Studio
Holloway began in 2016 when two of us left larger agencies with the same complaint: the thinking had become a deck that preceded the real work rather than the thing the work was for.
We would rather lose the pitch than win it with work we cannot defend.
Every studio says it does strategy. Most mean they ran a workshop with sticky notes and then designed what they were always going to design. We mean something narrower and less comfortable: we will tell you when your positioning does not survive contact with your competitors, even when you have already paid us.
It costs us work. Two or three times a year a project ends at the end of the first phase because the honest answer was that the company had a product problem rather than a brand one. We would rather that than spend four months making a beautiful case for something untrue.
The upside is that the work we do finish tends to hold. Clients stay an average of four years, which for a studio of this size is the only metric we actually watch.
Who you actually work with
No account layer
Elena Marsh
Founder, Strategy
Ran planning at two London agencies and left both for the same reason. Writes the positioning on every project and argues with clients so the rest of the studio does not have to.
Daniel Okafor
Founder, Design
Type-led, print-trained, sceptical of anything that only works at one size. Draws the marks and sets the systems that keep them honest.
Rae Whitfield
Design Director
Joined from a product team, which shows in how she thinks about handover. Runs the digital work and the build relationships.
Frances Beck
Editorial Director
Photographer before she was an art director. Runs campaign and print work, and takes most of the pictures you see on this site.
2016
Founded
9
People
8
Projects a year
4 yrs
Average client tenure