Train of Thought was Seattle’s first integrated graphic design and advertising agency. Then we added interactive, creating top-ranking, industry-leading sites. We have helped hundreds of startups, brands, nonprofits, and individuals succeed. We are personal, excellent listeners, and we provide profound insights that define and drive business. We work with a select group of clients, and accept limited new client relationships when the fit is just right.

We believe in strategy, original creative, and commitment driving purposeful communications that inspire desire.

So many people are hiring designers to replicate other designs. When your project involves creating something no one has ever before done, you need a different kind of thinking. You need Train of Thought.

Co-founder & Creative Director

Kelly Hobkirk

Do you like seeing and feeling the difference original creative makes for your business? We value relationships and originality over all else. If you share our belief, perhaps we can forge a great relationship together.

I enjoy creating exceptionally effective graphic design and advertising that connects people with great brands.

Although our portfolio features local client work, we have worked with some of the biggest brands in America, as well as major international brands. Here is a short list of large-scale accounts we have worked on: Allstate, AT&T, Big Sisters, BMC Bicycles, Cascade Bicycle Club, Classmates, ControlTech, DiaTech Bicycle Components Taiwan, Raleigh Bicycle Co., Safeco, Security Pacific Bank, Seibu Machinery Japan, US Bank, US Robotics, Wheel of Fortune.

Our Unique Approach

Your brand is the language of your business. Who speaks your language?


Train of Thought is focused on building brands that connect with people’s core belief systems to create a strong sense of real community. It’s how your business becomes a valuable part of people’s lives, and how we make your business stronger. The messages you bring to your market define people’s experience – how they perceive you, how they believe in you, and how they welcome you in to their lives. Our focus is on helping you connect with relevant, compelling visual and verbal messages that ring true to both you and your customers.

We create community between people and businesses. Train of Thought began over 20 years ago with the singular goal of creating and promoting brands that connect, utilizing strategic branding, graphic design, websites, and advertising as mechanisms of thought. Emotional connections are important, but thought always precedes emotion. Because humans have an amazing ability to translate thought into emotion and action, our focus is on creating new thoughts. From that critical point on, people connect their emotions and actions with brands.

This is how people learn the dialog of their brands—of your brand. They learn by seeing, hearing, and feeling your language. They have experiences with you, and they craft a story between each other and you. Does your tribe speak your brand language? Do they connect with your brand?

The company

Train of Thought is a graphic design, advertising and marketing communications agency specializing in strategy, branding, print, collateral and online media.

We can always be reached by saying hello.

Train of Thought is small, agile, and experienced. We produce an extraordinary amount of exceptionally effective work in spite of our size. Graphic design, strategy, print and online advertising, logos, corporate identity, packaging, brochures, websites, and posters are among our favorite projects, though we also help clients with a variety of other branding and marketing needs.

Co-founder and principal Kelly Hobkirk is an award-winning designer and writer whose work has been featured in national and international publications and books.

Our steady growth has been marked by exceptionally long-term relationships with our clients. We believe this is due to our ability to provide close, personal attention, innovative communications, strategic insight, and complete transparency in our work together.

Do you believe in your brand? Learn How →

Check out our Portfolio →