Proposal for design & digital services
Introduction to alex chilton design
Established 15 years, now three full-time designers with overlapping but differing interests and skill sets, plus marketing and accounts. We’re nimble and competitive – we’ll be lightning quick to respond to job requests, and we’re all easily available to speak to directly on the phone.
We have worked with the likes of Tesco, Virgin Atlantic and Homebase, but we’re more than happy working with SMEs, offering branding, print and digital services across a wide range of industries.
Creating engaging brand stories and digital experiences is what we do.
Find out more about the creative team here.
Design brief
DPI Mining wants to inject new energy, playfulness and sophistication into the organisation’s visual style, which will accelerate its reach, showcase its important work, demonstrate its impact, build its reputation and attract new supporters. The objective is to raise the standard of DPI’s visual outputs to be a contemporary, compelling, engaging and exciting brand.
Deliverables
DPI Mining requires branded graphics and visual communications which are applied to various media, such as PDFs, Office documents, websites and printed collateral, which are published on social media platforms or circulated to the company’s client database. They also require image retouching and video editing, as well as animated graphics.
Some of the work requires to be editable, to allow the DPI Marketing Advisor to create consistent, branded content for DPI’s social media platforms. Speed and efficiency is key – projects should be carefully planned and deadlines met.
Samples of work
We’ve listed some recent and relevant examples of our work, and outlined a couple of key case studies (see Process & Timeframes) which demonstrate our skills in these areas.
Extractives Hub wanted a series of animated GIFs and videos for their social media pages (Twitter and LinkedIn).We negotiated an hourly rate which suited their budget, and we suggested that each concept is signed off in stages – to avoid unnecessary and time-consuming changes to the artwork.
Initially, we would go over the concepts on the phone, then drafted some flat artwork and moved onto the animation after the first stages were signed off. After a while, we learned what approached worked best for the client and each stage was becoming quicker and easier to reach.
We always aim for the perfect alignment of vision with each client, and often we have simply been asked to ‘work our magic’ on a concept – a sign that we’ve gotten the client’s trust on delivering the right kind of product.
We currently design a series of infographics for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Each piece is centred around a topic such as energy, data or transport. The projects aren’t very conceptual, because the main purpose is to combine a large number of factoids into one coherent, engaging visual.
CISL wanted the graphics to be interactive (contain links to sources) and printable (A4). We created a briefing template with CISL, so each future project could be laid out in a similar fashion. We received a brief with a lot of data and an indication of hierarchy and a possible storyline. The focal point of the graphic was discussed next, and we were able to explain the concept at that stage verbally – which meant that we could move onto the design stage very promptly.
The design and revisions stages usually take the same amount of time, as the client is often able to piece together a key part of the narrative once seeing all the data on the page. That’s why we’ve usually created placeholders for more complex pieces of data, and laid out the main structure of the graphic first – this saves time, as sometimes factoids are dropped from the final piece. Once the structure is in place, we move onto polishing the graphics and illustrations.
Adam Smith International commissioned a set of printed reports from us, for The World Bank. The graphics and charts were quite straightforward, but time-consuming – as print documents require a certain set of rules to be followed (pagination, legibility, margins, orientation).
The World Bank had existing branding and basic document templates so we didn’t need to spend time creating these. For a project of this size (82 pages), we estimated a day for typesetting, a day for charts and graphs, and a day for revisions.
Extractives Hub commissioned a set of videos to be edited for their LinkedIn site. The work consisted of editing the clip, enhancing the sound, sourcing background music and adding subtitles. The main challenge was to improve the sound of the video, as it was filmed on a mobile phone.
We had previously created an animation of their logo for the company’s social media banners, so we created a video version of it as well – with bespoke sound effects – for the opening and closing of the clips.
If you’d like the process description or a timeframe estimate of another project, we are happy to provide it.
Alex Chilton
Director
On leaving Central St Martins, Alex worked as a graphic designer in publishing for a few years before setting up Alex Chilton Design in 2000. Since then he’s worked with some big brands including Tesco, Virgin Atlantic, Homebase, American Express and The World Bank, but he also loves the challenge of branding a start up and working with passionate entrepreneurs. Outside the studio, if he’s not out riding a bicycle, music and his three small boys take up his time.
What to expect from alex
Whilst Alex is the go to guy for branding and visual identity, he loves getting his hands dirty with typesetting annual reports, or retouching images – and will pore over the finest details before a job gets printed. There are no half measures with attention to detail.
Alex often takes part in clients’ project meetings and has become a vital strategic partner for the numerous start-ups who we look after. He has great communication skills, spots talent and allows it to flourish.
Anne Sorkamo
Senior Designer
Anne joined Alex Chilton Design in 2007, after finishing her degree in Information Design at London College of Communication (UAL). She also acquired diplomas in lithographic, digital and industrial print finishing processes, as well as photography. The company grew quickly, and Anne took over the print design to allow Alex to lead the business to new strengths. She lists infographics and problem solving as her specialties, and the most recent feather to her hat is animation, video editing and sound design (she used to DJ professionally). Perhaps the least exciting, but often very crucial, is Anne’s knowledge in Office software – she is in charge of creating most of our clients’ PowerPoint, Word and Excel-templates.
What to expect from anne
A natural team leader, Anne can manage and art direct a project from start to finish, adding her creative flair and personality to it. She is an expert researcher, and prefers to be included in the project planning from the start, which could mean creating the brief together. After a brief is submitted, Anne will come up with a number of concepts and she’s quick to provide visual mockups of in order to move the project forward.
She’s obsessed with finding typographic or grammatical errors, so you can expect immaculate results from Anne when it comes to copy! She’s also a very keen copywriter, so feel free to ask for help with creating the perfect message for your project.
Anne has one eye on the details and one on the big picture, which means that she’ll come up with suggestions for alternative applications of the designs, to maximise the value of each project.
Laurence Carroll
Digital Designer
After graduating from TAFE SA in Australia, Laurence worked in both small and large design agencies in his hometown of Adelaide. During this time, he refined his skillset to carve out a niche as an expert in digital design and website development.
At Alex Chilton Design, Laurence has also had the opportunity to create printed collateral and infographics, in which he’s excelled and often gets referred to as the team’s most meticulous illustrator. In fact, his dedication to learning new skills in the digital realm has often allowed us to improve our clients’ products and working methods, resulting in faster turnarounds and smoother workflows.
What to expect from laurence
Laurence’s eloquent, thorough approach and personable, patient style has allowed many clients to express their requirements – and sometimes even concerns – in the beginning of a project, and to be immediately put at ease by Laurence’s confident suggestions and estimates based on experience. He is capable of explaining complex digital processes in layman’s terms and has joined many clients in their technical meetings to act as a friendly go-between, a perfect combination of a front- and a back-end designer.
There aren’t many designers who can write code and design beautiful websites, as well as creating bespoke graphics and animations.
Cost estimates
Our standard rates for digital and print design are £90+vat per hour, or £600+vat per day.
Download an estimate with a retainer rate based on 21 hours.