Alicia Thornber | Distillery A Creative

I offer strategic creative consulting to fit your business needs.

Distilling ideas into impact.

I'm a creative director and brand experience designer with a deep love for storytelling, systems thinking, and bringing big ideas to life. As a seasoned design professional with over 20 years of experience in design and marketing, I specialize in crafting top-tier visual communications and immersive experiences. I'm an empathetic leader who is passionate about mentoring others, sharing knowledge, continually learning, and striking the right balance between quality and agility.

Brand strategy
& style guides

Boutique presentation design
& keynote creative development

Custom illustration, branding,
and data visualization design

Fractional creative direction
(project-based)

My studio, Distillery A Creative, is where I channel my love for distilling ideas into clear, actionable creative strategies. One of my favorite long-term clients has been USAFacts, where I helped develop overarching brand and data visualization guidelines and designed visuals and annual reports that helped grow their audience to over a million followers. I learned to love Excel and found that I really enjoy nerding out on data. I make information not just digestible—but delightful.

“In the last 15+ years that I’ve worked with Alicia, she has become a trusted partner to develop my presentations. She easily translates draft concepts and narratives into compelling visuals. Not only is Alicia a great designer, a PowerPoint pro, and an expert in her field, she is an engaging and collaborative team player. I’d recommend Alicia to any speaker needing a first-class executive presentation.”

- Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft,
founder of Ballmer Group and USAFacts.org

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve had the privilege of leading and supporting a wide breadth of creative efforts for some of Microsoft’s most iconic events, including Build and Ignite. Whether I’m art- directing visuals, designing immersive experiences for thousands of developers, or creating a social campaign, I thrive at the intersection of creativity and strategy. I’ve led design teams, managed live event creative production, built scalable design systems, and leveraged a broad set of tools to continually push creative boundaries.

Making information
not just digestible—
but delightful.

I'm a designer and a creative strategist who truly gets it. I lead design strategy, deliver creative briefs, draft copy, create wireframes and/or final art, design gorgeous slides, sketch an illustration, crack a joke, provide art direction, develop a brand style guide from soup to nuts—you name it. If there's a design problem you're struggling with, I'd love to help!

I also get a lot of joy from writing about presentation design—check out my articles on Medium. Many of these tutorials also have links to (mostly) free resources on Gumroad.

"As someone who has been working in live event production for over 25 years at Microsoft ensuring the best communications for our senior executives, I cannot recommend Alicia Thornber enough as a visual storyteller. Alicia has brought to life many of the corporate narratives for Microsoft over the years. Not only is she a PowerPoint superuser but her skills in leading teams of people around these communications is second to none."

Brian Schilling-George, Senior Director, Microsoft Executive Productions

"Alicia delivers lightning-fast results without sacrificing an ounce of quality. When we needed someone to oversee our incredibly detailed charts and graphs, it was only Alicia who could pinpoint the good and fix the bad. She excels at high-level brand strategy, but she also doesn't mind rolling up her sleeves and doing the real nitty-gritty design work. Working with her is like having an entire dream team wrapped up in one person."

Michelle Broderick, Chief Marketing Officer, USAFacts (2024)

Work with me

Brand Strategy • Creative Direction • Art Direction • Data Visualization • Style Guides • Logo Design • Illustration • Presentation Design • PowerPoint Templates • Event Experience Design • Accessibility Reviews • Creative Consultation

Do you have a creative project you need help with? Send me a note! I'll get back to you as quickly as possible, usually within a business day or two. If your project sounds like a good fit, we'll schedule a quick 30-minute discovery call to discuss next steps.

Alicia Thornber
Founder and Creative Director
Distillery A Creative

"This PowerPoint is stunning – the animation and builds – WOW!!!
I’m blown away. I know you are talented – but geeeez this is out of the ballpark."

Jae Ellard, Founder, Simple Intentions