I'm Chris. Freelance Designer. Maker of brands
people trust. Builder of storefronts
they buy from.

Brand identity, eCommerce and illustration since 1998.
Freelance, in-house and everything in-between.

What I do

  • eCommerce Design

    Quiet stores sell more.

    I've designed (and built) enough stores in nearly 3 decades to know what works and what doesn't. I don't just make them pretty (I do make nice looking eCommerce sites), I make them work. If you want to know what a Quiet Store is, you need to see My First Raygun.

  • Brand Identity

    Something corporate.

    I've spent my career making very nice logos and even nicer brands. Whether it's a brand refresh or a complete teardown and rebuild, I'm the designer you need.

  • 3D illustration

    Journey into the 3rd dimension.

    From editorial one-shots to ecommerce product mockups. Same clean, graphic style, now with 50% more dimensions.

Featured work

Playdia's updated logo

Playdia

Brand refresh/tidy

2025
The delegate t-shirts for MM25UK

Meet Magento

Event branding

2024-25
Vertical lockup of the Magento Association logo

Magento Association

Rebrand

2025-26
Accessible icons design for the Arts Council's All-in initiative.

Arts Council

Icon design

2025
Miscellaneous logos

Miscellaneous logos

Brand/Identity

Various
Nimbus

Nimbus

Brand overhaul + Website design

2023

Ways to work together

Some projects need a full design lead. Some need a clear-eyed review before anything bigger happens. Some just need experienced support on tap. Here are the 3 main ways clients tend to bring me in.

Project Work

Brand development, website & eCommerce design (and build).

Best suited to full brand identity work, website design (and redesign) and eCommerce projects. Clear thinking, strong design, deliverables ready for a developer to pick up without minimal handover.

Typically 5K+

Depending on scope, brief, etc. You know how it is.

Design Teardowns

When something feels off and you need an experienced eye.

I review what you have and tell you what's helping, what's getting in the way, and what's underperforming but isn't worth a full redesign yet.

From £600

Usually delivered in 5 working days.

Ongoing support

Experienced design input with the full-time hire.

A monthly retainer for businesses that need senior design support across brand, website, UX or eCommerce work, without an agency wrapper or the costs of a permanent hire.

From £1,200 /pcm

Ad hoc day rate also available.

Interested?

Start a conversation

About me

Christopher Dowson

I'm a full-time freelance brand & eCommerce designer based in Nottingham, UK. I work with industry disruptors and upstart start-ups all over the world.

With over 25 years of experience to call upon, clients of all shapes and sizes trust me to bring their projects to life, from agencies and solo SMEs to B2B and B2C businesses across tech, eCommerce, and beyond.

My career started in traditional graphic design and, over the past 10-15 years, has evolved to focus on web, eCommerce, and SaaS product design and development.

I founded my studio in 2005, and since then I have worked a combination of in-house and freelance roles for agencies and tech companies.

Most recently as a freelancer, I worked with the Arts Council on a set of accessible icons for the arts, now rolling out nationwide.

Before this, I was in-house as the Principal Designer at JH, where I designed eCommerce projects for clients such as Big Bus Tours, Woodie's, Graham & Green and Wayland Games.

I was also responsible for the update and overhaul of the conference livery and venue signage for Meet Magento UK's 2024 conference, a conference organised by JH with 750+ attendees. A particularly rewarding project, and one I am very proud of. They loved the branding so much, they used it again for 2025's conference (with a few tweaks).

For 2026 I stepped back to give another designer a chance to show what they can do. MMUK's design is ever evolving and it's important to raise others up and give them the opportunity to push it further forward.

Much of my career has been in the tech sector, including being the first design hire at hosting pioneers 20i. In that role, I worked as both a designer and front-end developer, creating a framework for rapid build and deployment of the customer control panel and the sales website, both of which I designed.

Before that, I was a senior designer and developer at Heart Internet, where I worked on a major brand and website relaunch, including overseeing a complete code rewrite within a week. The basis of that work I would refine and release as Sculpt, Heart's own answer to Bootstrap.

Over the years, I have worked across a variety of industries including health, non-profit, finance, publishing, and education. My projects have ranged from supporting small local businesses in the early days of my career to working with 8-figure turnover giants, both in-house and at agency level.

Happy clients

01 / 06

Always a pleasure working with Chris, he has a real eye for the latest design. Would definitely recommend and I intend to use him again for my next project.

Tim Brealey
Tim Brealey
Co-Founder, 20i

Chris had a wealth of expertise and knowledge and I had full confidence that he would be able to meet and exceed all of the project's various requirements. I'm so pleased with the final result, not only in the visual appearance, but in its back-end functionality as well.

