There’s a lot of information here, but hopefully it’ll help to give you a clearer picture of how I work, and whether I’m a good match for your next design project.

Hello, I’m David McGillivray, an independent Designer based in New York City. I’ve spent the last 9 years helping to bring brands to life through design.
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I have a traditional design education, with a B.A. in Design from Brighton University, England. After spending several years designing at small boutique design firms in England, I moved to New York, and led design in-house at a variety of startups.

I now work as an independent designer, helping to launch new companies, and re launch not-so-new ones.

I’m a generalist by design — well versed in taking a founding team's vision and helping turn that into a living breathing entity, from identity through to digital and physical experiences.

My real value comes from years of hands-on experience at a Creative Director level, both leading design in-house, and working independently with startups; uniquely positioning me to provide the kind of holistic design solutions that are typically expected to require a larger design firm.

I work with all types of companies, but I particularly enjoy working with those looking to pioneer an unconventional approach in an otherwise stale vertical.

I work directly with my clients, who normally hire me to do:
→ Brand Identity Design
→ Digital Product / Web Design

I love working on larger, well defined projects that run for somewhere between 2—5 weeks. These projects are often creating a new visual identity or website from scratch, or a ground-up re-design if what already exists isn't working.

It’s with these kinds of larger undertakings I can really sink my teeth in and provide the most value, so I don’t tend to take on smaller incremental, or optimization work.

I regularly call upon my network of specialists in order to connect my clients with a range of services outside of design. I work with some of the most talented developers, photographers, and copywriters in the business, all with previous experience working in world class startups.

I believe that having a good working relationship with my clients is vital to producing good work product. But more importantly, I like to make sure I enjoy the projects I work on, and that the collaboration process runs smoothly for everyone involved.

You can hear what my past clients have said about collaborating with me here.

People who need an experienced, hands-on, director level designer to execute on all aspects of a project.

Perhaps they have the business model nailed down, but need someone to craft the visual language around it, and turn it into a polished brand experience.

It’s also normally people that are willing to invest their budget in good design, but perhaps not the overheads and baggage that often comes with a traditional agency.

My approach is pretty fast paced, practical, and relatively organic – I try not to get caught up in unnecessary process.

I won’t waste your time or mine showing you a folder full of different arbitrary design directions for the sake of it – you don’t need to see the blooper reel.  Instead I’ll move thoughtfully, and efficiently in the most appropriate direction, and iterate on it until we both agree it looks and feels right, and will perform as intended.

I work on a flat fee basis for projects, so I'll quote you a single project price instead of an hourly rate.

What I offer won’t be the right fit for everyone's budget, so I like to remove the mystery of pricing as early as possible by providing a ballpark idea of what working with me might cost you.

Consider $8—12K per week as a rough guideline for my rate. As for timing, something like a ‘straightforward’ barebones ecommerce site might take from somewhere in the region of 4 or 5 weeks to design. Again, these are just rough estimates and should only be used for initial budgeting consideration, as every project is different.

If you have a project in mind you think I’d be a good fit for, let’s talk! The best thing to do is shoot an email to hello@dmcg.co and tell me a little bit about you and your project, and we can take it from there.