Who we are

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Run For The Hills is a multi-disciplinary creative design house specialising in graphics and interiors. Some of our commissions are for standalone graphics or interior design projects. But we often get asked to do both at the same time, which we love. Hand-crafting branding and custom graphics within our spatial designs to make them really fizz and pop. We also create our own award-winning art and design bespoke pieces for private and commercial clients. And we do all of this in our cozy canalside studio in our beloved London Town.

Run For The Hills was founded by Interior Designer Anna Burles and Graphic Designer Chris Trotman (aka Graphic Artist Dex). Merging their expertise and 20+ years of experience in the creative industries, the duo also brought their talented teams into the fold. Our collective of designers, makers and creative strategists hail from diverse design and communications backgrounds, enabling Run For The Hills to create design that not only looks fantastic but really works for our clients.

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Our Services
BRANDING

Logo Creation
Identity
Branding Materials
Signage & Way-finding
Merchandising
Packaging
Product Design
Web Design
Marketing Materials
Printed Design (menus, brochures)
Stills & Moving Image

INTERIOR DESIGN

Interior Design
Styling
Lighting Design
Fittings & Furniture Design
Exhibition & Pop Up Design
Visual Merchandising

STRATEGY

Trends & Insight
Competitor Research
Brand Positioning
Communications Strategy
Tone of voice & Copywriting

ART CREATION

One-Off Original Art Pieces
Limited Edition Prints
Screenprints
Giclée Prints
Bespoke Wall Murals
Custom Wallpapers
Customised Taxidermy
Curiosities
Creative Neon & Light Installations

Our Clients
HOSPITALITY

Traveller’s Coffee Russia
Traveller’s Coffee China

RETAIL AND POP UP INSTALLATIONS

JJ Fox at Harrods
New Look Oxford St
Lily Allen New Look
Giles Deacon New Look
Motorola Brazil, Argentina
Motorola NYC, Chicago, Kuala Lumpur
Firetrap
Jack Liberties & Vintage Books
Saatchi | Sagatiba
3Mobile
iD Magazine

PRIVATE RESIDENCES

Ellie Goulding, Central London
Paramount Court, W1
Forest Road, Hackney
Shoreditch Loft Apartment
Dizzee Rascal, Kent
Windsor Road, Kew
Queen’s Park Development
Duplex, Westbourne Grove

BRANDING & PHOTOGRAPHY

Traveller’s Coffee
Kelly Holmes Café 1809
Jivita Ayurveda
Stripey Horse
Josephine Home
St James Quarter
Zulufish
Zebra Worldwide

WELLBEING

Jivita Ayurveda

WORKSPACES

Book Depository HQ
Amazon HQ
Syzygy UK HQ
rehabstudio London
Audible UK HQ

ART STOCKISTS

Artfinder
Not On The High Street
CultureLabel
East End Prints
Stylista Boutique

About Anna

Anna is a highly original interior designer and her clients include pop stars, quirky ad-land mavericks, hospitality, media and retail brands. Recent clients include Ellie Goulding, Artisan Coffee brand Travellers, Amazon Group and Specialty Cigar brand JJ Fox at Harrods.

She designs spaces full of creative touches, juxtaposing vintage classics with next generation design. Her work often includes bespoke art pieces specially created by Anna in collaboration with her Run For The Hills art-partner (Chris’s alter ego Dex).

Anna has just designed Ellie Goulding’s second London home and is working on the design refresh of an Art Deco apartment building in Central London. Other recent highlights include a large Artisan Coffee Shop and Roastery in China and a Fantasy Bedroom ‘set’ as part of the Coronation Festival in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, which was visited personally by the Queen. Her design sat next to room-sets from the Royal Palace Designers and John Lewis.

Alongside her work in the industry, Anna is a full member of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) as well as part-time tutor and on the Advisory Board of the prestigious KLC School of Interior Design in Chelsea Harbour.

In a former life, Anna used to style events and pop up spaces for clients like iD Magazine, Motorola and New Look. She also has a background as a Creative Director in Branding, Marketing and Digital Agencies, so it seemed a natural fit to team up with Chris and his graphics team to work across every element of a brand design. Not just the interior, but also the logo, the menu, the look and feel of the signs and awning outside, the packaging on the shelf and even the uniforms the staff are wearing. Back in the day Anna was a journalist, so she sometimes devises the brand’s tone of voice within our commercial designs, copywriting the brand story.

