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morMaker
Learning through making.
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Independent Venture Studio
Second Chance
We build what’s next
across industries.
Global Perspective
Cross-industry. Everywhere.
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Brand Thesis
Second Chance is an independent venture studio building distinctive brands, physical products and cultural experiences from the ground up.
- Founded
- 2021
- Ventures
- 04 active
- Model
- Owned & operated
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Portfolio
Selected Ventures
Four companies, four industries, one way of building. Each venture is designed, produced and operated in-house.
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Method
How We Build
Five stages, run in order, every time. The stage a venture is in decides what we work on — and what we refuse to work on yet.
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01 —
Thesis
Find the opportunity, tension or cultural gap.
- Market read
- Cultural signal
- Venture hypothesis
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02 —
Identity
Build the name, positioning, visual language and world.
- Naming
- Brand system
- World &
- tone
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03 —
Product
Design, prototype and prepare the product for production.
- Industrial design
- Prototypes
- Tooling &
- spec
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04 —
Market
Develop pricing, content, distribution and launch systems.
- Pricing
- Channel plan
- Launch system
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05 —
Growth
Learn from the market and improve the venture.
- Retail feedback
- Iteration
- Portfolio decision
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Case Studies
From Idea to Reality
The unglamorous middle: the decisions, prototypes and production constraints that turn a sketch into something you can buy.
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Creamcone
From character sketch to physical collectible.
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01Initial idea
A character worth holding
Creamcone started as a drawing that people kept asking about. The question was never whether the character worked — it was whether it could survive translation into an object without losing its personality.
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02Design system
One character, many forms
We built a proportion system, a colour lexicon and a set of expression rules, so every future figure, pose and collaboration reads as the same character rather than a redraw.
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03Prototype
Six rounds of resin
Early prints lost the silhouette at small scale. We thickened key contours, rebalanced the head-to-body ratio and re-cut the base until the figure read correctly from two metres away.
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04Production
Tolerance is the design
Moving to soft vinyl introduced shrink and seam constraints. Parting lines were redrawn to follow the character’s own contours, turning a manufacturing limit into part of the form language.
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05Market
Drops, not inventory
Positioned as a limited release with numbered editions and packaging that works as display, so the object keeps value on a shelf instead of in a box.
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06Outcome
A character with a roadmap
Creamcone now has a production-ready master, a defined edition strategy and a second series in design — the character exists as an IP system, not a single product.
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morMaker
From wooden components to a complete learning system.
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01Initial idea
Kits teach, boxes don’t
The market was full of single-outcome kits: build it once, learn one thing, done. The opening was a component system where the same parts support a widening set of projects.
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02Design system
A shared grid
Every part was redrawn onto one dimensional grid — hole spacing, material thickness and connector logic — so components bought two years apart still fit together.
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03Prototype
Built by the users
Prototypes were tested with children rather than reviewed by adults. Assembly steps that needed explaining were redesigned until the part itself explained them.
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04Production
Wood, laser, tolerance
Batch variation in plywood thickness broke early joints. We moved to a calibrated stock and a press-fit tolerance that survives humidity, then wrote the QA check around it.
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05Market
Curriculum as distribution
Pricing and packaging were built around classroom sets and family kits in parallel, with printed and digital guides that let a teacher run a session without training.
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06Outcome
A platform, not a product
morMaker ships as an expanding system with a shared part library, and new projects now cost design time rather than new tooling.
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No7 Tattoo House
From local tattoo studio to a cultural platform.
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01Initial idea
Original work only
The studio’s real asset was a position most shops avoid: no copies, no flash reproductions, no borrowed designs. That constraint became the brand.
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02Design system
An archive-first identity
Identity was built around the work itself — a numbered archive, consistent documentation and a typographic system restrained enough to let the ink lead.
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03Prototype
The room is the product
Consultation flow, lighting, sound and aftercare were designed as one experience, then tested with clients before any of it was named or launched.
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04Production
Operating discipline
Artist onboarding, hygiene standards, pricing bands and booking rules were written down so the experience holds up when the founder isn’t in the room.
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05Market
Culture over advertising
Growth came from exhibitions, guest artists and published archive work rather than paid reach — positioning the studio inside a scene instead of a service listing.
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06Outcome
A platform with a waitlist
No7 now runs as a cultural venue with a resident roster, a documented archive and demand that outruns the calendar.
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Manifesto
We build what we believe should exist.
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Archive
The Archive
Not every idea becomes a company.
Every idea teaches us how to build the next one.
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AR-014
Modular desk lamp
Assembly was elegant on paper and hostile in hand. The joint logic survived and now lives in morMaker.
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AR-021
Subscription snack brand
Unit economics never cleared logistics. Retired after two production runs and one very honest spreadsheet.
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AR-033
Paper-pulp packaging trials
Eleven moulded samples. Two of them are the reason Creamcone packaging holds its edges.
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AR-047
Type foundry side project
A full display family drawn, spaced and never shipped. Waiting for the venture that earns it.
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AR-052
Retail pop-up format
Ran for six weekends. The layout logic became the No7 exhibition setup.
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AR-058
Ceramic case study
Glaze consistency beat us at batch scale. Kept as a reference for material honesty.
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AR-061
Pricing model rewrite
We priced three ventures wrong in the same way. Now it is a checklist, not a memory.
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AR-066
Wearable concept
Right object, wrong decade of supply chain. Revisit when the components get boring.
- Prototype objectsResin, plywood, printed steel
- NotesWorking drawings and revisions
- PackagingStructural mockups, print proofs
- Material samplesFinishes, coatings, textiles
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Founder
Built from the inside.
Rusty
Founder & Venture Builder
Second Chance was built around a single capability: turning ideas into complete, operating brand systems.
Nothing is handed off at the interesting part. Strategy, identity, industrial design, production and launch happen in the same room, which is why the ventures look like they were made by the same hand — because they were.
- Strategy
- Brand Systems
- Product Development
- Production
- Creative Direction
- Growth
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Partnerships
Build With Us
We work with people who make things, move things and back things. If one of these is you, the conversation is short.
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We work with makers who care about tolerance, finish and repeatability — and who will tell us when a drawing is wrong.
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Shelf space, concept stores and marketplaces where the object gets to be looked at properly before it is bought.
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Limited runs and shared editions with brands whose audience would recognise the idea as their own.
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Our characters, systems and product platforms, extended into categories we do not build ourselves.
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Capital that arrives with a category, a factory or a market — and the patience for physical timelines.
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Designers, engineers, artists and writers who want to build ventures rather than deliverables.
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Closing