# About

> The Design Office of David McGillivray is a creative studio working across brand and software, building coherent worlds for people inventing new things.

- Web page: https://dmcg.co/about

![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/g94oo1l2/production/ed02204619650c06db80ece9d2563c1ac4907fa2-340x300.png?w=1600&fit=max&auto=format)

The Design Office of David McGillivray is a creative studio working across brand and software, building coherent worlds for people inventing new things.

With deep experience designing for technology, the practice works with founding teams to shape how their companies look, feel, and work, from identity through to digital experiences.

## Approach

Good design is the sum of countless considered decisions. From the underlying concept to the bezier of a button, the rhythm of an interaction, or the weave of a paper stock. Every detail has a part to play.

The approach is practical and fast-moving, getting ideas into something tangible early, refining them in context, and avoiding unnecessary process along the way.

## Technology

The Design Office uses AI and builds its own tools to accelerate research, exploration, and production. The aim is to remove inefficiencies and create more room for the creative work itself.

Original thinking, creative direction, and judgment remain very much human. The approach combines the experience, instinct, and craft of a traditional design practice with the speed and possibilities of new technology.

[Video](https://cdn.sanity.io/files/g94oo1l2/production/f37650df62bffa17afa533e98d75a4f19de833e4.webm)

## Working Together

The Design Office works across brand, web, and software, with each engagement shaped around what needs to be made. Projects can focus on a single discipline or bring several together, with specialized collaborators joining as needed.

- **Brand**
  Identity and visual systems for new and evolving ventures.
  from $40k

- **Web**
  Digital experiences that bring brand, story and product together. 
  from $30k

- **Software**
  Product design and prototyping with character and brand coherence.
  from $45k

Projects are charged at a flat fee, with a detailed scope and accurate timeframe established upfront. So clients know what they're getting, when they're getting it, and how much they're paying, before anyone moves a pixel.

## About David McGillivray

David McGillivray is a British born designer and creative director based in New York. His interest in designing for emerging technology goes back to his student days at Brighton University. When Apple released the first iPad, just as the publishing industry was figuring out what to do with it, he designed an experimental app for art-book publisher Taschen. The project won a Graphite Pencil from D&AD New Blood in 2011, which caught the attention of a New York technology startup, and ultimately brought him to the city later that year.

After several years leading design in-house at technology startups and fashion brands, David established his independent practice in 2015. Since then, his work has spanned technology, finance, fashion, and publishing, including developing new editorial properties for Condé Nast. An enduring fascination with emerging technology has kept much of his work focused on new tech ventures, often helping give form to ideas and technologies that haven't quite existed before.

Design education has remained a particular passion. His own time at university played a formative role in his career, and he later returned to the classroom as an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design, teaching interaction design. He continues to take an active interest in how design is taught, particularly as new technologies change the tools and possibilities available to the next generation of designers.

Alongside his design practice, David co-founded the loungewear brand *Offhours* in 2018 and co-hosts the design podcast *Works But Makes Noises*. He also opened *Corners in 2023*, a brick-and-mortar art and design store in upstate New York.

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From The Design Office of David McGillivray. Every page: https://dmcg.co/llms.txt