6 reasons to talk to our creative design studio

We’re the small creative design studio working with massive names.

In the past, you might’ve looked to a large firm for all your design needs. Now, it seems that more and more companies are partnering with smaller, more niche teams. That would be us.

Our tight-knit team of skilled creatives is more responsive, more engaged and more productive. We’re nimble, and fit neatly into existing teams, filling any internal knowledge gaps to boost a whole division. It’s how we worked with HMRC to bring in an additional £600 million in six weeks. Though we might be on the smaller end of the scale, we continuously deliver big results.

And it’s not just HMRC’s just the start of the list. We work with some of the biggest players in insurance, financial services and utilities on both sides of the Atlantic (and beyond).

1. We’re leaders in information design

Our heritage is in a niche discipline called information design and we’re proud to be leading the way as it becomes more and more mainstream.

As our founder, Andrew Boag put it, ‘We are all used to the feeling of drowning in a sea of information… Information design helps people cope with this information overload’.

In short, information design is creative, user-centered problem-solving. Ask one of our skilled designers to reduce error rates on forms and they’ll do just that. With shiny brand application rolled in too. Not only do you get a form that ticks all the brand boxes, but it really works. After all, the bigger picture can only come together when the smaller elements are behaving.

We’ve got plenty of experience designing technical documents like utility bills and credit card statements. Because who says bills have to be bland? We see them as one of the most important components of customer relationships. But time and time again, we see them crippled by a design that puts customers’ needs last.

So, we put equal parts common sense and creative flair together to show that bills don’t have to be boring. Our recent work for United Utilities combines color, iconography, and graphics to bring clarity to a bill that’s so often discarded for its difficulty. Jen Felton, Head of Communications, certainly agrees: “outré creative certainly live up to their mantra of making complex things simple.”

2. Our creative design studio produces unforgettable visual identities

Some of the world’s most recognizable brands have existed in the same guise for decades and longer. As the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

But what happens when the above-the-line customer experience far outstrips the below-the-line experience? It can have a real impact on revenue.

So when we take care of rebrands and brand evolutions, we combine our expertise in the transactional and operational side of things with big ideas to bring brands to life.

Whenever we develop visual identities, we take a look at the whole picture to understand it from every angle (and not just from the billboards and bus liveries). We know you need your brand to deliver on a promise that’s more than purely physical.

3. We balance creativity and compliance

Working in heavily regulated industries isn’t for everyone. There are often so many rules to navigate that most creative design agencies run a mile. Not us.

Take our work with Ofgem. We teamed up during the Retail Market Review consultation to talk about how creativity can be clear and compliant, contributing to the guidelines that all energy suppliers need to follow.

Crucially, we’re not simply yes men. Our designers know how to push brands, while keeping an eye out for the details, to make sure even the tiniest points don’t go amiss. And we’ve got a great eye for accessibility standards too.

Our copywriters then get down to business, translating legalese and jargon into effective English that doesn’t alienate customers.

It’s this kind of balance that helped us win first place in the US Center for Plain Language’s ClearMark Awards for our clear and effective dual-language energy bills and letters for First Choice Power.

4. We deliver results and returns on investments

While it’s all well and good to produce something pretty, we know that design has to go further. Much further. It’s a popular refrain these days but we’ve been banging the results drum ever since we opened our doors back in 2000. Delivering measurable, quantifiable results is what gets us going – because we know there’s nothing better than cold, hard facts to get people on board.

With design being a pretty subjective subject, and with the world and its wife having an opinion, we’ve always kept sight of the KPI at the end of the tunnel. Proving that a design decision has directly increased operational savings, improved customer satisfaction and reduced churn means we’re a force to be reckoned with.

And we’re not ones to brag but we’ve…

• Doubled a year’s digital uptake in just two days for Philadelphia Insurance Companies.
• Reduced inbound phone calls by 56% in a single quarter for Aetna International
• Increased funding applications by 83% for King’s College London

That’s what we mean by real results. And we have more to share, too. Check them out.

5. Who you see is who you get

We don’t hide behind pitch teams or draft in expensive consultants to help us seal the deal. Instead, you’ll always meet and work with the team from our creative design studio who’ll be flexing their muscle on your creative from beginning to end.

Not only is there complete consistency in whatever we produce but you’ll also get to know us as people too.

And we’ll get to know you, too. That’s one of our favorite parts of every job.

A creative design studio that’s just a little bit… different

We’re an honest bunch – we’ll always tell you when there’s something that needs that little bit of extra polish and then we’ll jump to it to make it happen.

And even if we’re not working together yet, we’re more than happy to take a look at what you’re currently doing and give you a few tips.

What’s more, we tell it like it is. We’re a no-bull agency, so you can sit back knowing you won’t need to play buzzword bingo in our meetings. We’re outré by name, outré by nature.