Design Studios, Agencies & Brands with Shillington Graduates At Their Core Part 2.

Our graduates don't just land design jobs. They land them at the studios everyone else wants to work at.

From Made Thought, Koto and AKQA to independent favourites like Dinosaur, Fiasco and ILOVEDUST, our Shillumni (that's Shillington alumni) are at the heart of some of the most exciting creative teams around. And it's not just agencies. You'll also find them shaping brands from the inside at places like Brixton Brewery and Smiley Company.

They're spread across Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Amsterdam and London, working on everything from packaging and identities to campaigns that stop you mid-scroll. What they share is where they started.

Here are 15 studios and brands where Shillington graduates are making their mark.

AKQA

AKQA is a global design and innovation agency that's been at the forefront of digital creativity since it was founded in London in 1994. It's grown from its roots in technology and digital projects into a full design and innovation powerhouse, now working across product and spatial design too. Blending strategy, creativity and technology, AKQA partners with some of the world's biggest names, including Nike, Netflix, Google and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Graduate: Kim Feldmen
Full-time January 2025

Bolter Design

Bolter is a boutique creative agency based in London, known for bold, elegant branding and the refined storytelling behind it. Describing its work as branding, architecture and everything in between, the studio creates award-winning brand worlds that feel both considered and emotionally resonant. It's kept its small-studio spirit as it's grown, with one of its founders still leading on every project, and it recently picked up Gold and Silver at the Indigo Design Awards 2025.

Graduate: Emily Stewart
Full-time January 2021

Brixton Brewery

Brixton Brewery has been brewing in a railway arch on Brixton Station Road since 2013, when two local couples turned a shared idea into a neighbourhood institution. The founders still run it today, and everything the brewery makes is inspired by the energy and openness of its south London home. Design is at the heart of the brand, with every beer telling the story of Brixton through its name, flavour and vibrant can artwork, from a pale ale celebrating the Art Deco arches of Reliance Arcade to a sour named after the area's famous Nuclear Dawn mural.

Graduate: Emily Sanders
Full-time January 2025

Graduate: Laura Badley
Full-time September 2021

Dinosaur

Dinosaur is an independent, award-winning brand and creative agency based on Princess Street in Manchester. The team uses provocative thinking and insight-led strategy to create communications that genuinely connect people with brands, and their belief is simple: only standout ideas move the needle. Whether joyous, daring, charming or heartbreaking, their work is built to be impossible to ignore, which is why some of the nation's favourite brands trust them, including The Co-operative Bank, Crown Paints, Silentnight, Merseyrail and the NHS.

Graduate: Jessica Mosoph
Part-time September 2019

Emperor

Emperor is an employee-owned strategic and creative communications consultancy with more than 30 years of experience behind it. Their motto, Thinkers. Creators. Doers., sums up their approach: blending strategy and creativity into an integrated service that gets results. With over 330 people across six creative hubs, including Edinburgh, London, Manchester and Dubai, the team works across brand, digital, campaigns, moving image and reporting for clients such as IHG, Lloyds Banking Group and SmartestEnergy. Being employee-owned gives Emperor a distinctive culture, one the team proudly embraces and celebrates.

Graduate: Thomas Hinds
Part-time May 2024

Fiasco

Fiasco is a brand and digital agency that blends strategy with creative craft to help businesses move forward with feeling. Their belief is that brands thrive when they forge deeper connections with their audience, and that what the work makes possible matters even more than the work itself. From a feelings-first approach, the team turns bold ideas into standout brands for clients such as Microsoft, Miro, Just Eat, GoCardless and the National Trust.

Graduate: Julia Darze
Full-time April 2016

ILOVEDUST

ILOVEDUST is a multidisciplinary design studio founded in 2003 by Mark Graham and Ben Beach. Rooted in skate culture and describing themselves as a diverse crüe of thinkers, makers and creators, the team strikes what they call the perfect balance of seduction vs function. From that small south coast beginning, they've grown to partner with some of the biggest brands on the planet, including Nike, Jordan, Apple, Riot Games, Red Bull and Coca-Cola, working across branding, illustration, 3D and motion.

