A sketch of a Chanel Nº5 bottle tacked to a board serves as inspiration beside mock-ups of logos in varying styles and scripts at Ashley & Malone, a boutique branding and web design agency founded by Ashley and Dallas Malone in April 2013. At their present location since May 2014, the husband and wife team specialize in creative branding solutions from logo designs to responsive websites for business owners and wedding industry professionals.
"We met in our last semester of our final year earning graphic design degrees at Fanshawe College," says Ashley, the firm's creative director. Dallas, who hails from The Bahamas, extended his stay in Canada to earn an additional degree in coding and multimedia design, Ashley explains, and now he's the agency's lead developer.
Both Ashley and Dallas have been involved in creative pursuits from a young age. Ashley was taught to paint as a toddler by her grandfather, who was a local artist, while Dallas cultivated his skills in website design as a teen. Today, the team combines Ashley's talents in digital artistry with Dallas' abilities as a developer.
Ashley had been freelancing for corporate clients when she fell in love with the beautiful branding prevalent in the wedding industry. She decided to approach Dallas, who had been freelancing in web design, to open their own business. “We want to infuse beautiful elements to craft a strategy and branding approach for owners who want to create a brand identity that reflects their personality and business beyond a template,” Ashley explains of their mission statement.