Anna Burles founded her interior design practice in 2009, which now operates from Run For The Hills’ West London studio.

Find out more over here: annaburles.com

interior designer in london
About Chris

Chris Trotman is a London-based designer / art director / illustrator and all round general creative. He is multi-disciplinary, with a couple of decades of experience across film, print and web. He has a strong background in branding, having worked in creative teams at most of London’s big ad agencies and design houses, developing brands and communications.

For the last 5 years Chris has been the Art Director of TV production company Zebra Worldwide, where he has been directing animated projects including feature film title sequences.

He also creates graphic art under the pseudonym of Dex. 

Chris’s strategic approach includes competitor research and local market analysis, reviewing and reinvigorating brand positioning when working with established brands.

For new brands, Chris and the graphics team create concepts which go through a detailed design development phase before being worked up into a suite of materials. The team’s multi-disciplinary background means they can create a design which works on every level of your business, whether you’re looking to attract or retain more customers or looking to change people’s perceptions about you or your brand.

We advise on trends and how to stand out from the competition. The graphic work we do includes everything from designing a complete visual identity for a new brand, to simple logo generation using graphics and illustration, or developing stationery and marketing materials. And for clients wanting a complete brand overhaul or new brand creation, the Run For The Hills graphics team completes the project by developing a Brand Bible and guidelines. Chris also concepts and creates original brand imagery and art directs our stills and film shoots.

Chris also works with Anna and other interior designers to create innovative in-venue art, graphics, way-finding and merchandising, to ensure that the interior design and brand graphics are integrated and help drive each other’s success.

Find out more about what Chris gets up to on his own website: christrotman.co.uk

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About The Team

Most of our team have been part of the family for years and we’ve also recently welcomed some long time collaborators who have joined the studio full time.

We have talented interior designers and technicians, 3D visual artists, graphic designers, artists and creative brand strategists.

We also have a wide network of creative collaborators who we partner with regularly. Everything from film-makers to production companies and developers, set builders, specialist photographers and editorial stylists. Which means we can easily put together the right team for your project.

We believe in giving young talent the leg up they need in the industry, so offer apprenticeships, internships and work experience placements. 

About Dex

Dex is our artist in residence. He creates limited edition art print collections and T shirt designs and all kinds of soon to launch Dex type things.

Dex has created four Art Collections – ‘Literary London’, ‘Film Noir’, ‘Britannica’ and new collection ‘Booze’. His Limited Edition art prints include the award-winning Literary London Map (voted one of London Design Week’s top 25 products). His A Study in Sherlock was selected by Threadless/GAP to be turned into a Limited Edition Vintage T-shirt, which sold out across North America and Canada.

You can buy his prints in our shop. Pieces from all four collections are also stocked by leading online Art Platforms ArtFinder.com and CultureLabel.com as well as physical retail Pop Up outlets like We Built This City.

Dex’s work was last exhibited at this year’s The Other Art Fair in Victoria House, Holborn. Check our blog for information about future events.

You can talk to him about creating an art piece or private commission by emailing sayhello@runforthehillslondon.com or contacting him direct dex@runforthehillslondon.com.

Find out more on his website: dexterspandex.com

stylish graphic art
stylish interior design moodboard

Many of our clients are long-standing and re-commission us when they move and buy a new home, change to a new workspace, or launch a new brand or venue.

We work to agreed budgets and timings on projects to help you track costs and always flag potential issues and challenges well before any extra costs are incurred, to see if there is a way of keeping things on track by changing course.

Your project is brought to life through a series of creative and highly visual graphic presentations, CAD drawings, photo-real 3D visualisations and a box of tricks containing the materials and finishes and samples we’ve curated for your project. We also prototype production elements before going to print.

Chris, Anna and Run For The Hills are based in London, within Great Western Studios on the banks of the Grand Union Canal in W2. We operate from the Capital but our work is also international with projects completed in the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, Brazil, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, the USA and Canada. 

GET IN TOUCH
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