What Straight Forward Design does

Straight Forward Design Limited is a London-based, independent brand design consultancy founded in 2007 by Mike Foster (Founder and Strategic Creative Director) and registered as a private limited company in England and Wales. The firm delivers eight core service lines — Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Packaging Design, Advertising/Marketing & Brand Activation, Brand Worlds, Innovation, Digital Design, and Internal Communications — organised around its proprietary 'Connect in FULL®' methodology, which structures brand-building work into four jobs: Found, Understood, Lived, and Loved.

The client base is exclusively enterprise, spanning corporate, consumer, and challenger brands globally, with recurring engagements from Mars Wrigley (Starburst, Extra Gum, Maltesers, Skittles, FIVE Gum), Hasbro (Play-Doh), Ecotone (Clipper Tea), Constellation Brands (High West Gin), and Tropicana (Kevita), plus social-impact work with Tata Trusts in India. Notable documented outcomes include a 55% value-sales uplift for Clipper Tea and £9.8m of sales recovered for Extra Gum's 'Find Your Other Half' campaign.

The commercial model is project-based professional services: each engagement is priced individually around brief, scope, timing, and level of support required, with multi-year billing cadences on anchor relationships. GTM is direct enterprise field sales via reputation, referrals, and inbound inquiries; the firm supplements this with thought leadership content (News & Views blog), organic social (Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads), and DBA membership. The firm is bootstrapped with no disclosed external funding, no parent or subsidiaries, and operates from a single London studio at The Foundry, 5 Baldwin Terrace, N1 7RU.

Name

Straight Forward Design

Legal name

Straight Forward Design Limited

Website

https://straightforward.design

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

London-based, founder-led brand design consultancy founded in 2007, delivering strategy, identity, packaging, and brand activation services through its proprietary Connect in FULL® methodology to enterprise clients including Mars Wrigley, Hasbro, Ecotone, and Constellation Brands globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Brand Design Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (54181), Graphic Design Services (54143), Graphic Design Services (541430)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Packaging & Brand Identity Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Packaging & Product Brand Design (BPAFAEAG), Environmental & Experiential Brand Design (Retail/Exhibit/Signage) (MPAAAEAG)

Keywords

• Brand design consultancy
• Packaging design services
• Brand strategy consulting
• Visual identity design
• Brand activation campaigns

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Brand Design Consultancy Services: Project-based professional services for brand strategy, identity, packaging, advertising, marketing, brand activation, innovation, digital design, and internal communications. Pricing is shaped around each brief, scope, timing and level of support needed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

London-based brand design consultancy delivering project-based professional services across brand strategy, brand identity, packaging design, advertising and brand activation, brand worlds, innovation, digital design, and internal communications. Engagements are structured around the proprietary Connect in FULL® methodology covering four brand jobs: Found, Understood, Lived, and Loved. Pricing is custom per brief, scope, timing, and level of support.

Product overview

Straight Forward Design is a London-based brand design consultancy offering professional services rather than a software product. The company provides eight core service offerings: Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Packaging Design, Advertising/Marketing & Brand Activation, Brand Worlds, Innovation, Digital Design, and Internal Communications. These services are delivered through their proprietary Connect in FULL® methodology, which guides brands through being Found, Understood, Lived, and Loved. The company works with corporate, consumer, and challenger brands globally, with notable clients including Mars Wrigley (Starburst, Extra, Maltesers, Skittles), Hasbro (Play-Doh), Ecotone (Clipper Tea), Constellation Brands (High West Gin), and others. Their portfolio spans rebranding projects (Starburst rebrand, Play-Doh brand work), packaging design (High West Gin, Kevita, Clipper Tea), brand activation campaigns (Extra Find Your Other Half, Maltesers Mother Lover), and digital design work.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brand Strategy Strategic consultancy helping brands define positioning, proposition, portfolio thinking, brand architecture, messaging, and growth choices. Sold to enterprise, consumer, and challenger brand clients globally.
• Brand Identity Creation of name, look, voice, and assets that make a brand recognisable, including naming, visual identity, tone of voice, brand guidelines, distinctive assets, design systems and brand worlds. Sold to corporate, consumer, and challenger brand clients.
• Packaging Design Packaging design service covering packaging design, range architecture, portfolio architecture, limited editions packaging, seasonal packaging, occasions packaging, and packaging guideline design. Sold to consumer goods clients across food, beverage, confectionery, and personal care.
• Advertising, Marketing & Brand Activation Creation of advertising and marketing campaigns including launch campaigns, shopper marketing, retail activation, promotional ideas, social campaigns, brand experiences, and always-on communications. Sold to enterprise and challenger brand clients globally.
• Brand Worlds Building the broader world a brand lives in through stories, characters, settings, rituals, codes, and behaviours that make a brand feel cohesive across all touchpoints. Sold to corporate and consumer brand clients.
• Innovation Helping brands make their next move through new products, new propositions, new formats, new occasions, portfolio strategy, or new brand platforms. Sold to enterprise and challenger brand clients.
• Digital Design Designing websites, digital brand systems, content, product experiences, campaign pages, and digital assets for brands. Sold to corporate, consumer, and challenger brand clients globally.
• Internal Communications Helping businesses internalise and live their brand through internal launches, brand books, toolkits, training, presentations, culture work, and communications. Sold to enterprise corporate clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• Clipper Tea brand campaign delivered 55% increase in value sales
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Tata TrustscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Indian humanitarian organisation Tata Trusts to create GoMo Dal Crunchies brand for Mars Edge - a nutritious lentil crisp snack aimed at improving health of school-age children in India. The brand needed universal appeal to Indian mums across 22 languages and varying literacy levels.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Wolff Olins: Global brand consultancy with London HQ. Comparable in brand strategy and identity services for major enterprises, but operates at significantly larger scale with offices globally.
• Landor & Fitch: Large global brand consultancy within WPP network. Competes in the same enterprise brand strategy and identity space but with substantially broader geographic and service footprint.
• Interbrand: Global brand consultancy with strong packaging and identity credentials. Comparable in serving multinational consumer brands but operates as a larger networked incumbent with broader service offerings.

Direct peers

• Coley Porter Bell: London-based brand design agency specializing in FMCG and packaging. Closely comparable in delivering brand strategy, pack design, and activation for global consumer brands.
• Bulletproof: Independent brand design agency with strong FMCG and packaging design heritage. Comparable in serving global consumer brands with brand strategy, identity, and packaging services.
• Elmwood: Independent brand design consultancy operating in London and other markets. Closely comparable in packaging design, brand identity, and consumer brand work for enterprise FMCG clients.
• Saffron Brand Consultants: Independent brand consultancy with strong FMCG and corporate brand expertise. Comparable in delivering brand strategy, identity, and packaging work for global enterprise clients.
• Pentagram: London-headquartered independent brand design consultancy with global partners. Directly comparable as a non-networked, partner-led branding and packaging design firm serving major enterprise clients.
• BrandOpus: London-based independent brand consultancy. Comparable in delivering brand strategy, identity, and packaging design for major consumer goods clients like Mars, Unilever, and Diageo.

Emerging players

• Without (Studio): Independent London-based brand and design studio. Comparable in providing brand strategy, identity, and packaging design but typically operating at smaller scale and challenger brand tier.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/straight-forward-design-ltd
• Instagraminstagram.com/straightforwarddesign
• Xx.com/_StraightFWD_
• Facebookfacebook.com/straightforwarddesign

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Straight Forward Design