Nb Studio Is Closing After 29 Years Alan Dye Wants To Talk About Joy

Creative Boom: NB Studio's Alan Dye on 29 years, starting again and why design needs more joy After almost three decades, 50-odd D&AD pencils and champagne at Buckingham Palace, Alan Dye and Nick Finney have closed NB Studio. Alan tells Creative Boom why he's thrilled to be an absolute beginner again. Alan Dye wants to show me something. Halfway through our Zoom call, he turns his camera round to show his screen. On it, he's just typed a single word. Joy, against a sunshine-yellow backdrop. "That's what it needs," he says. "A bit more joy." I must admit, it wasn't the mood I was expecting from someone who's just shut the studio he spent 29 years building.

NB Studio, the London agency he founded in 1997 with Nick Finney and Ben Stott, officially closed on 20 June 2026. They just announced it on LinkedIn. The farewell note was titled "So long, and thanks for all the kerning". If you know, you know. "We decided to call it a day after 29 years," Alan says. "It's a big thing. But Nick and I had such a brilliant time. We started at Pentagram, kicked off not knowing anything really, worked with amazing people and made some lovely work that took us around the world." Alan looks relaxed and happy in his newly refurbished home office in West London.

Fresh white paint covers the walls, shelves are full of books, and neat frames hold typographic posters behind him. Natural light floods in. He can't sit still in his chair as he talks about the last 29 years, and I'm grinning. He turns 60 in December, and he's full of new momentum. NB Studio NB Studio Even though it's the first time we've actually spoken on a call, I've known Alan for years. He's been so kind to Creative Boom, and been a real cheerleader for all we're doing. He'd often pop up in my inbox or DMs, just to say hello and ask how I'm doing.

That sort of thoughtfulness from someone so respected has partly kept me going these 17 years. And it's lovely to tell Alan that now. Not a big fancy agency His story began with two desks, back to back at Pentagram, and the pub next door, which became a makeshift office. "The dream was fun, fame and fortune," Nick and Alan write in their farewell. "The rest we'd figure out along the way." Well, they did pretty well. When Ben left for Apple, they weren't sure NB would survive. But it did. Basically, on a vow to only employ people better than themselves. A wise approach. Students came through the door and never left.

The studio shelf ended up with 50-odd D&AD pencils. Clients let them loose on "booze, babies, banks, theatres, universities, deep-tech start-ups and a fair amount in between", and the work took them to distilleries in Speyside, tea plantations in Sri Lanka and even Buckingham Palace. Anna Money Anna Money Work for the V&A: Uncomfortable Truths Work for the V&A: Uncomfortable Truths Ahead of pulling together this piece and wanting to share some highlights, Alan says: "Just have a look on the website...it's still alive, I think. Take what you want." And so I've picked out a few highlights to share.

Browsing through, it was a line on the about page that got me: "The fact is we're not a huge shiny agency – we're an enthusiastic and talented bunch of creatives who want to make a difference. Independent since 1997, we say what we think and stand up for the things we believe in." Yeah. We have a lot in common. Creative Boom has the same energy. I suspect it's also why NB's work never looked like anyone else's. "NB Studio was very gridded and Swiss, with lovely fonts, but we always splashed it with a bit of something," he says. "A bit of colour. A bit of illustration.

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The closure of a long-standing studio and the emphasis on joy and individuality in design provides significant insights for brand strategists, though the themes of creativity and uniqueness are not entirely new in the industry.