From branding to websites to ongoing creative support, we give your vision the visuals it deserves.

DESIGNING WITH HEART AND STRATEGY

We Help Mission-Led Brands Stand Out and Get Results

hey hey! I'm Makya

Truth is: I never planned to be a full-time designer.

Teak & Ink began as a side task. I was knee deep in community work, running events, leading programs, and designing flyers and websites for my nonprofit and the university that I worked for. Al of the things that I felt that I needed to in order to move the mission forward. I didn’t call myself a designer back then, even when I started to notice that I was good at it. I just cared deeply about how things looked (and felt).

But somewhere between passion projects and late nights of making visuals actually work for the people and missions that I cared about, I realized just how much design shapes the way people see you AND how much time they'd be willing to stick around to hear what it is that you do and why they should care.

Brand Strategist

Designer

Systems Specialist

Smiling woman in front of lap desk looking toward open laptop

They taught me that aesthetics are only half of the battle. What's most important  is impact. Every flyer, website, and brand identity that I created had to communicate a mission, build trust, and move people to action. That's still true.

Today, every project we take on is rooted in purpose and guided by the same values I learned from those early justice-focused endeavors:

By merging strategy, design, and systems thinking, we make sure that the brands we work with don’t stop at looking good. They connect, resonate, and move people to action.

social impact

attention to detail

cultural relevance

collaboration

Those early days designing for the causes that were important to me shaped the foundation of Teak & Ink.

Image of Makya Purnell with crown and face covered

sound familiar?

Here's what I've seen with clients just like you...

You’re stretched thin because of on top of trying to manage your business, you have to market it.

You hesitate when sharing your website because it just doesn't look good

You only have one version of your logo and it never seems to fit anywhere

Your visuals feel inconsistent from your website to your social media, and it shows.

A studio that helps you show up with the confidence of a toddler ready to head out with their shoes on the wrong foot.

I truly felt that so many purpose-driven founders and entrepreneurs had powerful missions, but struggled to show up online in a way that best reflects the value that they bring. It meant that amazing folks with big ideas and bigger hearts were getting stuck behind visuals that were missing the mark. 

I wanted to create a studio that not only gave justice-centered work the creative care that it needed, but also a studio that combined strategy with style in order to help visionaries like you reach your goals in a way that feels aligned, authentic, and impactful.

THESE ARE EXACTLY THE REASONS WHY I CREATED TEAK & INK

So, now that you have a sense of how we roll with our clients, it’s only fair you get to know a little more about me... beyond design.