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How Niclas Ernst is trying to help startups get design right, with deeply embedded relationships
When most designers imagine going independent, they picture freelance gigs, portfolio updates, and maybe dream of building a small design studio someday. But Niclas Ernst took a different path. He didn’t just want to do good design. He wanted to change how companies think about it.
Riley Hennigh
June 16, 2025
Niclas is the founder of PERMANENT, a design culture studio that helps startups build high-trust, deeply embedded design teams. Their goal isn’t just to design products or websites. It’s to help companies build the internal culture and capabilities they need to design well — long after their studio is gone.
Like many of us, Niclas didn’t start with a polished career plan. He got into design as a teenager by making YouTube banners for gamers. He ran a Facebook page offering logos for free, then slowly started charging. First $5, then $50, then $500. When he was around 15 years old, he was closing projects in the 4-digit range.
Eventually, a local agency saw his work online and brought him in as their first designer. He worked with them in his free time while still attending school until his design led to client work for major brands like Coca-Cola and Allianz. He ended up dropping out before his final year to go all-in on design.
Why PERMANENT exists
PERMANENT isn’t a typical agency. It’s not even a typical studio. It exists to solve a very specific problem: Helping high-potential startups build lasting design functions.
That starts with what Niclas calls the Vision Phase. A short, intensive engagement (usually 15-20 days) where his team works closely with the founders to define where the company needs to go and how design can help get them there.
If there’s a “Fuck yeah” moment during that phase? The work continues. If not? No harm, no foul.
From there, Niclas brings in his part of his team fractionally to help execute that vision across brand, product, and marketing. Every person on the team is usually part-time by design.
“The fractional piece is really important. You want everyone to be part-time. You’re usually excluded from a lot of the bullshit that happens inside companies. It’s more efficient. And yet we manage to create this feeling of being part of the team.
This approach keeps the team creatively fresh, makes it easier to rotate across startups, and helps PERMANENT operate more like an in-house function – where the target state is to have multiple people with their own set of responsibilities – without needing to scale headcount in response to the startups they work with.
What makes it work
Niclas didn’t stumble into this model by accident. He earned it — by doing the work, taking risks, and observing what actually led to great outcomes over longer, more in-depth engagements.
The studio only works with a handful of companies at a time. They go deep. They fly to offsites. They embed. They influence hiring, culture, and org charts – not just the visual design.
When I first read a line about them being a “design culture studio — I was like… ok? What does that even mean? But after this conversation with Niclas, that description makes perfect sense.
The goal isn’t just to ship a new site. It’s to help the company become the kind of place great designers want to work.
“We want to be the last studio they ever need to hire”, Niclas said.
He knows that when design is treated as an afterthought, companies struggle to scale. But when it’s foundational, it creates momentum that lasts.
And for PERMANENT, that’s the real product: a better company.
Not just another subscription agency
One of the things that stood out to me in our conversation was Niclas’ take on design subscriptions.
He sees it as misaligned with the kind of deep, strategic work he believes in. Especially when younger designers jump straight into it.
“You see people sharing screenshots of their Stripe dashboard saying they made $30K in a month. But then you open the Figma file and it’s not actually good work.”
Niclas isn’t just critiquing from the sidelines. He’s offering an alternative. Through their mentorship program, he invites emerging designers to skip the subscription hustle and come work on real problems with real teams.
Screenshot from PERMANENT’s mentorship page
“They’ll learn more. They’ll get paid well. And they won’t burn out designing yet another Webflow site they don’t care about.”
What you can learn from this
Whether you want to build a studio or just improve how you work with clients, there are a few powerful takeaways from Niclas and PERMANENT:
Solve real problems: Don’t just sell deliverables. Help your clients move forward.
Go deep, not wide: The most meaningful work often comes from long-term relationships.
Think like a team, not a vendor: Embedding earns trust.
Your model should reflect your values: Don’t chase trends. Build the business you actually want to run.
And most importantly: It’s okay to work differently.
In a world full of fast-fix agencies and tweet-sized success stories, PERMANENT is building something lasting — and helping other designers do the same.
Let me know what you think of this deeply-embedded approach — and if you want to learn more, check out PERMANENT and Niclas.
Written by @rileyhennigh. If you enjoyed, share this with a young designer, colleague, or creative who is considering going out on their own.
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