The Troop
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Designer
Emily Naulls
Designer Emily has a passion for creating bold, high impact designs that blend creativity with purpose. Her ideas come to life through thoughtful research, as she loves uncovering the story behind a person, product or brand to reveal what makes it truly unique. Outside the studio, you’ll find Emily out on dog walks, experimenting with new recipes or crafting her weekly flower arrangements.
UI/UX Designer & Developer
Jay Bourn
Our always smiling digital designer Jay loves interactive web design. He has a natural desire to learn the latest hot trend, always pushing the envelope to find the killer solution. He loves a challenge – be it playing the guitar, or more recently driving to the beach for a surf in his beloved Toyota Yaris named Mavis.
Marketing Manager
Claire Woodward
Our super-focused Account Manager with bags of experience in the media industry. Claire truly brings the best out of every project she’s involved in. Kind hearted and fun, she enjoys caring for her animals, watching films and listening to awesome live music – rock on!
Head of design
Nick Thomas
Head of Design who loves getting his teeth into a new brief – with a calm, pragmatic approach that means he’s focused on working with the Troop to create great work for you. Never one to follow convention, when not walking his cat Simba on a lead, he can be found (or not) travelling the world or shopping for his next pair of trainers.
Founder & Creative Director
Malcolm Gilbertson
Creative leader and brand guardian, maintaining the highest creative standards to help brands reach their fullest potential. Revels in the challenge of breaking the norm through powerful, intelligent design whilst working in collaboration with his clients and beloved Troop. You’ll find him walking his dogs in the wilderness or having fun with his family and friends. Favourite toy as a child: Gonga, the gorilla!
Digital Strategist
Rachel Rhodes
With a sharp eye for strategy and a love for all things digital, Rachel brings a fresh perspective (and fresh ideas) to the Troop. When she’s not masterminding digital plans, you’ll find her out walking Rupert the dog, spending time with her family, or on a mission to track down the perfect cup of coffee.
Hybrid Designer & Developer
Sean Kennelly
Sean brings a passionate, punchy creative drive for design and digital technology. When he’s not creating digital masterpieces in the studio, you’ll find Sean training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and kickboxing or exploring new places and hunting down tasty food with friends.
Head of client services
Arps Patel
With a never ending thirst for knowledge and an ever curious mind, Arps loves to guide our clients through the creative process, helping to solve their branding or digital challenges. In his spare time, you’ll find him at comedy shows, playing football and watching movies! Fun fact: Arps enjoys a spot of DIY and he even built his own hip roof!
We’re brand creatives: experts in design, digital and strategy.
We’ve developed an instinct for knowing what’s right for your brand. Working together, we'll craft your brand strategy and strengthen and enhance your visual identity while delivering exceptional results through effective online and offline marketing comms. We can just sense it.
When your brief comes in, we select the perfect Troop members for the project, and they’re your dedicated team throughout our journey together.
Great gorillas
Why the troops are here
Imagine a place where everyone respected each other and worked together towards a common goal, like it was second nature. Beautiful, eh? That’s the Silverback® mission and modus operandi as set by our esteemed founder and creative director, Malcolm Gilbertson.
To create a company that does things the right way, gives two hoots about producing great, original work every time, and treats staff and clients well. No to ‘them’ and ‘us’, yes to ‘hey team!’
We welcome you into our Troop, to work with us, throwing off the shackles of the traditional client-agency relationship. Building trusting, fun and effortless relationships is what we’re all about – and success follows. Come on in, and see for yourself. Think of a flourishing canopy of comms that provides security and shelter to your very own Troop.
Silverback, as in the gorilla?
So how does that relate to an independent design and web agency in Surrey?
We’re always asked why we’re called Silverback®. Well, silverbacks are big, strong and powerful, with an innate wisdom that goes back for generations.
Silverbacks are respectful of their troop, protecting and nurturing it with their lives. They’re a species that thrive off collaboration, are brave enough to stand up for what they believe in, and know instinctively how to get to where you want to go and which direction to go in. when they’re right. Just like us, mostly.
Meet Mukunda. Be like Mukunda.
With your knowledge and our expertise, together we make a difference.
Meet Mukunda. A silverback mountain gorilla who hails from Congo. Like, for real. His name means likeable, and that’s why if we were a silverback, we’d be like Mukunda. It’s not about his power and muscles – (they help, but they’re not the most important thing).
Distinctly different, Mukunda strays from the forest and strolls into villages to watch, listen and be with people. He’s never threatening, always curious, the communicator of an entire species.
He shows us that being likeable is your greatest strength. Barriers come down, true collaboration happens and great partnerships begin.
In the light of the silver moon.
The silver moon in our emblem; there as a constant, shining knowledge and wisdom on Mukunda’s back, lighting the way through the dark depths of the rainforest.
The relationship between Mukunda and the moon is similar to Silverback® and our clients. It’s a partnership.
Giving back. Why wouldn’t we?
We can’t be called Silverback® and not give back to the incredible gorillas who’ve inspired our ethos. Severely under threat due to deforestation, disease and poaching, where they’re sold as pets and trophies, or as medicine and magical charms. To try and help, we’ve adopted a gorilla from the Susa group of mountain gorillas through the WWF – it’s the least we can do. He’s called Ihoho (pronounced e-hoe-hoe), meaning ‘incomparable beauty’, which is how gorillas are considered in Rwanda.
Book a discovery call today.
