Our People
We’re celebrating our people, our team, our work family – the folks who make us who we are.
What Kevin Welman and Vanessa Baard set out to build a decade ago was never just an agency, but a place where talented, driven people could create really cool work that matters.
From our first employee, Peter Thabang Mokoko (who still leads our media work) to our +21-strong team, across Joburg and Cape Town. We’re proudly senior-led and independent. That’s how we were built, and that’s how we still show up.
Our Clients
One of the most meaningful measures of an agency isn’t in the work it produces, but rather in the relationships it keeps.
When we opened our doors ten years ago, The Sovereign Group was our first client, and they’re still with us today, a decade down the line. Loyalty is built through trust, and consistently showing up as the industry evolves around us.
Over the last decade, we’ve worked across technology, financial services, consumer, education, fintech, automotive, mining & resources, legal services, sports sponsorships and so much more.
We’ve run Pan-African campaigns, operated globally when needed, and remained as relevant in year ten as we were in year one.
We make it our business to understand yours. And we’re so lucky to have the clients we do. To every client who has trusted us to consistently deliver your stories, thank you.
Our Partner Network
No agency is built alone. Behind our first decade is our partner network – people we respect, like and trust. They’ve walked our journey, and we’ve walked theirs.
The digital specialists, media partners, creative collaborators, writers, auditors, researchers, investor relations folks and strategic allies who helped us deliver work we’re proud of.
We know that having the right partnerships is as important as the right clients. The last decade has proven that.
To our partners, thank you for the trust, the collaboration, and for being part of what ByDesign has become and strives to be.
Awards
Awards have never been our primary goal, but when the work is recognised, it carries meaning.
A recognition of the ideas, campaigns and stories we deliver together with our clients, proving that the stories matter and how we tell them is just as important.
We’ve been honoured with over 50 awards including Prisms with Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), SABREs with PRovoke Media and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Each one a reflection of the campaigns, the clients and the teams behind them.
In our first year, we were honoured as the Best New Agency in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (a first for a South African agency), and this year we were added to the Top Ten agencies in Africa, according to Africa PR Week – an honour indeed.
We set out to be #DifferentByDesign, so being recognised for that difference across some of the industry’s most respected platforms tells us we are on the right track.