My name is Mario Hugo.

I served as co-founder and creative director of Hugo & Marie for nearly 17 years. 

I’ve since left—or am still in the process of leaving—but I have not been actively involved with the team since late August of 2024.

This little studio has storied walls. And that history is the product of extraordinary minds—part instinct, part appetite, mostly heart, and sometimes, telepathic. Big hearts, who laughed through endless revisions, and then quietly birthed a record sleeve, or weathered a storm with grace.

You taught me that softness at the edges is where extraordinary things emerge.

Thank you for teaching me.
I am forever grateful.
You will know who you are,
and you will know that you are many.




In the years since, I’ve trained in Wabi Sabi—and I’ve come to believe that breaking apart, and speaking from within that break, can be a kind of whimsically messy coming together. A Danny Boyle–esque healing ritual: a little sloppy, a little unplanned, but something that simply… rings true.

These experiences—the folding and unfolding—are sometimes confusing.
But they are also, unmistakably, extraordinary. And to me, divine.

I’ve accepted that I’m no longer interested in polish—but in pulse.
To be more poet. 
To reflect what sings all around us, at all times. 
To make Fantasia in a petri dish—because… why not?

The process is delightful.
And I believe our interests bear the most fruit
when we follow their lead.
It’s all a dance.




So, I’ve started a weird little studio called Odd Ideas. The site is up.
It’s the kind of silly studio that prefers to speak in riddle, but can most certainly tell you the Mona Lisa’s favorite flavor of ice cream — or at the very least, her favorite two.

And then—when you ask how we know—
that little studio will smile,
and have the hutzpah to introduce the elephant in the room:


The world is composed of subtle energy.
And that energy resonates through all experience—
both individual, and shared.


We welcome the curious, 
we promise to not explain it all away, 
but you might just feel it.





Thank You,
Mario Hugo + Odd Ideas