About Hue & Heal

Hue is colour. Heal is what it is for.

Hue & Heal began with a simple belief: that the care and craft we put into the things that entertain people belongs, even more, in the things that make them well.

Our founder spent more than a decade designing for global entertainment brands, where every pause, every screen and every ending was designed around how it would feel.

Then she went looking for the same care in wellness, and mostly did not find it. A luxury retreat run on a paper diary. A hot lobby on the Kenyan coast, and an hour of clipboards before anyone felt they had arrived. Apps that promised calm and delivered guilt. Not a failure of kindness, but a failure of design.

Hue & Heal exists to close that gap: a Studio for founders, a Lab for the ventures we build for the world, and Mind for people designing their own lives.

Read the founding essay: What entertainment knows that wellness forgot

What we carry over from entertainment, and what we leave behind.

We carry

AnticipationThe hours before an experience are part of it. We design them.
PacingReveal things at the speed people can take them in, never all at once.
EndingsPeople remember the most intense moment and the last one. We design both on purpose.
RelevanceThe same person needs different things on different days.

We leave behind

Streaks that turn a practice into a debt.
Feeds that never end.
Rewards that arrive at random to keep people checking.
Guilt as a retention strategy.

A wellness product should be judged by whether people’s lives improve, and whether they want to come back, not by how hard it is to leave.

The team.

A small core, and a bespoke team around it. For every project we bring in the specialists it needs, and no one it does not.

Founder and design director

Maria Valiji

Design director for global streaming across NOW, Peacock and Comcast, and head of design at Sky, with more than a decade in entertainment. Founded Hue & Heal to bring that craft to the experiences that make people well. A certified transformational coach, she also leads Mind.

Read her story LinkedIn

Strategic clinical advisor

Dr Hatim Abdulhussein

A healthcare chief executive, NHS GP and honorary professor of innovation and AI. Brings clinical judgement to every Studio and Lab project, so what we design is safe as well as beautiful.

The bespoke team

Specialists who join for each project, chosen for what it needs.

01Lighting designersCircadian and emotional light for spaces, from arrival to the last room.
02Sound and acoustic designersSilence, room tone and the score of a place or a product.
03Spatial and interior designersThresholds, materials and the journey through a building.
04ResearchersInterviews, diary studies and testing with the people you serve.
05Behavioural scientistsHabits that help rather than hook, grounded in evidence.
06RecruitersThe right participants for research, and the right hires for your team.
07Product and service designersScreens, flows and the service behind them, at full fidelity.
08Brand and motion designersIdentity, tone and movement that feel like the experience.
09EngineersWorking prototypes and production builds, on web and mobile.

What people say about working with our founder.

“Maria is one of the best design managers I've had. She is one of the few people that lead by example but is also amazing at the design craft. Your designs are beautiful, elegant, and just right.”
Flavio Lamenza
Design Lead, Sky
“A natural leader who is innovative, authentic and inspires others to excel. A strategic thinker that underpins her talent to scale design teams who continuously deliver.”
Elliot Seller
Head of Connected Home, Vodafone
“Maria has breathed magic into rebranding, improving and innovating new products that have formed the backbone of success for the department over the past 18 months.”
Colin Burgess
Executive Director of Operations, BAFTA

Hue & Heal Ltd is based in London and works everywhere.

Write to us at hello@hueandheal.com, or start with the thing you are building.

Start a project