Duration: Three years.

Location: Ridgewood, Queens, New York.

Key creatives: Kori Dyer Mastroieni and Kirsten Pincket. Dyer has ten years of experience working in graphic design, and Pincket has eight years of experience.

Career path: As a kid, Dyer was drawn to creative outlets like photography but never had proper training until she went to college, as her high school had no art program. She knew that she wanted to work in the arts through business, and graphic design literally fit that bill for her.

Pincket always loved to create: drawing, painting, jewelry and sculptures, among other things where she could get her hands dirty. She went to college with the intention of studying fine arts with a focus on drawing, but one semester, she came across a class in graphic design and became immediately intrigued. As she was into mixed media at the time, she fell in love with the ability to merge physical, tactile creations with digital ones. Once she entered the professional world, she dipped her toes into a variety of roles, from agency to in-house. After she had gathered valuable knowledge and experience, she applied it all to a new venture on her own terms.

Now, Dyer and Pincket work as Dearest Creative, a socially-driven creative studio devoted to telling the stories they believe in with people they admire. Dearest focuses on branding and art direction with roots in graphic design, working with small- to medium-sized brands—oftentimes female owned—and building out their holistic creative vision.

Favorite projects: Pincket is extremely proud of Dearest’s branding collaboration with The Girl Scouts of the United States of America’s Lifetime Membership Program and PlantShed, a New York City–based sustainable florist; these two brands were wonderfully respected and established entities, so Pincket appreciated the trust they placed in Dearest for their rebrands. The tying thread for Pincket is the mutual respect between client and agency, which she credits for fueling her most creative and innovative work.

For Dyer, she’s found that working to socially impact the world through design has fulfilled her in a way that working in purely fashion editorial never could. Her two favorite projects have been the branding, website design, book designs, and photo and video content direction for Beyond Capital Fund, a nonprofit that serves East Africa and India through impact investing; and campaigns for Oui the People, a sustainable, inclusive beauty brand that has made major waves in skincare. Incidentally, both of these are female-owned brands.

Work environment: We strive to keep a relaxed yet driven work environment. Whether we’re working on client projects or internal growth, we start each day with intentions and hold each other to them. We deeply support each other both personally and professionally and always push each other to focus on family and friends first, work second. We also encourage each other to grow and meet our fullest potential.

Approach: Dyer feels that Dearest has a certain “je ne sais quoi” that’s hard to put into words. She and Pincket met at Vogue, and clicked seamlessly in both aesthetics and concepts. Many of their clients have told them that their joint brainpower and riffing creates a look and feel that is distinct and special. She feels lucky to have found a perfect counterpart in Pincket.

Pincket credits her equal passions in fine arts and graphic design for fueling her constantly evolving approach and affinity towards certain work. She also credits Dearest’s use of storytelling as a primary lens in which they view all their projects; this lens, she believes, truly sets them apart in a unique way.

Aspirations: Dyer would like to see Dearest Creative’s team grow, so that she and Pincket can focus on the creative direction while building a strong network of designers, copywriters and strategists to collaborate with. Client-wise, she craves working with projects in hospitality, especially boutique hotels, restaurants and bars.

Pincket aspires to continue collaborating with interesting, passionate individuals who have a unique story to tell. From graphic design to art direction to multimedia approaches, she wants to be proud of the work Dearest creates with the hope that it will make a difference. She’s very drawn to branding at the moment; taking a concept or idea and bringing it to life is the type of soul food that she wants to keep striving towards.

Philosophy: When it comes to work, both Dyer and Pincket share a simple philosophy: Does it make them happy? As Pincket states, Dearest Creative is here to service their clients in the best way they can, and that is most successful when they’re passionate about being part of something.