Studio
We build things. Platforms, tools and experiences. Products that challenge how people connect, express and move through culture. We aren't in the business of creating what already exists. We create things that should.
Identity Excavation
Most people know what they do. Few know how to say what they are. This is the work we're most known for, going beneath the surface of your practice or brand to find the through-line that makes everything coherent. We move fast, ask the uncomfortable questions, and give you language and a creative framework that actually sounds like you.
Cultural Positioning
Where you sit in the industry is one thing. Where you live in the culture is another. We map the subcultures, aesthetics, communities, and movements that orbit your work and show you how to move within them with intention. For artists crossing into new audiences, founders entering crowded markets, or brands trying to stay relevant without chasing trends, this is the work that keeps you grounded and sharp.
Campaign & Content
Strategy
We come in at the concept level, shaping campaign territories, messaging, and creative briefs that are culturally legible and strategically sound. Whether you're a brand building an in-house campaign or an agency that needs a sharper outside perspective, we deliver strategy that a creative team can actually run with. Execution is available depending on scope.
Creative Development
For artists and founders building from scratch, we offer longer-term, hands-on creative partnership. That means visual identity, editorial direction, how you talk about your work publicly, and everything in between. We pull in the right collaborators, designers, photographers, writers and lead the process from brief to final output. You stay in control. We keep it coherent.
For artists and founders building from scratch, we offer longer-term, hands-on creative partnership. That means visual identity, editorial direction, how you talk about your work publicly, and everything in between. We pull in the right collaborators, designers, photographers, writers and lead the process from brief to final output. You stay in control. We keep it coherent.
who
Meet the founder
Strategist & Creative
Pilar Amadea Galván
I was raised on the belief that putting yourself in unfamiliar rooms changes you for the better. I am a New York City born, East Coast bred, creative producer and strategist who has spent her career at the intersections of culture. My multidisciplinary background as an artist, musician, journalist and cultural analyst shapes my unique ability to tap into kismet, to spark connections between people and across spaces.
I've shaped strategy for Google Search campaigns, managed and produced marketing campaigns, for independent artists at Sony Music, reported for NPR on its Culture and Music desks, and worked in digital media at several art institutions including MoMA PS1 in Queens, NY and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.
Across my experiences I noticed a gap: brilliant artists, founders, big thinkers who struggled to find the language or the space to make people feel what they felt.
That's why I built Mantra Ray.
Pilar received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees in Art (with distinction) and in Anthropology from Yale University.