarity before funding approaches take shape.
We bring design strategy to your work by helping translate complexity into grounded understanding, clearer direction, and thoughtful next steps—so funding approaches are shaped with intention and care.
3 – 12 months | A flexible, in-depth embedded partnership