Gillian Jones Designs

Military Art Prints from a Former Royal Navy Officer.

Gillian Jones Designs is a small UK military-art studio based in Portsmouth, founded in 2021 by Gillian Jones — and her route to the studio is the sort of properly substantive backstory that the wider art-print market rarely produces. Gillian holds a BEng and a PhD in Manufacturing Engineering from Nottingham University, worked as an engineer for Cyanamid, Rolls-Royce Aerospace, and IBM UK Laboratories, then at thirty joined the Royal Navy as an Engineering and Training Management Officer (a role nicknamed a "Schoolie"), serving at BRNC Dartmouth, HMS Campbeltown, HMS Ocean, and HMS Sultan. After a career break to raise her two sons, health issues redirected her plans away from teaching and back towards a life-long love of painting, and the result is a brand that brings genuine technical fluency and lived military experience to a category usually dominated by either grey-toned nautical pastiche or generic regimental imagery. Gillian's work has been featured in every episode of the BBC's Warship: Tour of Duty, and she's a partner of the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity, donating 5% from each Royal Navy-themed print to the charity alongside prints for raffles and fundraising events.

The catalogue covers limited-edition and open-edition art prints across the British forces — Royal Navy ships, Royal Air Force aircraft, British Army vehicles, and a growing selection of international navies — alongside bespoke commissions for individual servicepeople and their families. The brand's signature commission is the "career fleet" — a personalised piece illustrating every ship someone has served on across their naval career, which makes a properly meaningful retirement or leaving gift in a category where the usual options are either a card or a watch. Gillian's engineering background shows in the unusually accurate detail: if you ask for HMS Sheffield as she looked in 1982, Gillian will research the correct antennae and armaments for that exact year. Each piece is printed on archival fine-art paper and framed in FSC-certified wood, made to order in the UK, and dispatched within five working days. The studio team is Gillian, virtual assistant Hannah, and Togi the studio dog (who occasionally appears in the artwork himself).

For more pieces from independent makers, browse our Home Décor collection or discover home-grown design through our British Makers selection. Find considered presents in our Gifts for Him edit, explore made-to-order pieces in our Personalised collection, and find values-led picks via Shop by Purpose.