Cognak

COGNAK is a design and development studio in Los Angeles founded by Pierce Liefeld, who brings an MFA in sculpture along with years of work across brand, digital, and development into the practice. The studio works with startups, rising ventures, and global brands, and stays small by design rather than scaling into layers of account management. Projects are designed and built by the same people who meet the client, not handed down through intermediaries.

Services span website design, landing page design, design systems, frontend and backend development, UX research, wireframing, and interaction design. When a project calls for it, COGNAK draws on a tight network of developers, motion designers, 3D artists, and production specialists rather than keeping every discipline in-house. Attention runs down to specifics: how type sits on a line, how a page loads, what runs underneath the surface of the build.

The studio is currently booking 30–60 days out, a reflection of its size and the hands-on structure of the work. The stated aim is work that holds up structurally and systems that last past a single launch, built with intent rather than for immediate visual effect. That approach is described internally as work that doesn't need to announce itself — a preference for durability and restraint over spectacle, applied across both digital and print experiences the studio produces.