About Us

Hi, we're Shields SGF—a creative team based in beautiful downtown Plymouth, MA, in the historic Plimouth Water Works Building.

In 2022, Shields Design Studio and Shotgunflat merged to create a new kind of company...one that could bring 50+ years of combined experience and a genuine love of people to create a totally different agency experience. 

We've worked with all kinds of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, on projects as diverse as naming and branding, logo design, website design, custom web application development, highway billboards, annual reports, apps, and much more. 

Our clients’ success comes as a result of our ability to harness a unique blend of expertise, talent, creativity, energetic small teams, and personal connection.

Years

54

We're new on paper, but our history is rich. Going back to the 1990s, we've put our creativity to work for clients like Disney, EG America, Novartis, Intuit, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and many others (startups and smaller clients too!)

Clients

500+

From startups and family businesses to non-profits to Fortune 500 international corporations, we’ve worked on just about every type of project our amazing clients can dream up, including naming, branding, design, custom programming, marketing, and much more. Take a look at our portfolio to see our work. 

Successful Projects

2000+

Being at work for more than 50 years, we’ve had the opportunity to conceive, oversee, and execute on literally thousands of successful projects over the years. And we would love yours to be the next. Let's have a talk!

Our Story

  • 1997
  • 2002
  • 2004
  • 2021
  • 2022
  • 2023

Shields Design Studio is started by Mary Shields. The company begins work for many well-known clients, including but not limited to Disney (we still have an office in Orlando to this day).

Mike McKenana founds Shotgunflat, a one-man web design and development operation based in his attic in Middleboro, MA, equipped with a Dell Computer, a Canon PowerShot digital camera, Adobe DreamWeaver, and no clients.

Mary Shields and Mike McKenna meet for lunch, introduced by a mutual friend. Surprisingly, the conversation includes a potential succession plan for Shields, but it will be be nearly 20 years before this happens. 

Shields and Shotgunflat begin to collaborate on projects more regularly, launching several successful major branding and website redesign projects in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare space. The conversation about a potential merger is underway. 

By January of 2022, an agreement is reached, and Shields SGF is born. All employees from both teams are retained—a rare occurrence these days—and the vision for a creative, empathetic, exciting team begins to unfold.

Shields SGF celebrates its first year in business in January, enjoying growth greater than either of its predecessors. 

Our Studio
T-Dog

Team & Culture

Our team is made up of a group of talented, passionate professionals. With our roster of award-winning designers to cutting-edge developers and people-loving project managers, we are able to arrange ourselves into small teams that listen to your ideas, understand your goals, and deliver to your audience.

Drew McKenna and Beth Rose
Megan James

Let’s Talk

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