We are a passionate team of designers and thinkers. We create beautiful, smart and meaningful design for great clients. And we have fun doing it. Read below to find out more.
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Our Team


Alexey Ikonomou
Creative Director


Jenny Hoffman
Creative Director


Keith Kellner
Senior Designer / Director


Jeremy Hoffman
Senior Designer / Director


Andrew Walters
Senior Designer


Michelle Ghiotti
Senior Designer


Brian Ahola
Designer


Sam Buettner
Designer


Noni Devora
Designer


Meredith Garner
Director of Operations
The Founder


David Ashton
David Ashton has been a significant part of the Baltimore design community since 1962. Starting his design career at Barton Gillette, David helped establish the foundation of graphic design in Baltimore and the many area firms to follow.
Watch a short documentary on his design philosophy.→
Design influences everything, and if it is done well you won’t even notice.
— DAVID ASHTON
Strategic Partners
Neil Gaught
Brand Strategist, Neil Gaught & Associates
Neil’s expertise is in identifying, defining and developing positioning strategies for corporations, NGO’s, government institutions and start-up enterprises. He works with CEO’s senior leadership teams across the world to help them understand the dynamics of shared purpose and how a thoroughly researched Single Organizing Idea™ (SOI®) can act as the core catalyst through which competitive advantage, culture change, operational decisions, staff engagement and communications can be aligned, managed and measured.
Kim Carlin
Strategist & Writer
Kim has had 25-plus years’ experience developing strategic, integrated branding and marketing programs for a diverse roster of institutional and corporate clients in the higher education, corporate, creative, health care, and nonprofit sectors. Working with Ashton Design, Kim’s role is to facilitate the visioning process, ensure stakeholder engagement provide vision documents that serve as the touchstone for the design process, and support the process with clear and effective written communications and editorial standards.
Derek A. Friday
Lead Creative, Finndustry
Derek is an Environmental Graphic Designer (EGD) based in Boulder, Colorado and Hamburg, Germany. His work combines bold 2D graphics with 3D forms to create effective way-finding solutions and immersive branded environments for clients worldwide. Derek provides an intimate knowledge of global design trends and innovative approaches to modern design that are functional and accessible in a wide variety of physical applications.
Quinn Collins
Founder, C+W Communications
Quinn Collins and her C+W team bring nearly two decades' property marketing and public relations experience in one of DC and Baltimore’s most client-focused, progressive boutique PR firms. Their visionary approach helps organizations communicate more effectively through the development of strategic communications plans, extensive media relations campaigns, bold marketing materials, and special events. C+W Communications' background in agency, commercial real estate, development, hospitality, associations and professional services brings a well-rounded perspective to their branding and communications work with Ashton Design.
IDENTITY
Logo Design
Identity Development
Naming & Story Development
Messaging and Copywriting
Illustration
Photography
Brand Strategy
Books and Brochures
Annual Reports
Marketing Collateral
Business Collateral
Packaging
Information Graphics
Posters
WEB
Web & Mobile Site Design
Responsive & Mobile Development
UX/UI
Email & Newsletters
Digital Books
Video Editing
Graphic Animation
ENVIRONMENTS
Placemaking
Exhibition Design
Architectural Signage
Wayfinding
Donor Recognition
Supergraphics
ADA and Code Signs
Our Clients
Business Owners
Corporations
Organizations
Non-Profits
Associations
City Governments
Sports Teams
Schools and Institutions
Educators
Developers
Retail Planners
Architects
Our Story
Founded in 1985, Ashton Design is a multidisciplinary design firm with an international reputation for design leadership in the practice of experience design for settings ranging from sports arenas and school campuses to public spaces, residential and retail development.
We work with corporations, business owners, developers, non-profits, sports teams, colleges and secondary schools, retail planners, associations and city governments. We partner with a variety of consultants ranging from strategists, writers, architects and landscape designers to urban planners to help shape the experience of places and spaces in a collaborative spirit.
We apply the same basic principle to each project, big or small: we bring together a team of highly creative minds, listen to the client, pay attention to detail and tell the story through identity development, print and digital communications and physical environments.
The firm’s thirty-year history in Baltimore is marked by a devotion to this city and admiration for its identity, culture and qualities. While our projects take us all over the country and world, we have a soft spot for working in our own hometown.