A small independent studio, founded in Chicago in 2013.

Elxire was started by Clarence Edwind Gilmore after fifteen years leading brand and growth work inside larger agencies. The idea was simple: a senior team that stays close to the work, and clients who are treated like partners instead of accounts.

Founder

Clarence Edwind Gilmore

Clarence has spent his career at the intersection of brand and business — the space where the story a company tells about itself either earns trust or quietly loses it. Before founding Elxire he led brand strategy for regional healthcare, financial services and consumer brands across the Midwest.

He founded Elxire in 2013 with a small circle of trusted collaborators, all of them senior. The studio has stayed small on purpose, because that is what lets us keep the work honest.

Based in Chicago.Working with clients across the U.S. and Canada.
Independent since day one.No parent holding company, no outside investors, no incentives to over-scope.
Practitioner-led.Every engagement is delivered by the people who sold it.

What we believe

Six principles the studio is built on.

These aren't slogans on a wall. They are the standards we use to decide what work to take, how to run a project and when to push back on a brief.

Clarity before craft

Beautiful work built on a muddy strategy never lands. We earn the design by earning the thinking first.

Small, senior teams

Two or three practitioners on your account for the life of the engagement — never a rotating cast.

Honest measurement

If a channel or campaign is not working, we say so — even when we recommended it.

Long horizons

We would rather build something durable than something loud. Most of our clients stay with us for years.

Written thinking

Every project ends with a written point of view your team can use long after we're gone.

Do fewer things well

We turn down more work than we take, so we can give the work we do keep our full attention.

The studio

A studio, not an agency.

We operate as a studio: a small core team of partners supported by a hand-picked network of writers, designers, engineers and paid-media specialists we've worked with for years. Engagements are staffed by the exact people your project needs — no more, no less.

Our home base is a quiet loft on Chicago's South Side, a few blocks from the Beverly neighborhood where the company was founded. We meet clients in person when it helps, and over video when it doesn't. The work always comes first.