Branding and digital experience agency T8 Creations (formerly AnalogFolk Asia) recently launched T8 Co-Create, an initiative designed to support and elevate in-house design teams through structured mentorship, external perspective, and embedded creative collaboration.
Developed through the agency’s partnerships with brands across Asia, the model—placing experienced, well-matched designers within internal teams—reflects T8’s broader focus on helping organizations strengthen their in-house creative capabilities while staying connected to evolving industry thinking.
Building on its recent rebrand and renewed independence, T8 Creations looks to blur the lines between agency and in-house partnership—working with clients to sustain creativity, capability, and inspiration.
To learn more, we spoke with Chris Ryan, Co-Founder and Managing Director at T8 Creations, and Harry Llufrio, Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director, about the thinking behind T8 Co-Create, insights from early pilot programs, and how they see the role of in-house creative teams evolving across the region.
The rebranding from AnalogFolk Asia to T8 Creations marked a major transition. What story does this new identity tell us about where the agency is headed?
It was a major transition in two ways. First, it marked our independence from the AnalogFolk Group in London. Second, it reflected a sharper focus on what we do best…creating brands and experiences that work hand in hand.
The name T8 Creations represents creating the conditions for progress and designing customer experiences holistically. Our experience across both brand creation and service design has evolved our thinking from UX to BX – deeper brand experiences that connect meaning with design.
We see ourselves less as a traditional agency and more as a partner for renewal, bringing energy, creativity, and clarity to how brands connect and grow. Every service we launch, including T8 Co-Create, is built on that same belief in renewal and elevation.
How did T8 Co-Create come about?
It grew from what we were already doing inside several client organisations. Over time, we noticed that while brands were building strong internal design teams, many were struggling to keep those teams inspired, mentored, and exposed to external viewpoints. At the same time, clients were frustrated by “placement” models that simply filled seats without nurturing talent or maintaining quality.
It’s about strengthening what’s already there, not replacing it – helping in-house design remain inspired, supported, and continuously elevated.
T8 Co-Create emerged as a response – a way to raise the benchmark for external partnership. We embed experienced, well-matched designers who bring fresh energy and perspective, while ensuring they work in harmony with internal teams. It’s about strengthening what’s already there, not replacing it – helping in-house design remain inspired, supported, and continuously elevated.
What gaps did you see in how brands and creative partners work together, and what are you aiming to achieve with this model?
The gap is as much about capability as it is about connection. Internal teams have strong foundations and deep institutional knowledge, but they can lose external stimulus and creative stretch over time. Agencies bring fresh perspective but often lack sustained context inside the business.
T8 Co-Create is designed to bridge that divide. Clients keep ownership of their work and culture, while our embedded creatives bring complementary skills, cross-sector experience, and senior mentorship. The aim is to build an ecosystem where internal and external talent learn from each other, raising the overall capability, confidence, and creative standard of in-house design.
You describe T8 CoCreate as a “partnership, not a replacement.” How does that work in practice?
It starts with respect. We never arrive to “fix” a team. We join to amplify it. Every placement begins with understanding the culture, the product roadmap, and the individuals already there. We match talent to each specific challenge and provide ongoing guidance from our creative directors. Our embedded people attend internal meetings and work under the client’s systems, but remain connected to T8’s mentorship network. That shared ownership is what makes it partnership, not outsourcing.
It’s been said that in-house teams can lose creative edge without the external tension that sparks new ideas. How can embedded models avoid blending into the same systems they’re meant to challenge?
That’s a great question, and exactly why we built the model around continuous mentorship and cross-sector exposure. Our embedded designers stay connected to T8’s creative leadership through regular one-to-one sessions to review progress, discuss the work, and troubleshoot in real time. They’re also part of T8’s broader creative community, with access to critiques, inspiration, and learning drawn from multiple industries.
The goal isn’t disruption for its own sake. It’s healthy friction, the kind that keeps both teams learning and moving forward.
It keeps them energised, exposed to new perspectives, and able to bring that freshness back into the client environment. The goal isn’t disruption for its own sake. It’s healthy friction, the kind that keeps both teams learning and moving forward.
The announcement mentions early pilot projects. What did those experiences teach you about embedding T8 creatives within client teams?
They reinforced how powerful co-creation can be when there’s mutual trust. In both of our long-term pilot partnerships, our designers became integral members of the client team – not guests. The projects also revealed where some external models were falling short.
In several cases, clients told us they’d had to train incoming resources not only in their ways of working and business context, but also in the craft of service design itself. Those teams often walked away at the end of contracts with the very people the client had invested time and effort in developing.
AI is already handling many of the simpler, repetitive aspects of UX, which means human designers need to bring sharper creative thinking and strategic empathy to the table.
We also saw the landscape shifting. AI is already handling many of the simpler, repetitive aspects of UX, which means human designers need to bring sharper creative thinking and strategic empathy to the table. Too often, that spark was missing. And on the client side, in-house teams were often bogged down by the pace of delivery and BAU, leaving little room for inspiration or renewal.
All of this validated the importance of our model: experienced, mentored designers embedded with purpose, supported by close leadership and continuous feedback. It’s what keeps the work and the people evolving.
Many consultancies aim to bridge business strategy and creativity, but T8 puts creative leadership at the center. How does your approach differ from a consultancy model?
Consultancies are exceptional at business transformation and operational frameworks, and they absolutely have their place. Where T8 differs is in putting creative leadership on equal footing, not as an execution layer, but as a catalyst for business change.
As we see it, consultancies mostly focus on optimising systems; we focus on humanising them through creativity.
Our leaders come from decades of hands-on creative and service design experience. We’ve built T8 around the belief that creativity, when guided and mentored, has a compounding effect. It continually raises the quality and ambition of the work.
As we see it, consultancies mostly focus on optimising systems; we focus on humanising them through creativity.
Financial services are your first focus for this launch. Why start there, and what makes that sector ready for this kind of collaboration?
Financial services is at a fascinating inflection point. The sector has invested heavily in design and digital talent, yet many organisations are still searching for that spark that connects utility to emotion. Customer experiences often feel functional but not expressive of brand. That’s where we can help – by bringing brand empathy and additional creative intuition into the precision of financial UX. FS teams are mature enough to collaborate deeply, which makes it the right place to start.
As more brands move toward embedded and in-house models, the traditional agency career path is changing. What does this shift mean for creatives who’ve built their careers in agencies?
It means more opportunity, not less. The best creatives are drawn to challenge and today, that’s where the real opportunity lies: inside client organisations. With T8 Co-Create, they can have the best of both worlds: the variety, mentorship, and creative culture of an agency, combined with the depth and influence that comes from being embedded within the client’s business.
We’re also finding that many of our creatives are moving upstream within client organisations, taking part in workshops, proposition development, and strategic discussions that might once have been out of reach in traditional agency settings. It broadens their perspective and deepens their impact.
