Dave Penny

Meet Dave

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Hiring for a brand usually means one of two compromises. An agency, which is slow and priced for someone else's budget. Or a few freelancers who each own one piece, which leaves you managing the seams and hoping it all comes out looking like one brand.

I take the whole thing. Identity, website, photography, film, print, social, and the campaign behind it. I build most of it myself and I own all of it, which is the part that matters: nothing gets lost between the decision and the asset, because the same person is responsible for both.

I'm often asked about workload and sustaining it. I should say, I am not a one man band. There is a small team in house with me, and I bring in the best subcontractors I know when a job needs it. You still get one point of contact, and one person accountable, which is me.

Recent work has mostly been consumer brands, either building an identity from nothing or working with an already strong brand to make it better. A countertop fabricator losing contracts on presentation. A marine restoration company without content in line with the calibre of work they provide. A rum and RTD line that needed labels, print, in-venue material, and a social campaign.

The unusual part is that I shoot the product too. For the rum line I shot the cans in my own studio, including a water tank for the splash frames, then used AI tools to extend that single session into a full set of campaign variations. One shoot, a season of assets.

Before all this I spent years in broadcast television, from live studio work up to creative director, producing national shows and commercials. I hosted a nationally syndicated show, which is why I am comfortable directing founders who have never been in front of a camera.

One practical note. I am Canadian, based in Ontario, which is usually good news for American clients. Your dollar goes about forty percent further up here, and I am on Eastern time so we share a working day. Creative work is a service, not a shipment, so there is no customs or tariff sitting in the middle of it.

When a project needs physical print, I produce it through fulfilment partners local to your market, so the only thing that crosses the border is my digital artwork. And for product shooting, the product comes to me. It gets shot properly in my own studio and goes back, which is usually faster and less expensive than putting a crew in a room somewhere.