Graduate: Christian Schubert
Full-time September 2016

Koto

Koto is an international creative agency that makes ambitious ideas for ambitious brands. Founded in 2015, it's grown into five offices and one studio, spanning London, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin and Sydney, all united by optimism, collaboration and craft. Koto's work is seen by billions of people every day, from evolving Instagram's wordmark alongside its in-house design team to an 18-month global transformation of Amazon's brand across more than 50 sub-brands. Other headline clients include Microsoft, Google's Fitbit and Tripadvisor.

Graduate: Jasmine O'Dell
Part-time September 2016

Made Thought

Made Thought is a global creative office based in London and New York, driven by an obsession with intelligent creativity. Their mission is to build brands that challenge convention and change the conversation, and their portfolio shows just how far that reaches. Working across beauty, fashion, hospitality, culture, taste and innovation, the studio has created work for some of the most admired names around, including Chanel, Adidas, MoMA, Charlotte Tilbury, Mandarin Oriental, Nothing and Tom Dixon.

Graduate: Georgia Lewis
Part-time September 2015

The Mix Global

The Mix Global is a culture-first insight and strategy agency that's been helping the world's leading brands unlock fresh growth since 2012. Blending qualitative and quantitative research with cultural intelligence, strategy and creative. Their work has helped ASICS understand 12,000 runners across the globe, contributing to a 143% sales increase in EMEA, and supported Nomad Foods in launching its first plant-based range, Green Cuisine, across four European markets. With offices in London and New York, and a four-day working week, The Mix proves that great creative thinking goes hand in hand with a healthy culture.

Graduate: Fabian Hackmett
Full-time September 2025

Otherway

Otherway is an award-winning design and communications studio with offices in London and New York, built on a simple belief: design to make a difference. Partnering with iconic brands and ambitious start-ups alike, the team creates cultural moments across strategy, design and advertising, from a bold new identity for Boardmasters festival to a warmer, more human rebrand for US homeownership company Rocket. Other standout projects include work for Strongbow, Lucky Saint and Cowshed, as well as Fortnum & Mason's Bars of Chocolate, which scooped three Golds at the 2026 Creative Circle Awards. It's a great place to work too, with The Sunday Times naming Otherway one of its Best Places to Work 2026.

Graduate: Eleanor Ohlsen
Part-time September 2024

Stranger & Stranger

Stranger & Stranger is a brand and packaging design agency that specialises in wines, spirits and beers. Living by its motto, Don't Fit In. Stand Out.™, the agency has studios in London, New York and San Francisco. Its work spans Belvedere Vodka, Bushmills, Don Papa Rum, Duvel, Italicus and 19 Crimes, as well as Chicas Divertidas, the tequila brand from Megan Thee Stallion. Every project is crafted with an obsessive eye for detail, turning a bottle on a shelf into something you want to pick up, keep and show off.

Graduate: Will Walker
Full-time September 2015

Studio Certain

Studio Certain is a London-based branding and creative agency creating brands, campaigns and everything beyond and in-between. Their portfolio covers everything from TV and entertainment to finance and food, with standout work for Sky, Fremantle, Universal Music, Funding Circle, PizzaExpress and The Queen's Green Canopy. Clients regularly praise their rare ability to deliver both strategy and creative to a high standard.

Graduate: Dan Gurney
Part-time September 2019

Graduate: Ellen Teale
Full-time January 2017

Wonderhood

Wonderhood Studios is an independent creative and advertising company based in London. Founded in 2018 by former Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham, it was set up to break down the walls between advertising and television, combining skills that had always worked separately. Today its teams work across advertising, brand strategy, design, social, branded entertainment and TV production, creating campaigns for brands such as Nike, Three and Starling Bank and making programmes for channels including BBC One, Channel 4 and Sky.

Graduates: Igor Prato Luna
Full-time January 2026

For 30 years, Shillington has been shaping the global design landscape, one graduate at a time. What began as a bold new approach to design education has grown into a worldwide creative community of over 12,000 graduates, many of whom are now driving ideas, shaping brands and leading design teams at some of the most influential studios in the industry.

And the most exciting part? We’re just getting started.

As the design world continues to evolve, Shillington remains committed to empowering the next generation of creatives with the skills, confidence and industry-ready portfolio they need to thrive. If you’re feeling inspired by the incredible paths our graduates have carved, now is the perfect moment to begin your own journey.

Explore our Graphic Design Course and discover how Shillington can help you unlock your creative future.