Michael Musser
Michael Musser
Owner, Anticipate Invitations

It's rare to find strategic thinking designers that also have the ability to create awesome designs. Chris' attention to detail is off the chart, allowing him to make even the simplest designs look beautiful.

Helen Lawton
Helen Lawton
Marketing Director, Nimbus

Chris is wonderful to work with. He really took the time to understand what we were trying to do with All In and translated that into a thoughtful set of accessibility icons.

Roberta Beattie
Roberta Beattie
Senior Product Manager, Arts Council England

Christopher is a master at turning chaos into clarity. Whether working with fragmented design systems or complex UI challenges, he has an extraordinary ability to transform the disjointed into something truly exceptional.

Jamie Hukisson
Jamie Hukisson
CEO, JH

Christopher quickly understood what was needed, worked smoothly with our team, and was proactive. His knowledge, flexibility and collaborative approach made him a real asset to the project.

Kate Prowse
Kate Prowse
Account Director, mReaction

Experience

Useful questions to ask

  • What services do you offer?

    Three things. Brand identity: logo design, visual systems, guidelines and everything that makes a brand feel cohesive. eCommerce design: store design and UX, mostly on Craft CMS and Magento. And 3D illustration, custom-modelled for brands that want to stand out from the stock library everyone else is using.

    I also take on website design projects for businesses that need a strong online presence without running a shop.

  • Why hire a specialist for eCommerce design?

    An online store has problems a standard website doesn't: product discovery, filtering, checkout friction, trust signals, upsells. A generalist designer can make it look good, but getting people to actually buy takes someone who understands how eCommerce platforms work. I've spent years designing for Magento and Craft CMS specifically, so I know what's possible, what's practical, and where most stores lose customers.

  • What does your brand identity process look like?

    It starts with understanding your business, your audience and what you're trying to achieve. From there I develop concepts for the logo and core visual identity. Once we've agreed a direction, I build out the full system: typography, colour palette, iconography, usage guidelines and any supporting assets you need.

    The goal is a brand that holds up wherever it shows up: website, product, email, invoice, packaging, social.

  • Which platforms do you design for?

    Craft CMS and Magento are my core platforms. I also design for Shopify, WordPress and HubSpot. The difference: on Craft CMS I design and build, on the others I deliver Figma files and work with your dev team. If you're not sure which platform suits your project, we can talk it through early on.

  • What is 3D illustration and when would I need it?

    3D illustration is modelled and rendered artwork, made in a 3D software package, such as Blender (my tool of choice). It gives a brand a look that doesn't just blend in with every competitor in crowded marketplaces.

    It works well for hero imagery, product concepts, explainer visuals and anywhere you want a real scroll-stopper. If your category is full of brands using the same stock illustrations, 3D gives you something nobody else has.

  • Do you handle the development as well?

    Depends on the platform. For Craft CMS I design and build, so you get one person responsible for the whole thing. For Magento, Shopify and other platforms, I deliver the design as Figma files with detailed specs and work directly with your dev team to make sure nothing gets lost in translation. If you don't have a developer, I can recommend people I trust.

  • How much do your services cost?

    3 main ways clients tend to bring me in, with per-project and ad hoc work also available.

    Project work is usually the right fit for brand identity, website and eCommerce projects, typically from £5,000 depending on scope. 

    The Teardown is a focused audit of your brand or website, from £600. 

    Ongoing support starts from £1,200 per month, with a day rate available for one-off work.

    These are guide prices, so still drop me a line if your budget doesn't quite line up. 

  • How long does a typical project take?

    Brand identity projects usually take 4 to 6 weeks. eCommerce design runs 3 to 5 weeks for a handful of templates, or 2 to 3 months for a larger Craft CMS or Magento build with custom features. Teardown audits land within 5 working days.

    You'll get a realistic timeline before we start, and updates throughout.

  • How do I get started?

    Drop me an email at hello@christopherdowson.studio or book a call through the contact page. Tell me a bit about your business, what you need and any deadlines you're working to. 

    I'll come back to you within a working day with some initial thoughts and, if it sounds like a good fit, we'll set up a call to dig into the detail. After that I'll send a clear proposal with scope, timeline and cost.

  • I already have a website. Can you help improve it?

    Yes, that's exactly what the Teardown is for. I'll review your site's design, UX, brand consistency and conversion flow, then give you a clear, prioritised plan for what to fix and why.

    Some clients use the Teardown as a standalone deliverable and hand it to their team. Others use it as the starting point for a full redesign with me. Either way, you get honest, actionable feedback.

Contact

Send a message

Or, if you'd rather chat

A fifteen-minute call is worth a thousand emails. Pick a time that works for you and we'll take it from there.

Or email me direct: hello@myfirstraygun.studio