A bit about us...


How we work

Key principles

In a world where brand is everything, we spend our days thinking about nothing else. How you look, sound, move, feel. What you say, how you say it. Tempo, tone, touch. Some call it an obsession, but to us, it’s just what we do.

From brand identity and web development to motion graphics and beyond, we’ll arm you with everything you need to take on the day with confidence, led by a brand your customers and team are proud to stand behind.

the whole team gathered around at Chaos Karts, smiling with neon lights in the background. All at varying heights.

How we work

01

Direct access to the team

Life’s too short for middlemen. Cut out the Chinese whispers and speak directly to the designer, developer or animator working on your project for faster turnarounds and creative that always hits the mark.

02

Everything on brand, forever

Brand is more than just aesthetics. It’s how you speak, move, sound, feel. Your tempo, tone, touch. Skilled in all, we’ll make sure your brand puts its best foot forward wherever it goes.

03

Outsourced agency, in-house feel

With resources limited and demand for marketing assets through the roof, it’s easy for in-house departments to become overwhelmed. Partnering with us means having instant access to a team that deliver the goods whenever you pick up the phone.

04

Fresh eyes, new possibilities

You can’t read what’s on the label when you’re in the jar. That’s why smart brands turn to us for help. Fresh eyes means fresh perspectives, fresh thinking and results that go above and beyond expectations.


Meet the team

Bio

Alice Milner

Senior Designer

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Bio

Henry Crompton

Motion Designer

LinkedIn
Bio

Oli Furze

Design Director

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Bio

Ana Rudolph

Designer

LinkedIn
Bio

Chris Coppen

Designer

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Bio

Craig Farrall

Digital Director

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Bio

Wayne Peacock

Senior Developer

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Bio

Karen Harwood

Operations Director

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Bio

Amy Gleave

Marketing Manager

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Bio

Dave O’Hearns

Managing Director

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Alice Milner

Senior Designer

Alice is a senior designer here at Dawn. She joined the team in 2022, previously having worked for Pretty Little Thing and The Hut Group. She’s moved up in her role since taking on more responsibility, and also has taken on the role of Chair for the Social Committee (AKA head of fun).

When asked what she liked most about her role here, she said: “Being creative daily and my work being something I genuinely enjoy doing, it’s exciting seeing ideas come to life and being surrounded by creatives that love doing the same. Dawn is also very different to places I have previously worked so I am always learning new things so it is exciting to see what is next!”

Henry Crompton

Motion Designer

This is Henry, one of our designers specialising in motion graphics.

Motion and animation is an important part of branding and web design that many don’t consider. When nearly every brand touchpoint is through a screen of some kind, it makes sense to take advantage of the digital experience, and make it move.

Henry has created animations for Apadmi, Zen Internet, DMFA and more, helping our clients showcase what they do through the power of motion.

Outside of the 9-5, Henry is currently training for a half marathon, is a local legend on Strava in 3 different places, and has a puppy called Sandy (pictured in the Horizon day photos!)

Oli Furze

Design Director

Oli, our Design Director, leads the design team. He has been at Dawn since… well, the Dawn, really. Specialising in branding and web design projects, Oli makes sure your brand not only stands out, but also outshines the competition. With an extremely keen eye for detail and a strategic mindset, he helps brands reflect their position in the marketplace and showcase their unique differentiators in the best light.

When Oli isn’t designing, he’s spending time with Bailey, his Pomeranian. Bailey is a tiny white fluffball, and a Pets at Home model!

Ana Rudolph

Designer

Ana is a designer here at Dawn.
She grew up in Boston, USA, and moved to Manchester in 2021.
Before becoming a designer and studying at the same place as our Design Director, Ana lived in Madrid and taught English. Aside from design, her hobbies are pasta making, travelling, making her own clothes, knitting, and experimenting in the kitchen. Inspired by typography everywhere she goes, Ana believes that there’s a lot of value in stepping away from screens to take a deeper look at the world.

Chris Coppen

Designer

Chris decided that Graphic Design was the career he wanted to take up after designing event posters and album artwork for his friends in the music/events business.

When he’s not designing, he’s watching Derby County football club, listening to his vast record collection, or trying to find a new graphic artefact from various Olympic games over the years.

Craig Farrall

Digital Director

Craig is our digital director, heading up the web team.

Craig specialises in Bespoke WordPress builds – this could be anything from a small brochure website, to an eCommerce website, to a custom plugin development. He crafts pixel perfect websites that are compliant, easily readable for other developers to work on and providing clients the full edit-ability that they require.

His favourite kind of web project to work on is something that contains a very technical bit of functionality such as a calculator or a quoting system. He says “I really enjoy having to problem solve a development issue to try and reach a solution”.

Wayne Peacock

Senior Developer

Wayne has been a web developer at Dawn since 2017, having worked in a variety of sectors across B2B and B2C.

Before Dawn, he led a web team for one of the UK’s largest software providers within the travel industry.

Over the past 25 years, Wayne has been empowered to make a difference, creating successful responsive websites that are fast, easy-to-use, and built with best practice using modern front end development. Whether it’s a custom built website in WordPress or bespoke, the attention to detail is always at the forefront.

Karen Harwood

Operations Director

Karen, the Operations Director at Dawn, is the ultimate multitasker. She’s all about paying invoices on time and keeping projects on track. She’s a force to be reckoned with when it comes to managing the team’s workflow and the overall capacity of the studio.

