APE is an award winning creative agency founded by Dave Brown in 2008.
We specialise in brand identity, book design, web development, animation, film and photography.
Our clients range from large corporate multi‑nationals, third sector charities through to small independent artists and businesses.
For more information please contact info@apeinc.co.uk
See more of Dave’s photography at davebrown.photo
Dave is wonderful to work with. He looked around at what we do, found the essence of it, distilled it, and used this concentrated elixir to design an amazing book which captures what we do perfectly. We’re pernickety and hard to please. Dave not only pleased us (and more!) but he made it look easy. Plus he’s a top bloke and lovely to be around.
It was a pleasure working with APE. Dave worked with us from the early brand concept phase all the way through to the deployment of our new brand and website, giving us the creative flair, delivery tenacity and flexibility we needed throughout.
Rebranding an international business like Alpha presents some very unique challenges and Dave and his network of associates always rose up to meet them head-on.
We had the great pleasure of working with Ape design on two projects now and we could not be happier. Dave has worked with us on our fourth book, Chasing Smoke, even though he joined at quite a late stage he understood the book and what we wanted it to be Immediately and produced a visual language that is fresh, original without trying too hard and extremely good looking. These beautiful Layouts really help tell the stories we wanted to tell and make the book what it is. The cover of a book is always a balancing act between sales and creative. Dave went through several iterations and managed to produce a cover that everyone got behind with passion, one that is memorable, elegant, eye catching and unique, that can stand out on a bookshelf and on a screen and will no doubt become iconic for years to come Aside from the creative brilliance Dave is a delight to work with: punctual and delivers on time (hugely important for us as chefs), flexible and accommodating, conscious of budget and practicalities and always pleasant. We would not think about working with anyone else on our next project and wholeheartedly recommend his work.
We interviewed several brand and website designers and chose Ape because of their superior attention to detail in design. We have not been disappointed – they have been absolutely brilliant to work with. Thankfully, since we have little experience, they have listened to and understood our specific needs and have had incredible patience in interpreting our wishes. Throughout the process, their communication has been open, friendly and really constructive. They have taken on board all of our design requests and worked promptly to make changes when requested. They have been a joy to work with and we are really pleased with the final result. I/we cannot recommend them highly enough.
Every time I see Ammu on a shelf my heart skips a beat. The cover with its beautiful “kantha” motifs encapsulates so much- not just the narrative about my mother and the food that links us- incredibly Dave managed to capture unspoken words and emotions in the cover – the story you never hear- of how women in my culture hold together the tattered fabrics of their lives and are somehow able to present a bright facade for all to see. They feed, they nourish, they heal- this resilience of women was beautifully captured by Dave’s design
Dave Brown has a magic touch. I could not be happier with the way he captured the spirit of the book and turned it into what to me is a work of art and poetry. He was patient and responsive and generous with his time and made every effort to make it as right and as beautiful as it could be. I would always want to work with him.
I was so excited to work with Dave on Borough Market: The Knowledge as I think he has such a distinctive skill at placing a book in its location and evoking that place’s spirit through the pages. We needed that for this book and then so much more in wrangling our different elements of interviews, skills guides, recipes and more. I had hoped that whenever someone picked up this book they ‘felt’ the market, and that we achieved that is hugely down to Dave.
Dave Brown is a total and utter delight to work with. With very little steer, he carefully and artfully captured the moodiness of the Black Sea with his eye-catching book design. The feedback on the cover – its waves, the silver foiling, the textures – plus the photographic and text layout, has been tremendous. I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.
APE transformed the profile of our organisation bringing definition and clarity to what we do, ensuring that supporters had a clear understanding of the charity they supported, and managed a branding process across two continents amongst a wholly disparate group of people. The end result is one that has engaged and delighted everyone involved and he has done so with his creativity, vision, and highly effective management. Dave will get it done, and get it done as superbly as he will professionally. A brilliant outcome.
APE are a pleasure to work with and we are delighted with the results of our new brand and website. He has a creative approach with a great eye for design but is also extremely responsive and was able to deliver exactly what we wanted. He worked constructively with us throughout the process, pushing us to think creatively but always keeping in mind our brief and what we’d asked for. He also took care of all the details and kept on top of a complex project and schedule, meeting all our deadlines and responding quickly to queries and requests. We felt we got a very personal service and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Ape Inc.
Dave understood exactly what we were trying to achieve with Pizza within 2 mins of us first explaining it – and since that moment he has been pushing it forward in every way. His fundamental grasp of our brand and the book we wanted to write allowed him to help us both develop the idea conceptually and also execute it fantastically. His photographs, and particularly his portraits, are just beautiful. His design work, certainly on this book where every turn of the page is an entirely new idea, always grab your eye and elevate the copy. Most importantly – he is a pleasure to work with, something that might not be true of every designer at the top of their game.
It’s hard to capture everything that is brilliant about working with Dave. He’s professional, hard-working, talented, fizzing with ideas, always curious, creative, good-humoured and generous. He has an exceptional eye and it’s just so interesting to see the world through his lens. It’s amazing how intuitively he understands and captures who you are and what you want to achieve, both with his stunning photography and in his distinctive book design. I feel very lucky to have worked together: long hard days in the studio, lots of laughter and at the end of it all a book I’m really proud of.
Dave Brown at APE did that brilliant thing of taking my highly impressionistic briefing and turning it into exactly what I had in my head. He just totally ‘got’ this project and brought tons of commitment and imagination to it.
Intelligent, creative, startlingly talented and genuinely impressive. APE are an absolute pleasure to work with.
Dave Brown is one of the most outstanding book designers around. His attention to detail, creative flair and sheer hard graft mean that every book he is involved in feels fresh, innovative and entirely unique. Which is why Dave’s books stand out a mile, for all the right reasons, on the increasingly bland and cautious book shelves of British publishing.
Dave helped me recreate my visual brand and I was delighted with the outcome. He took his time to understand what I do (which isn’t easy) and his designs showed real insight. He always had positive advice but also gave me a range of options and responded to my feedback. He was generous with his time and continues to help me as I work on making the most of the brand.
APE’s work with AfriKids has been inspirational. Their comprehensive rebranding of our organisation needed to capture the passion we have for our development work, as well as the professional corporate image we needed to present to our partners. APE’s commitment to understanding our history, culture and philosophy was exceptional; and their engagement with us was inclusive and sensitive, conducted through individual meetings and workshops in the UK and Ghana. We’ve been left with a wide-ranging and creative brand and marketing tool-kit, including booklets, a substantial video and photographic library, and a major advertising campaign. And more importantly a new identity which has been embraced by our staff in the UK and Ghana.
Intelligent, creative, startlingly talented and genuinely impressive. Dave is an absolute pleasure
to work with.
I am not sure how to capture Dave Brown and APE in writing. Working with them through our rebranding process has been stimulating, inspiring and refreshing. We thought we had hired a designer but what we really got was a principal, someone who took full ownership of the project and made it his venture as well. Dave is enthusiastic, professional, creative, and earnest. He made the project fun and in the end we got a beautiful product. Dave is a world-class creative.
