I’m Gavin Auty.
A strategic design partner to organisations ready to unlock opportunity and realise potential.
Who I am.
Designer & Consultant.
If you’re not yet curious about the possibilities design could bring to your organisation. You should be.
What I do.
Strategic Thinker
Creative Director
Design Leader
01.
Brand.
I shape identities, campaigns, and experiences that connect organisations with their customers, staff, investors, and stakeholders.
02
Design.
I help founders and leaders use design as a toolkit—to create, pivot, challenge, accelerate, and drive progress.
Manifesto.
Think design.
Businesses have a tendency to think of design as a cost — something to be justified or minimised. Employing it only as a finishing touch.
But what if design was the starting point?
Businesses that think like designers don’t just solve problems; they reframe them. They ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and discover the unexpected.
I see design as a strategic investment that makes thinking more rigorous, decisions more intentional, and execution more effective.
Design is not just style, it’s decision making system that adds value, builds trust and unlocks potential. Because when you think like design, you don’t just make things look better—you make them work better.
Let’s talk design.
I see design as a toolkit that can be applied to pretty much anything so don’t be shy to talk to me about something interesting. I’m also curious to hear from other professionals who work with design, even if it’s not labelled as such.
Design is a journey.
The past 20 years have been a journey of learning, experimenting, and refining. I’ve come to know a thing or two about design and how to make it work for all kinds of businesses, across dozens of industries.
I love using design to solve problems and help others and hope to be able to continue learning, improving, creating and collaborating with more amazing people and teams for many more years to come.
Gavin’s real talent lies not in knowing all the answers… But in knowing which questions to ask.
— Sarah Murphy, Mental Health UK
Skills & experience.
Google are not a client.
I’ve spent over 20 years working with brands and businesses of all shapes and sizes, helping them connect the dots the gap between design and business.
Did I once design a flyer for Google? Maybe. But I don’t care much about big brands, they’ve already made it. I thrive working with modest but ambitious small and medium-sized businesses looking to punch above their weight.
I’ve won zero awards.
Big ‘design’ agencies love to tell you how many awards they’ve won. But it all feels a bit superficial to me and often focusses only on the shine and glamour of the final creative or visual execution.
I’ve seen what happens when leaders stop treating design as window dressing and start using it to solve real problems.I help bridge the gap between design and business—translating ideas, simplifying complexity, and ensuring that good ideas don’t get watered down by the committee.
I’ve never done a TED talk
I’ve never been a great public speaker but I’m ok with that. I’m more of an observer than a confident talker. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion, nor am I afraid to share it. I’m not here to nod politely and go along with the status quo. I challenge assumptions, ask uncomfortable questions and I’ll happily call out BS if I need to.
Whilst I’m not a great public speaker, I do enjoy talking with leaders and teams to support, guide and enable them to find the perspective and focus needed to find the right answers and make the right decisions. Even if that means giving you a gentle shove if that’s what’s needed.
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It’s important my work looks good, but more important it works hard and thinks smart. I always try to carry these principles with me to guide me through complexity of any project.
Clear thinking.
Straight talking.
I don’t do fluff, and I steer clear of jargon. Complexity slows progress. The best way forward? Cut through the noise, stay aligned, and keep things moving.
Move fast.
Think slow.
Momentum matters. Acting quickly propels us forward, but real progress happens when we pause to think. The best decisions come from balancing urgency with reflection
See the whole.
Sweat the detail.
See the big picture, but don’t ignore the details. Vision without precision is just wishful thinking—great work happens when bold ideas meet meticulous execution.
Dream Big.
Act Small.
Dream bigger than you think is possible—but stay grounded. Ambition opens doors, but hard work and humility keep them open. The best ideas mean nothing if you don’t put in the work.
Make mess.
Then magic.
Creativity doesn’t follow a straight line. It thrives in uncertainty. Embrace the ambiguity and trust the process remarkable is never easy.
Deep roots.
Wide reach.
It’s tempting to rush and skim through. But the deeper we dig, the more we uncover. With effort comes clarity because the answers are often buried deep beneath the surface.
