Working exclusively in the cultural and heritage sector, we distil complex messages into simple, inspired, intelligent communication that demands attention.
You can call it consulting, branding, design, marketing or advertising. We don’t care what it’s called as long as you’re delighted with the results.
We are an agency obsessed with design and culture; that’s how we fill our days and nights. We have a monthly cultural outing that we call Cog Nights.
We firmly believe in the power of culture to transform lives. We work pro-bono to lobby for greater public funding and recognition in education.
We’re expanding our team to work on ever more exciting projects, across digital, branding, campaign and editorial design.
If you have a love of the arts and want to work with some of the UK’s most exciting and important cultural and heritage companies, come and join us.
We have specific roles to fill: Technical project manager, Experienced designer (with a focus on websites), and Marketing assistant).
We’re always open to suggestions and interested to hear from brilliant people, especially website developers with a love of WordPress or Craft CMS. If you really want to work here, drop us a line.
Cog Design has a core, full-time team, based in our studio in Greenwich, plus a distributed network across Europe. We operate a flat and flexible creative structure; everyone is involved in the creative output of every project.
A designer by training, Michael founded Cog Design in 1991 and has managed the development of the company ever since.
He takes the lead on large-scale branding or complex communications projects and provides a creative overview of all of the studio’s output.
Beyond the studio, Michael is Executive Chair at the National Campaign for the Arts, a Fellow of the RSA, an occasional lecturer in branding and design and a regular contributor to design journals.
Michael’s been back to his favourite annual music festival. He’s written about the many bands he… more
We’re expanding our team to work on ever more exciting projects, across digital, branding, campaign and… more
For our March Cog night we went to Trinity Laban’s stunning building in Deptford, to see… more
Jack is our Head of Digital.
With a wealth of client and agency experience, Jack joined us in 2017 to head up our digital team.
Most recently he was Website and Digital Manager at Heritage Lottery Fund and before that he spent more than three years as Digital Manager
at Shakespeare’s Globe.
With a degree in fine art, Jack combines an aesthetic sensibility with in-depth technical knowledge and a passion for delivering the best of both.
Jack’s highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2019 conference, titled ‘Rewire: culture, audiences &… more
For our February Cog Night, we ventured into Peckham to see members of the Orchestra of… more
Jack’s highlights and top-tips from the Arts Marketing Association’s 2018 conference, titled ‘The Power of Play’,… more
Anna is our design lead
Anna joined us in 2015. She leads our design team and oversees the day-to-day creative output of the studio.
She manages many of our larger and higher profile projects, working across branding, digital, campaigns and editorial design.
As well as client work, Anna oversees our monthly cultural calendar, commissioning a bespoke illustration and curating the content.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a landmark for South London. Lots of the team had… more
For May’s Cog Night we took a short walk to Up The Creek for a stand-up… more
When stars of successful TV shows come back after 10 years it’s hard not to be… more
A music graduate who conducts an orchestra in his spare time, Alex knows how to get the best out of people.
As one of our digital project managers he is detail driven and amazes us with his ability to juggle tasks and keep all the balls in the air.
For August’s Cog Night we went to the Hayward Gallery where more than 100 of Lee… more
Emily is our Studio Manager. If you call or call in then it’s Emily you’ll speak to first; she’s also does our bookkeeping and maintains our impeccable admin systems.
A design graduate from Ravensbourne she provides and maintains the perfect studio environment for our creative team to thrive.
For our July’s Cog night we headed off to see the dress rehearsal of L’arlesiana at… more
To help us celebrate our 28th we’ve thrown a party at Rich Mix for our clients,… more
For our April Cog night we headed to Lyric Hammersmith to see the highly anticipated return… more
Em is a versatile all-rounder. With an MA in graphic design and many years working in client management, she brings a particularly well-informed perspective to our projects.
As a senior project manager in our team she is an ever-cheerful facilitator, putting plans in place and getting stuff done.
November’s Cog Night saw us pump up the jam at Clapham Grand. A night of house… more
Jen’s background is in theatre marketing, having worked at some of the UK’s busiest venues, including Brighton Dome, Soho Theatre, and Underbelly Festival. She manages our large-scale digital projects, keeping all the moving parts of projects on track.
We take a day out, each year, to talk about past successes, lessons to be learned… more
Hailing from South Australia, Claire has extensive experience working across branding, print and digital design, with a strong interest in the arts and culture sector. Her dog, Scout, is an occasional studio visitor (and constant delight).
For our August Cog night we visited Underbelly at Southbank, to see Bowjangles (a string quartet)… more
For our May Cog night we ventured around the corner to Deptford Lounge to see the… more
Lucy graduated in museum studies and spent a few years working in the museum sector, gaining experience in digital collections and youth engagement. She supports our existing clients and liaises with our developers to pin down every detail and deliver digital projects.
It’s not every night you get to sip a cocktail made by a robot. But that… more
Emi’s talents extend across all areas of web development. He handles much of our complex database integration work and he has developed many of our tools for integrating CRM platforms, ticketing systems and collection management software.
In addition to our London base, we also have an international reach. We have a network of developers and designers across Europe. And, we have a pool of trusted Associates with specialist skills in the UK that we know we can trust, including developers, photographers, copywriters, illustrators and many more.
Working from Romania, Razvan is an extremely experienced web developer, working across many digital platforms and content management systems.
His vast number of websites includes our work for Turner Contemporary, University of Essex, Live Art Development Agency and Creative United.
He also manages much of our eflyer, desktop applications and digital publishing work.