ROOK

What ROOK does

ROOK (legal entity ROOK, Inc., doing business as ROOK/NYC) is an independent, full-service creative agency headquartered at 153 Roebling Street, Suite 2E, Brooklyn, NY, founded in 2012 by Mark Christou and Rebecca Thomas Christou. The firm provides branding, packaging design, and creative production services to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, with capabilities spanning brand strategy, brand identity, naming, packaging design, copywriting, art direction, illustration, photography, content creation, digital design, environment design, and structural design. ROOK does not operate a software or platform product; deliverables are services sold on a project-based, quote-driven basis with new business handled through direct inquiries to partnership email ([email protected]).

ROOK serves a primarily startup and mid-market CPG client base organized across five verticals: Beauty and Personal Care (Sheamoisture, Live Clean, Bevel, Nubian Heritage, iota, Kat Burki), Beverage (Culture Pop Soda, Q Mixers, Health-Ade, Think Coffee, Shrubbly, Avuá Cachaça), Food (88 Acres, Love Corn, Aleia's, Cabo Chips), Lifestyle (Casper, Wknd Nation), and Wellness (SISU, Healthy Skoop, InOn Health). The firm has historically run large embedded engagements, most notably scaling an internal brand-side creative team from 4 to 30 creatives in under a year during a 2016–2018 partnership with Bain Capital and Sundial Brands, which was acquired by Unilever in 2018. ROOK has accumulated industry recognition including a 2022 Silver Pentaward for Culture Pop soda packaging and inclusion of co-founder Mark Christou in GDUSA's 2022 People to Watch.

The business operates two revenue-generating arms: (1) ROOK/NYC, the core creative services agency generating professional services revenue through project-based engagements, and (2) R/Co Ventures, an affiliated investment vehicle that deploys capital alongside creative services into early-stage CPG brands (including Culture Pop, Love Corn, Avuá Cachaça, Superphone, and Liqs). R/Co Ventures uses ROOK's design engagements as a proprietary deal-sourcing channel, conducting due diligence from the inside out while providing creative work. The firm has 11–50 employees, no institutional funding rounds disclosed, no parent company, and no public listing. Customer acquisition is sales-led and referral-driven, supplemented by earned media coverage in Dieline, GDUSA, Pentawards, Packaging of the World, and other trade publications, and an active Instagram presence under #ROOKNYC.

Name

ROOK

Legal name

ROOK, Inc

Website

https://rooknyc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

ROOK is an independent Brooklyn-based creative agency founded in 2012 that provides branding, packaging design, and creative production services to startup and mid-market CPG brands across beauty, beverage, food, lifestyle, and wellness, and operates R/Co Ventures, an affiliated investment arm deploying capital alongside creative services into early-stage CPG companies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Creative Agency Services: ROOK generates revenue through providing branding, packaging design, creative direction, and production services to CPG brands. Services include brand strategy, brand identity, brand naming, packaging design, copywriting, photography, art direction, digital design, and video content. Pricing is likely project-based and quote-driven.
2. Investment Returns (R/Co Ventures): R/Co Ventures generates returns through equity investments in CPG portfolio companies that require brand and capital partnership. They invest both time and capital into brands with synergistic missions, conducting due diligence while providing creative services.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

ROOK is an independent creative agency that delivers branding, packaging design, and creative production services to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands across Beauty, Beverage, Food, Lifestyle, and Wellness categories. Offerings span brand strategy, naming, identity, packaging design, copywriting, photography, art direction, illustration, digital design, and video content. ROOK also operates R/Co Ventures, an investment arm that deploys capital alongside its creative work in select early-stage CPG brands.

Product overview

ROOK is an independent full-service creative agency based in Brooklyn, New York, providing branding, packaging design, and creative production services. The company offers a comprehensive suite of creative offerings including brand strategy, brand identity, brand naming, packaging design, copywriting, creative direction, art direction, illustration, photography, content creation, digital design, environment design, and structural design. ROOK operates across five portfolio categories: Beauty (brands like IOTA, SHEAMOISTURE, LIVE CLEAN, Nubian Heritage), Beverage (brands like Culture POP Soda, Shrubbly, Think Coffee, Q MIXERS), Food (brands like 88 ACRES, BEARITOS, LOVE CORN, Sankofa), Lifestyle (brands like WKND NATION, CASPER), and Wellness (brands like SISU, HEALTHY SKOOP, InOn Health). The company also maintains an investment arm called R/Co Ventures that provides capital and brand partnership to early-stage CPG companies. Services are delivered through collaborative client partnerships rather than a software product platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• R/Co Ventures: An independent investment group that invests both time and capital into brands and organizations with synergistic missions, causes and goals. R/Co Ventures conducts due diligence reviews while providing creative services for brands and makes focused investments in CPG portfolio companies that require brand and capital partnership.