But, that’s not all – Karen is also the hero behind all our work socials and horizon days. And if you catch her running around the office, it’s probably because she’s training for her next 10k race – she’s another one of our resident runners.

Amy Gleave

Marketing Manager

Amy is our Digital Marketing Manager.

Her day to day includes writing blogs for Dawn, developing and activating our marketing strategy, including planning social media, content, and PR activity.

Amy loves travelling, has lived in Australia for two years, and has worked from Barcelona, Montenegro and Grenoble whilst at Dawn. When she’s not travelling she’s reading – her favourite book so far is Ready Player One.

Dave O’Hearns

Managing Director

Dave is our founder and managing director, and has worked within the creative industry for 28 years.

Starting as a graphic designer following his graduation from Newcastle University, Dave went on to start up his first creative agency in 2006. Following multiple successes with the likes of Bentley Motors, Adidas and Swiis Foster Care, he founded Dawn in 2014.

Aside from running the agency, Dave does a lot of actual running too. After getting his PB in a 10k (39:46) he signed up to do the Inca Trail in Peru which he completed in Feb 2024.


Wake-up. Rise. Shine.

Horizon days

Helping brands shine is demanding work. That’s why our team get Horizon Days, an extra day off each quarter to relax and recharge. We’re an active bunch, so they usually involve something outdoorsy, like mountain climbing, zip-lining or random trips to somewhere cool. Check out what we get up to.

dave in a Team UK blue t-shirt whilst having his lunch, taking a selfie, smiling.
Alice in a yellow scarf with her whippet, Levi, near a lake
craig smiling at the camera in a pink hoodie and a cup of hot drink with his sunglasses on
a bike POV on a bridge
Oli bending down in his garden on the grass in a grey winter coat playing with his tiny cream coloured pomeranian, bailey.
dave in his glasses mid-run in the middle of a filed, smiling at the camera.
karen with sunglasses on and windswept hair leaning on the white altitude marker at the top of a hill
Wayne on his Horizon Day at the allotment, planting things in rows. kneeling down smiling at the camera
craig playing crazy golf with a green helmet on
henry and his puppy, sandy, on a hill during a walk with the nice view of the town in the background
amy holding a snowboard. snowboarding on her horizon day when she was living in grenoble.
amy and her sister at zipworld with helmets and goggles on
alice and her dog, levi
gloomy autumnal image of the dancers at alton towers scarefest

We work with some amazing companies

Caroline Hazard

Marketing Manager Adidas
We really thank you for everything. Everyone loved the content you produced for our global event - it's also being used as a sell-in tool internally so it will be really helpful to the sales team. Our VP of Marketing was really impressed so let’s keep up the great work.

Emma Casson

Head of Product Marketing Apadmi
I just wanted to drop you all a note to say how delighted I am with the showreel!! It's absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for all of your hard work and for pulling it all together so quickly. The pitch also went really well and I'm sure the video will have played a part in that.

Joanna Pawlowicz

Marketing Manager Softbank
Dawn Creative team is a dream to work with! We partnered up on a rebranding project for our [DMFA] website, and could not be happier with the end results. The support we've received was truly exceptional - from the initial branding workshops, development phase, all the way through to the launch. It is great to see how our vision came to life, and how the team managed to take a very simple concept, transforming it into a whole brand identity that aligns with our vision & mission.

Jennifer Bailey

CEO Calla Shoes
The feedback we've had [on the rebrand] has been incredible - the new look and feel together with the launch of our new improved range has dramatically increased revenue this year already!

Sonya Carassik Ratty

Strategy & Partnerships Manager Disabled Living
The Dawn team really took the time to understand the organisation during our rebrand process, and brought imagination and real creativity to it. Communication was clear throughout. We're absolutely delighted with the result.

Neil Richardson

Head of Business Development and Strategy Rick Shiels Media
Dawn Creative surpassed our expectations with their creativity and originality. They took the time to understand our company values, mission, and target audience, and developed a brand identity that truly resonates with our core beliefs. The innovative concepts, thoughtful designs, and attention to detail were evident in every aspect of the brand development process.

And they have some great things to say

We’re a Real Living Wage Employer

We’re all about Outshining Everybody, and it starts with taking care of our amazing team.

We believe in offering better wages because it helps us attract top talent and stand out from our competition. We want our team to feel valued and know that we’re committed to their happiness and growth.

By supporting our team, we build a solid reputation as a fantastic place to work, and it keeps a strong, close-knit team. Clients get better relationships and stronger brands that make everything shine a little brighter.

Supporting Creativity with Create Arts

At Dawn, we believe in the power of creativity to transform lives. Not just through the brands we build, but through the communities we support. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Create Arts, an award-winning charity using creative arts to empower lives across the UK.

Create Arts works with individuals facing challenges such as disability, homelessness, and mental health issues, delivering tailored workshops to inspire confidence, connection, and positive change. Through our collaboration, we’re not only celebrating creativity but helping to make it accessible to those who need it most.

From campaigns like our 10th-anniversary posters (with 50% of profits donated to Create Arts) to our upcoming 10k, we’re committed to making creativity a force for good, together.

red logo saying CREATE then "arts.co.uk" down the side

Submit your portfolio / CV anyway

We might not have anything available at the moment, but you can always submit your portfolio to jobs@dawncreative.co.uk and we’ll keep an eye out.

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