Our Studio Setup

In 2024, we rebranded, and here's why.

For ten years, I worked as a freelance designer under my own name. But as the projects grew, so did the awkward conversations. Clients would hire me as an individual, then I'd find myself explaining that a bigger project needed extra hands, or a skill I don't personally have. I was still hands on. Still knee deep in every job. I just needed help sometimes. But the positioning was confusing, and I could feel it. So two years ago, I launched Playbook Studios.

We could be the smallest agency you'll ever work with.

I run Playbook Studios. Here's how my setup works, and why I built it this way.

I'm Dave. I am the studio.

Playbook Studios is a sports social media design studio. I design social template systems for football clubs, leagues, broadcasters and sports organisations. I'm also the only full-time employee. That's deliberate.

I freelanced for ten years under my own name.

I'd been freelancing since 2014, and the projects kept getting bigger. Some needed extra hands. Some needed skills I don't personally have. Clients were hiring me as an individual, then I'd find myself explaining that other people were helping behind the scenes. My positioning was confusing, and I could feel it. So in 2024, I launched Playbook Studios.

You deal with me, start to finish.

Every client call. Every discovery meeting. Every research deep dive. Every initial creative concept. I handle all of it myself, from our first conversation through to the creative direction you choose. Then, if the build needs extra hands, that's when I bring the wider team in.

Twelve years of collecting brilliant people.

If your project needs illustration, I commission one of the illustrators I've trusted for years. If it needs motion, I write an animator into the job spec. Photography? I've got a guy (or girl!). Designers, artworkers, videographers, brand designers. Every one of them is someone I've delivered real projects with, some for close to a decade.

What you're really paying for.

Twelve years freelancing. Twenty years in the design industry. A Masters in Graphic Design. Work delivered for Man City, Liverpool FC, Saracens, St Helens, TNT Sports, England and Australia Cricket, The Abbott World Marathon Majors, the England men's and women's football teams, UFC and WWE.

And that experience extends to my network. Finding niche creatives who are good, affordable and reliable is genuinely hard. I already know them, which saves you the entire search.

I don't pay salaries. You don't pay overheads.

Specialists only come in when your project genuinely needs them, on an ad-hoc basis. That keeps my running costs low, and the saving gets passed straight to you. Agency capability, freelancer pricing.

Big enough to deliver. Small enough to care.

You hand your work to one person you trust, and I bring the right people with me when the job calls for it.

That's the whole idea.