About us
I’m Andrew, and I’ve been working in graphic design since 1988 — back when the tools were markers, pens and paper. After spending much of the 1990s working in design studios, I set up my own practice, AR Design, in 2003.
It was never my ambition to build a large agency. I enjoy doing the work, and I wanted to do it on my own terms — working directly with clients, without layers of management or distance from the design itself. That’s how I worked then, and it’s how I still work today.
Over the years, I’ve lost count of how many people have told me they wish they’d stayed small — that as their businesses grew, their roles shifted away from the work they loved and towards paperwork and process. The advice was always the same: stay close to the craft. I took that advice — and I’m still here, doing exactly that.
While AR Design remains intentionally small, we’re well supported. Tracy handles day-to-day administration, freeing up time for design, and we work with a trusted circle of long-standing collaborators who can step in when specialist skills or extra capacity are needed.
Why have I never heard of you?
We’ve been doing this for over 20 years, but we’ve never felt the need to advertise. Quite simply, we’ve always been busy.
Most of our work comes from existing clients or recommendations, many of whom have been with us for years — some for decades. That direct, personal approach is how we started, how we still work today, and how our clients like it. When you get in touch, you speak directly to a designer — the person actually doing the work — without account handlers, management layers or unnecessary process.
Because of that, we’ve never needed to shout about what we do — until now.
So why start now?
After more than 20 years in business, it felt like the right time to properly document some of the work we’ve done. Otherwise, one day there would be very little record of it ever existing.
From the beginning, we’ve also worked alongside other agencies on a freelance basis — supporting their projects, providing design expertise, and allowing them to take the lead and the credit. That’s how collaboration works, and we’re perfectly comfortable with it. Those projects aren’t shown here.
What has prompted this step is seeing work we were solely responsible for being presented elsewhere as if it belonged to agencies who had no involvement in the design process. While that’s flattering in one sense, a visible online presence doesn’t change reality — and it felt important to put the record straight.
So this site is simply that: an honest record of our work, our clients, and the relationships behind them.