The Design Practice of David McGillivray

I design for startups of all sizes. When you have a groundbreaking business idea, but nothing anyone can look at or click on, that’s where I come in. I do all the heavy lifting; I’ll design you a world-class brand identity, website, or whatever else you need to launch, and turn heads doing so.

I take the unfamiliar threads of a new concept, and weave them into a context which lets them mesh gracefully into the zeitgeist with style, and meaningfully align with minds and emotions.

I’m a Creative Director and Designer based in New York, and have spent the last fourteen years helping to bring brands to life through thoughtful, strategic design that resonates.

To learn more about how I work, click here

I’m a Creative Director and Designer based in New York,
and have spent the last thirteen years helping to bring brands to life through strategic design.

I don’t like too much fluff or clutter; I aim to make things that resonate with people using an executional style which is honest and direct. In a digital context that means working to overcome the default distance, half-life, and impersonal nature of interactions, in order to create things that are able to sit comfortably in their digital skin whilst still being able to connect deeply with their audience. The result is something that often leans minimal in appearance, but is filled with nuance and care in all the right places.

Regardless of what’s being designed, I believe it’s vital to never lose track of the concept. The message and its context, must be woven into the fabric of every artifact of a design. The bezier of the button, how hot the flash is, the weave of the paper stock. What goes where, how often it’s said, and in how many words. Each executed with intention; an unquantifiable amount of decisions layered on top of one another to form the silhouette of a story. All the while shaping a final product that feels so simple it has an air of inevitability about it.