Available for new projects
Designer of the Year 2025Quayside Design Awards
Digital Designer
146 Projects shipped
Trusted by founders
at 40+ small companies
- Seedlark
- Kelden Press
- ondel_audio
- Mirefield
- saltmere
- Thalla
- Pellam Labs
- Fennel & Grey
Four ways to work together. Each one clearly scoped.
Fixed price, a written brief and a review every Friday. You always know what happens next week.
Compare all servicesI love working with founders and small teams. Bring the half-formed idea.
I help independent teams ship work that feels considered, from the first sketch to the final pixel.
Inside the studio
Years designing for independent teams
Projects shipped since 2014
Of new work arrives through referrals
Selected work, shipped and in daily use.
All six projectsWhat clients say after launch.
Questions founders ask first.
All questionsHave a date that matters? Let’s plan backwards from it.
Booking projects that start from 9 November. Replies within one working day.
Send a briefIndependent by design.
I’m Rowan, a digital designer working directly with founders and small teams. The person on the kickoff call is the person who ships the files.
Story
I started in print, setting type for a small press in Harbourgate. That taught me to test an identity at its smallest and least forgiving size before building the bigger system.
Five years leading product design at Pellam Labs taught me the other half: how a design system survives contact with engineers, deadlines and a growing team.
Since 2024 I have run an independent practice across identity, web and product. I take on six to eight projects a year, so each one gets my full attention from brief to handover.
Outside the studio I mentor at the Harbourgate School of Art, write a monthly note on interface details and grow far too many tomatoes.
Three rules I don’t bend.
Clarity before cleverness
If a visitor has to decode it, it is decoration. The message comes first and the flourish second.
Systems, not one-offs
Every file I hand over is built so your team can reuse it without me in the room.
Honest timelines
Scope, dates and changes are agreed in writing, and I flag a risk the week I see it.
Pencil first, pixels second.
Every project starts on paper. Thirty quick sketches are cheaper than three polished mistakes, and they keep the first review about ideas rather than colours.
From there the work moves into real contexts quickly: a bag, a phone screen, a slide in your next investor update. If it does not hold up there, it does not ship.
- Designer of the Year, Quayside Design Awards2025
- Shortlist, Harbour Type Prize2023
- Best Small Identity, Coastline Print Awards2021
Where the years went.
Independent designer Rowan Ashby Studio, Harbourgate
Identity, web and product design for founders and small teams.
Lead product designer Pellam Labs
Built the product design system and grew the design team from two to seven.
Senior designer Fennel & Grey
Identity and campaign work for food, travel and hospitality clients.
Junior designer Copperplate Print
Typesetting, pre-press and my first identity projects.
What I reach for.
- Identity systems
- Typesetting
- Interface design
- Prototyping
- Design tokens
- Motion studies
- Front-end handoff
- Print pre-press
- User interviews
- Accessibility audits
- Art direction
- Workshop facilitation
Four services. Fixed scope.
Every engagement has a written brief, a fixed price and a review every Friday. Pick the one that matches the problem, or send a brief and I will recommend one.
How every project runs.
Discover
A kickoff call, a short audit of what exists and a written brief with an agreed definition of done.
Design
Weekly reviews on Fridays. Decisions and open questions live in one shared document.
Deliver
Source files, guidelines and a recorded walkthrough, plus thirty days of follow-up support.
Which one fits?
Read the FAQNot sure which one? Describe the problem instead.
I will reply with a recommended scope, a price and a start date.
Send a briefSelected work. 2023 to 2026.
Six projects across identity, web, product and print. Each one is still in use by the team that commissioned it.
No projects match that search.
Try a client name such as Seedlark, or a discipline such as print.
Your project could be number seven.
Share the idea and a date. I will reply with a short plan.
Send a briefIn their own words.
Six clients, six launches. Every quote links to the case study it came from, so you can judge the work and the words together.
Before we begin.
Straight answers on timing, money, files and process. If yours is not here, ask it in a brief.
No answers for that yet.
Try a broader word such as price, files or timeline, or ask the question directly.
Send a brief.
Tell me what you are building and when it needs to exist. I reply within one working day, usually with two or three questions.
Brief received.
Thanks for the detail. Here is what happens next.
- I read it today and reply within one working day, usually with two or three questions.
- We book a 30-minute call to talk through scope, timing and budget.
- You receive a fixed-price proposal within two days of the call.
Privacy, briefly.
Last updated 14 September 2026. This site collects as little as it can, and nothing is sold or shared for advertising.
What is collected
When you send a brief, the form stores your name, email address, company, the services you picked, your budget range and your message. The newsletter form stores your email address only.
The site does not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking. Anonymous page counts are recorded without cookies to see which projects people read.
How it is used
- To reply to your brief and prepare a proposal.
- To send the monthly studio note, if you subscribed.
- To keep a simple record of past enquiries for accounting.
How long it is kept
Briefs that do not become projects are deleted after twelve months. Project correspondence is kept for six years to meet tax requirements.
Your choices
You can ask for a copy of your data, a correction or deletion at any time by emailing hello@rowanashby.example. Every newsletter includes a one-click unsubscribe link.
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