Hello.

I am Esther, founder and creative director of Hawk & Sparrow Design.

Born in California and raised in Northern Germany, I stretched my freelance wings in the early 2000’s while studying communications design at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany. After a six-month internship at Meta Design and earning my “Diplom” (roughly the equivalent of a Master of Arts), my desire to roam free and work for my own clients resulted in building my own design studio, Esther Kuehne Graphic Design.

After moving back to Santa Cruz, California with over ten years of experience in identity design under my wings, it was time to rename my studio, and Hawk & Sparrow Design was launched in 2018.

The name is inspired by my German maiden name meaning Sparrowhawk. But rather than having the hawk prey on the sparrow, I prefer to add the cunning and adaptivity of the sparrow to the strength and speed of the hawk, and have them partner up to reflect the core of my work ethic: teamwork. While I am technically the sole proprietor of Hawk & Sparrow Design, I rarely work alone on a project. I receive feedback from and work together with other designers, and since I am not a programmer, all of the web development projects are done collaboratively. And last, but not least, my client is part of the team!

Some examples of these teamworks are displayed in the portfolio. Feel free to look around!

Thank you for your interest, I would love to hear from you!