James Hilton is an English designer based in London.
In 1995, he co-founded the creative agency AKQA together with Ajaz Ahmed and over the course of twenty years grew it to become one the world's most successful digital agencies. In 2014 Hilton left AKQA to found the experimental design studio AtelierStrange and custom motorcycle brand Death Machines of London. He joined the design company Native as their Chief Creative Officer in December 2016.
Hilton attended Southampton Solent University (then referred to as Southampton Institute of Higher Education) from 1990 to 1994.
Education
Hilton attended Southampton Solent University for four years. Firstly on a two-year OND course in Graphic Design, followed by a further two-year HND course in Graphic Design. During the HND, two 'live' pitch competitions were run for external clients; a branding assignment for a local company, and an invitation to a sponsored fashion show. Hilton won both and spent much of his second year of HND working on client projects rather than course work.
Upon completion of his HND he then applied for a degree in Graphic Design at the same college. He was denied a place on the basis that 'there's nothing more we can teach you. Get out there and start doing something'. Ironically, Hilton was then briefly employed by Southampton Solent University to teach computer aided design to degree students using the colleges first Apple Macintosh computers.
AKQA
Hilton has said that he's 'never had a proper job' and this is largely due to his joining AKQA almost straight out of college. Since co-founding AKQA in 1995 with Ajaz Ahmed, Dan Norris-Jones and Matthew Treagus, Hilton has been at the forefront of an industry which has seen the company grow to become arguably the world's most respected creative agency. Working with global clients such as Nike, Audi, Warner Brothers, Fiat, Heineken and Google, AKQA has grown into 14 offices around the world and employs over 2,500 practitioners.
Recognising the need for an awards platform specifically for full-time students, AKQA instigated the Future Lions awards program at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Future Lions is now seen as one of the most innovative and exciting seminars of the festival receiving thousands of entries every year from over 40 countries.
AKQA has garnered hundreds of international industry awards, including at least one agency of the year award every year. In 2010, AKQA took home Agency of the Year for the second year running at the Revolution Awards and Agency of the Year awards from New Media Age and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In 2009, the company won five separate agency of the year awards, a feat unprecedented in the communications industry. AKQA's work for Fiats "eco:Drive" won them the Cannes Cyber Lion Grand Prix in 2009. In 2011 the agency scooped no less than five Cannes Lions, winning three gold Cyber Lions, one silver and one bronze. AKQA had been named Revolution's Agency of the Decade (for 1997 to 2007).
When Advertising Age's Creativity magazine created its inaugural Interactive Agency of the Year award (2006), it gave it to AKQA, recognising the agency's "global culture, creative hires and technological muscle." Said the magazine's editor, Teressa Iezzi, "We thought AKQA embodied the spirit of the big-idea-first approach."
2013 was the agency's most successful year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to date. It won 14 Lions including a gold Cyber Lion for Nike+ Kinect Training and a Titanium and Integrated Lion for Nike "Find your greatness". In June of the same year, WPP bought a majority stake in AKQA valuing the company at $350m USD.
In 2014, AKQA won Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation, and was named Most Innovative Agency at 2014 Digiday Awards.
In November 2014, after completing the award-winning interior redesign of AKQA's London office, Hilton announced his departure from AKQA to found the experimental design company AtelierStrange.
AtelierStrange
James Hilton founded AtelierStrange together with architect and interior designer Darryl Amos in November 2014.
According to Hilton, the company was born out of frustration: "First, at the absence of objects that fit our particular Victorian murderer chic aesthetic" he says, "and secondly, from the belief that technology needn't look technological, and can instead harmoniously integrate within an imperfect human quality – to not only be beautifully useful, but to also become magical."