Two Founders, One Vision

Duo Design was founded in 2018 by Lucy Granger and Sam Okoro, two UX designers who met while working at a large consultancy in London and discovered they shared a frustration: too many digital products were being built without genuine regard for the people using them. They relocated to Birmingham, drawn by its growing tech scene and lower overheads, and set up a studio in the Custard Factory with a simple proposition. Design should start with understanding, not decoration.

The name reflects their founding partnership but also a core belief. Every project at Duo is approached through two lenses: the needs of the user and the goals of the business. The studio has grown steadily since those early days, expanding to a team of fourteen across UX research, UI design, interaction design, and front-end prototyping. They now occupy a converted warehouse space in Digbeth, a neighbourhood that has become synonymous with Birmingham's creative revival.

What Duo Design Does

The studio's work spans mobile apps, web platforms, and enterprise software. Their client list includes NHS Digital, a handful of fintech startups, a national housing association, and several established Midlands manufacturers looking to modernise their customer-facing tools. Projects range from full redesigns of complex platforms to focused sprints on a single user flow or onboarding experience.

Duo's approach is research-led. Every engagement begins with discovery, which typically involves stakeholder interviews, user testing, and data analysis before a single pixel is placed. Lucy Granger has spoken publicly about the importance of this phase, noting that the most expensive design mistakes are the ones made before anyone opens Figma. The studio's output is known for its restraint: clean interfaces, considered typography, and a clarity of hierarchy that makes complex information feel manageable.

The Digbeth Studio

The physical workspace matters to Duo. Their Digbeth studio is deliberately open-plan, with large communal tables designed to encourage cross-discipline conversation. One wall is permanently covered in printed wireframes and research artefacts, a working surface the team calls "the mirror" because it reflects the current state of whatever project is in motion. There are quiet rooms for focused work and a small usability testing lab with recording equipment, where the team regularly invites real users to interact with prototypes.

"We never want to be so big that the people designing the product can't sit in on the research sessions. That proximity is everything." — Sam Okoro, Co-founder

Culture and Working Style

Duo operates with a flat structure that resists unnecessary hierarchy. Designers are expected to own their work from concept through to developer handoff, and they are given genuine autonomy over how they approach problems. That said, critique is central to the studio's culture. Weekly design reviews are candid, structured sessions where everyone, from junior designers to the founders, presents work in progress and receives feedback. The goal is collective improvement, not performance.

The studio works a four-and-a-half-day week, finishing at lunchtime on Fridays. This was introduced in 2021 as an experiment and became permanent after the team reported higher satisfaction and no drop in output. Duo also invests in professional development, offering a yearly learning budget that team members can spend on courses, conferences, books, or software subscriptions of their choosing.

Birmingham and Beyond

Duo has been vocal about its commitment to Birmingham's design community. The founders co-organise a quarterly meetup called Pixel & Pint, held at various venues across the city, which brings together designers, developers, and product managers for informal talks and conversation. They also run a paid internship programme each summer, specifically targeting graduates from West Midlands universities, in an effort to keep local talent from migrating to London.

While most of the team works from the Digbeth studio, Duo offers flexible arrangements for those who need them. A handful of team members work remotely two or three days a week, and the studio has collaborated with freelancers based elsewhere in the UK on larger projects. Still, the founders believe that in-person collaboration produces better design outcomes, and they encourage regular presence in the studio without making it a rigid mandate.

Looking Ahead

Duo's ambitions are deliberate rather than aggressive. The founders have no interest in scaling to fifty people or opening satellite offices. Instead, they want to deepen their expertise in sectors where design has the most tangible impact on people's lives, particularly healthcare, housing, and public services. A recent partnership with a Birmingham-based accessibility consultancy signals a growing focus on inclusive design, an area Lucy Granger describes as non-negotiable rather than aspirational.

The studio's reputation has been built on quiet, consistent work rather than flashy case studies or awards submissions. Clients return because the products Duo designs perform well in the real world, reducing support queries, increasing engagement, and making previously frustrating digital experiences feel intuitive. For a studio of its size, that track record speaks clearly.