Mark Cortes Favis
📝 ✏️ 🚀
Creative direction, editorial strategy and brand identity – minus the existential dread.
Eight Decades of British Design
Design Council
2025
The Summer and Autumn Shows
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
2024
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense
Design Museum Enterprises
2023
The Mechanics Institute Review
Birkbeck, University of London
2019
Design Museum marketing collateral
The Design Museum
2019
Ferrari: Under the Skin
Phaidon x Design Museum Enterprises
2017
About
Ideas can be messy, chaotic, highfalutin. Let’s make them land.
Editorial. Creative direction. Brand storytelling. I work at the intersection of content, design and strategy, shaping how ideas are developed, communicated and experienced across print, digital and brand platforms. I collaborate with individuals and institutions alike to turn complex ideas into compelling, audience-facing work – without losing their soul (or their sanity). Whether it’s a chaotic manuscript, an outdated website or a languishing brand in need of a glow-up, I bring strategy, a fresh perspective and the perfect balance of encouragement and (gentle) ruthlessness.
Why work with me?
For over 15 years, I’ve worked with some of the UK’s leading cultural institutions, including the Design Council, The Bartlett School of Architecture and the Jencks Foundation at the Cosmic House. In 2015, I established and ran the Design Museum's publishing programme for eight years, shaping its editorial direction and overseeing a wide range of publications and brand-led outputs.
My work has been featured in The New York Times, Flaunt Magazine, The Guardian and on BBC Radio 4 – and, for my most unexpected claim to fame – the in-flight magazine for British Airways (lol).
So if you need a seasoned editorial and creative lead who can bring strategy and a strong point of view to your work (and isn’t afraid to wrestle coherence from the chaos of any plan or project), let’s talk.
What I do
Brand, content and creative direction
Strategically shaping how organisations tell their story, from narrative and tone of voice and to visual identity and campaign.
Publishing and editorial consulting
Developing publishing strategies and guiding content that so it aligns with institutional identity, audience engagement and long-term direction.
Editorial project management
Bringing complex digital and print projects together – aligning people, process and production from concept through to delivery.
Editing, writing and content development
Refining and creating content that’s clear, engaging and ready to go out into the world.
Shaping brands, books and everything in between • Stopping bad publishing decisions in their tracks • A great design deserves even greater content – and a strategy that holds it all together • Turning messy ideas into work worth putting out into the world •
Brand, content and creative direction
Shaping how ideas are seen as well as read.
Working with organisations to define and develop their story, from brand identity and campaigns to content strategy and visual storytelling.
Publishing and editorial consulting
Helping authors, editors and organisations navigate the publishing world.
Coordinating editors, designers, printers and publishers to bring your publication to life.
Editorial project management
Keeping the editorial ship afloat – without the chaos.
Bringing complex digital and print projects together – coordinating editorial, design and production from concept through to final delivery.
Editing, writing and content development
Making content earn its place – in print, on screen and beyond.
From structural editing to copyediting, proofreading and digital content, refining and creating work that is clear, engaging and ready to go out into the world.
Work
A greatest hits collection – but for books • From manuscript mayhem to publishing perfection • Edited, polished, published – but never forgotten •
Eight Decades of British Design
2025
Editor and contributing author
Design Council
Editor and contributor for the Design Council’s landmark 80th anniversary book.
The Summer and Autumn Shows
2024
Creative and editorial lead
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Editorial and visual identity lead for exhibitions at the world’s top-ranked architecture school.
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense
2023
Art direction and editorial lead
Design Museum Enterprises
Editorial management and art direction for Ai Weiwei: Making Sense, the catalogue for the artist’s first design exhibition in the UK.
The Mechanics Institute Review
2019
Graphic design and creative direction
Birkbeck, University of London
Art direction and visual identity lead for the relaunch of Birkbeck’s Mechanics Institute Review.
→ Dive into one of the UK’s leading literary anthologies
Design Museum marketing collateral
2019
Creative direction
The Design Museum
Creative lead for the visual refinement of the Design Museum’s brand assets, from annual reports to exhibition campaigns reaching global audiences.
→ Explore one of the world’s most recognised brands in design
Ferrari: Under the Skin
2017
Art direction and editorial lead
Phaidon x Design Museum Enterprises
Editorial and art direction lead for the Design Museum’s Ferrari book, published with Phaidon.