One studio. One senior pair of hands.
Pivotal is a brand identity studio for founders, leaders and makers who refuse to be forgettable. It runs on a simple principle: the person you talk to is the person who does the work, from the first conversation to the final file. No account layer, no junior hand-off, no diluted brief.
One person, yes, but one who's spent 25 years delivering brand and campaign work for globally recognised names, from Adidas to Lloyd's of London. Senior capacity and experience, without the big agency overheads.
You always work directly with me, start to finish. When a project needs more capacity or a specific skillset, I bring in a small, hand-picked network of experienced creatives I know and trust, and I direct every one of them personally. You still get one senior lead and one direct line, with more behind it when it counts. Senior collaborators, never juniors, never an account layer.
Founder
I'm Richard. Across 25+ years I've worked on brand identity, motion, film and creative campaigns, from start-ups to established global brands.
I've been in-house, agency-side, as creative director for a global marketing agency, and freelance. The through-line has never been one discipline, it's been senior creative judgment applied wherever a brand needed it.
Pivotal strips that back to the part that actually matters: senior creative judgment, applied directly. No one relaying briefs, no junior finishing what a senior began. Just the strategy, the craft, and a direct line to the person doing both.
Career in numbers
(25+ years)
The work behind it
Direct studio work includes:
Analogue Automotive / Corsza / E&E Group / JB Corrie Group / LCN Legal / NHS / Paua / Stelia
Alongside the direct work sits the brand and creative work delivered through lead agencies, for globally recognised names including:
Adidas / Berghaus / BMW / Bosch / Clipper Round The World Yacht Race / Curve / JLL / Les Mills / Lloyd's of London / New Balance / North Face / RNLI / Samsung / Shimano / VISA / Vistra
Pivotal hasn't won any awards yet. That's because we haven't entered any. This year, that changes.
As creative director at a global marketing agency, two campaigns I developed were shortlisted for CIM Marketing Excellence Awards: the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race's "Achieve Something Remarkable," which was so well received, they're still using it more than a decade later, and the RNLI's "Don't Forget The Lifeguard" campaign.
We've worked with brands across 19+ sectors.
From construction and professional services to fintech, health, education, sport, retail, hospitality, media, charity, manufacturing, property, travel, energy, automotive, logistics and life sciences.
Enough range that a brand problem is rarely one the studio hasn't seen a version of before.