About Alex Magill
Design, strategy, and the thinking that connects them.

I work with founders and leadership teams when something important has become hard to see clearly — the business has moved on, but the website, the messaging, or the digital direction hasn't kept up.

I bring an outside perspective, honest thinking, and enough range to stay useful from the strategic conversation right through to the work itself.

Background

2016
Strategic Adviser Bold Wise
2010
Freelance Designer & Strategist Definition Four
2006
Senior Designer Badenoch & Clark / Adecco
2004
Senior Designer Atis Real / BNP Paribas Real Estate
2001
Graphic Designer Herbert Smith
2000
BSc Product Design Brunel University
Alex Magill - Strategic adviser for brand, website and digital clarity

I started out as a product designer, the physical kind. I studied at Brunel, spent time on engineering schematics at a shipyard, worked on assistive technology and human-computer interaction research, and gradually found my way toward brand, digital, and the web.

By the time I was working at Herbert Smith, Atis Real, and then BNP Paribas Real Estate, I was deep in brand, identity, and digital. By the time I left Badenoch & Clark in 2010, I was shaping briefs from the strategic level down and beginning to understand that the most useful thing I could bring was not just design, but clarity.

Since then I’ve worked independently, first as a freelance designer and strategist, and for the past decade through Bold Wise, helping organisations make better sense of what they are trying to do, how they present themselves, and what needs to happen next.

What that background gives me is range. I can think at the strategic level and still care about the detail. I understand code well enough to have honest conversations with developers. I’ve worked in-house, agency-side, and independently, so I know how decisions actually get made, and where they tend to get stuck.

I work best when I’m brought in early, trusted to think alongside you, and given the space to make meaningful progress.

Why “Bold Wise”?

Bold Wise was always meant as a small manifesto. Good work needs both parts: the boldness to make something clearer, sharper, and more distinctive, and the wisdom to make sure those decisions are useful, grounded, and connected to what the business actually needs.

That balance has been there throughout my work, even as the shape of it has changed. I started in product design, moved through brand, identity and digital, and now work across the joins between them.

Often the useful work is not just making something look better. It is understanding why it feels unclear, where the structure is weak, and what needs to change so the whole thing holds together.

Alex is one of the clearest and sharpest minds I know. Well worth investing in a project with.

Neill Emmett Senior Director, Global Brand & Communications

What I do

Brand and messaging clarity

When the business has moved on but the way you talk about it hasn’t. Sharpening positioning, refining messaging, and making sure what you say reflects what you’ve actually become.

Strategic direction and prioritisation

When there are too many priorities, too many half-finished decisions, and not enough traction. Making sense of what matters, what doesn’t, and what happens next.

Website and digital direction

When the website undersells the business, or a digital initiative has drifted. Bringing clarity to what needs to happen, and staying close until it does.

I work well with:

  • Founders and business owners
  • Leadership teams navigating a period of change
  • Businesses that have outgrown how they present themselves
  • Organisations with a digital initiative that needs clearer direction
  • In-house teams that need experienced outside perspective

I’m typically brought in when there’s a gap between how strong a business actually is and how clearly that comes across. My role is to make that gap visible, close it, and leave things in better shape than I found them.

I don’t disappear after the strategy conversation. I stay close to the work.

Get in touch

I’m always happy to hear from thoughtful people – whether you have a clear brief or just a hunch that something could work better.

Reach me at alex@boldwise.co.uk or