Officially launched in 2013, Eric Karnes and Christine Coffey’s design practice in Richmond, Virginia, demonstrates a balance of temperaments, their complementary yin-yang dynamic.

Karnes, raised by a painter and educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art, describes himself as an overly self-critical artist-dreamer who will stay up all hours of the night tweaking small details in his search for perfection. Coffey, the daughter of an engineer who studied communications at Syracuse University, says she loves research and generating clever, big-picture ideas by sketching in the bright light of dawn.

The pair met in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University, joining forces only after they had tackled many 2-D, 3-D and interactive projects in stints at design firms in Baltimore, New York and Washington, D.C. As a team, they specialize in identity and designing all things related—logos, collateral, typography, signage, interactive and packaging.

Karnes, who hates to see his painstakingly crafted designs find their way to the trash, channels his excess nervous energy into designing frame-worthy posters for clients in his solo spin-off, the Karnes Poster Company.