From
concept
to clicks

Welcome to Dead Keen: a Yorkshire-born, Mancunian-designed, Berlin-engineered creative studio supporting tech start-ups, professional services, and ambitious SMEs.

A carefully constructed mountain of logos representing different brands and companies Dead Keen, and its founder, Ryan Taylor, has created, and is most proud of, culminating with the Dead Keen log at its peak.

Common challenges. Uncommon solutions.

Let’s be honest: growth is messy. You’re either scaling too fast to think straight or stuck in systems that feel like they’re held together with sticky tape and hope. I’m here to fix that—with branding that turns heads, tech that works harder, and advice that cuts through the bullshit. No faff, no fluff. Just solutions that stick.

tech startups

Need to look and feel like the big players, yesterday?

I help startups like yours craft brands that punch above their weight, and build customer-facing apps and SaaS platforms users want to use, as an extension of your team, as an outsourced development team, or in any config you prefer. Whichever orientation, the key is that there's no more “good enough for now.” Let’s get you:

Brand credibility that matches your ambition
Websites that convert visiors, not confuse them
Scalable tech that grows as fast as you do

professional services

Still using a logo designed in 2003? Or 1993? Oh lord, not 1983?!

Lawyers, accountants, engineers, and consultants deserve better than dusty “heritage” branding. I’ve helped firms just like yours ditch the generic suits-and-scales clichés for brands that feel modern, human, and unignorable. Being one of the pack isn't what people expect these days. Let's support you to:

Stand out in a sea of sameness
Attract younger clients without losing legacy credibility
Turn dry services into stories people care about

ambitious SMEs

Outgrowing your old systems? Kudos on the growth, but it’s time to level up.

When your success starts to feel like a liability, it’s time to align your brand, operations, and digital presence with where you’re headed—not where you’ve been. You’re not just scaling; you’re evolving into a new kind of business that needs foundations as strong as your vision. I help SMEs:

Replace “make-do” branding with intentional design
Build websites that handle today's traffic and tomorrow's growth
Turn backend choas into purposefully-engineered efficiency

How can I help?

Dead Keen helps you reach real humans through razor-sharp branding, websites built for humans—not just algorithms—and apps humans actually want to use, all served with a dash of candid consultancy.

Tech That Means Business

From slick customer apps to robust backend systems. SaaS, native, web, or enterprise—whatever your business needs to thrive. All explained in a way that doesn’t mean you need a computer science degree to use it. That’s a guarantee.

Content & Communication

Messaging and storytelling that makes folks stops and think, that sounds like it was—and actually is—written by a human. Visual storytelling that grabs attention and keeps it. All crafted to perfection.

Brand & Identity

Not just another pretty logo—we're talking about the whole kit and caboodle from strategy to visuals. A brand story told proper. No faff, no waffle.

Digital Presence

Websites that work as hard as you do. A personal presence online that showcases your unique approach and expertise that turns visitors into leads and leads into real-life, authentic, loyal customers and clients. Imagine that.

A Sounding Board

More than all that, though, I’m a great listener. And a great ideas generator. So even if you’re not ready to jump in with a solution or are a bit reticent to sink investment quite yet, then a couple of hours thrashing it out is a great place to start. And an excuse for a brew. (Not that I need one.)

Who is Dead Keen anyway?

Fair question. Hello! I’m Ryan Taylor, the founder and creative behind Dead Keen, my new solo studio.

The "Yorkshire guy with killer ideas", was once how I was described. But how did that happen? Well, firstly I quit my job working for The Man, and founded a branding agency which I ran for ten years. Now, I've now gone solo to more personally support businesses like yours with the problems they face in crowded, and fast-changing markets.

Going it alone means I can truly spend time with my clients. No big team, no corporate nonsense—just me and a selection of trusted collaborators delivering creative solutions that actually work (you know, rather than the kind that sound amazing on paper but sink without trace).

I guess if I were a certain kind of creative type, I'd say I "live the digital nomad lifestyle", but I'm from Yorkshire, so that would just be ridiculous. Instead, I'll say: I spend my time both in Manchester and Berlin, roughly six months of the year in each, which gives me access to the markets and networks you need across two of the fastest growing cities for tech, professional services, and ambitious SMEs right now. I think it's important to be a part of the world you operate in, and living this way lets me do just that.

I love a good story

My path into design and development wasn't conventional. I've always been fascinated by, and studied, languages—from English to German, French to Japanese, even British Sign Language. Might seem odd for someone in tech and design, right?

But here's the thing: every brand speaks its own language. Design is visual communication. Code is how we talk to computers. Marketing is how we connect with humans.

After a lifetime of studying both human and computer languages, I've learned that success comes down to translation—taking your complex ideas and turning them into something your audience gets. Whether it's crafting the perfect user interface, writing code that works, or telling your brand story in a way that resonates, it's all about speaking the right language at the right time.

That's why my clients trust me to communicate their vision. Because I don't just understand languages—I understand the humans using them. And that's the difference between good and unforgettable solutions.