Products and services

• Brand Strategy & Identity Strategy-led brand development engagements for CPG brands, covering brand strategy, brand identity, brand naming, tone of voice, and messaging hierarchy. Sold as a creative service engagement to founder-led and growth-stage consumer brands across Beauty, Beverage, Food, Lifestyle, and Wellness.
• Packaging Design Primary packaging design, structural packaging design, and packaging system development for CPG brands across beauty, beverage, food, wellness, and lifestyle categories. Sold as a project-based creative service to brands seeking shelf differentiation and brand portfolio consistency.
• Creative Production End-to-end creative production services including copywriting, photography, art direction, illustration, video content, digital design, environment design, and structural design. Delivered as a bundled creative production engagement under direct client partnerships.
• R/Co Ventures (Brand + Capital Partnership) Investment and brand partnership vehicle that deploys both capital and creative services into early-stage CPG portfolio companies with synergistic missions. R/Co Ventures conducts due diligence while delivering creative services to portfolio brands such as Culture Pop, Love Corn, Avuá Cachaça, Sheamoisture, Superphone, and Liqs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Culture Pop Soda accomplished in 8 months what typically takes companies years, attributed to strength of packaging design
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers22 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• R/Co Ventures Portfolio CompaniescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerR/Co Ventures invests in CPG brands including Culture Pop, Love Corn, Avuá Cachaça, Sheamoisture, Superphone, and Liqs. ROOK provides creative services while conducting due diligence on investment opportunities, creating synergistic partnerships.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Robot Food: Independent branding and packaging design agency based in the UK, focused on food and beverage CPG brands. Comparable in size, service mix, and CPG specialization, with growing portfolio in the same categories ROOK serves.

Broad incumbents

• Lippincott: Established brand strategy and design consultancy serving enterprise CPG, financial services, and tech clients. Comparable in branding and identity work but operates at larger scale with more strategic/consulting-heavy positioning than ROOK's design-led model.
• Landor & Fitch: Global branding and design consultancy owned by WPP, offering brand strategy, identity, packaging, and experience design across consumer industries. Broader incumbent competing for similar CPG branding work but with deeper resources, global network, and consulting-led positioning.

Direct peers

• Bulletproof: Independent brand design agency specializing in packaging and identity for CPG, food, and beverage brands. Comparable boutique scale, services, and category focus; direct competitor for many of ROOK's beverage and food packaging engagements.
• Mother Design: Independent creative agency within the Mother network, offering brand identity, packaging, and creative production for CPG and consumer brands. Closely comparable independent creative shop model and client overlap in food, beverage, and lifestyle categories.
• Pentagram: Independent multidisciplinary design agency offering branding, packaging, and identity services to CPG and consumer brands. Closely comparable in business model (independent, partner-led creative shop) and target market (growth-stage and mid-market CPG), though Pentagram operates at significantly larger scale and broader category reach.
• Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR): Independent brand design and packaging agency serving major CPG clients across food, beverage, beauty, and personal care. Comparable to ROOK in offering, client type, and focus on packaging as a brand-building lever, though JKR operates at larger scale with global offices.
• Design Bridge: Global brand design agency specializing in brand identity, packaging, and motion design for CPG and consumer brands. Closely comparable in service mix and CPG focus; competes for similar beverage, food, and beauty clients, with greater geographic reach.
• Pearlfisher: Independent brand design agency specializing in packaging, brand identity, and strategic design for CPG brands in food, beverage, beauty, and lifestyle. Direct competitor for ROOK's packaging and brand identity work with similar CPG client profile and project-based engagement model.
• Stranger & Stranger: Independent creative agency specializing in packaging design, branding, and naming for wine, spirits, and beverage CPG brands. Direct competitor in ROOK's beverage packaging vertical with similar boutique, founder-led operating model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/rooknyc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rooknyc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ROOK