10.06.2026
/
5 min
by
Ricki Green
Share Article
The New Wave is Campaign Brief’s Q&A series spotlighting the next generation of independent creative companies and exploring how the indie model is evolving. From structure and speed to culture and capability, we unpack where these businesses are finding their edge and what’s driving client decisions today. Next up is Dirt co-founders Alessia Murer, Lou Wright and Amber Dempsey.
1. Give us the elevator pitch – who are you and what do you do?
We are Dirt, a global creative studio operating at the intersection of great design, memorable content, cultural alignment, and brand longevity. Founded by Alessia, Lou, and Amber, we spent our first 14 months operating entirely in stealth, shipping over 60 projects for clients worldwide before recently launching our own brand ecosystem, the Dirtverse. We build custom, self-sustaining brand universes across strategy, digital experiences, content, and motion. Our approach is anchored in working with people we genuinely align with – founders who trust us completely to build cool work that stands the test of time. It starts in the dirt.
2. Are indies still challengers, or have they become the norm?
Indies have become the norm for ambitious brands because the entire dynamic of the client-agency relationship has changed. The old network model is transactional, but the indie model is built on care and alignment. We don’t take on projects just for the money; we partner with people who know they need help and are willing to let us steer. The clients choosing indies today are the ones who care enough to deeply collaborate and trust the process. They aren’t looking for a vendor to check a box, they want a dedicated team that will champion their originality and create a brand that is felt in the gut and built to live a lifetime.
3. What’s your unfair advantage over the networks today?
Our shared instinct and zero friction. Traditional agencies are engineered for scale and long-term maintenance through layers of management, but our model achieves that same longevity through direct execution. At Dirt, our clients work directly with the builders. Our unfair advantage is our velocity and our alignment with founder energy – we can design, build, and deploy entire brand ecosystems in the time it takes a legacy network to approve a creative brief. We partner with people who share our values, and we ensure the structural integrity of the project is never compromised.
4. How are you using AI to compete above your weight?
We don’t ignore AI; it’s a tool, and we use it wisely. During concept development, it allows us to prototype ideas, but every final output is deeply crafted by our own hands and minds. Human connection can never be replaced. Ultimately, AI is only as good as the person prompting it; unless you possess the high-level brand and creative skill to wield it, it won’t be leveraged the way it needs to be. For a tight studio like ours, it acts as an optimisation tool so our human team can slow down where it matters most: spending our energy on deep strategy, visceral work, and true collaboration.
5. What kind of clients are choosing indies right now – and why?
We build for the deeply invested: the sick start-ups and the cool giants. These are founders, product innovators, and visionary marketing leaders who are entirely done with the polished, template-driven safety of large holding companies. They choose independent studios because they recognise that generic branding is a liability. They want partners who have the skin in the game, the creative courage to build something that hits the nervous system, and the agility to match their own operational pace.
6. What’s next – growth, staying lean, or something else?
Our focus is entirely on doing cool, impactful work with the best people. We are completely open to any industry, as long as what they are creating aligns with our values and they trust us to steer. At the end of the day, the best part of creating a brand is how it makes people feel. We want to expand our orbit of global brands while keeping our core team tight, because in the Dirtverse, growth is measured by the cultural and emotional impact of the work we put out, not the size of our payroll.