Marcus Richards
We are a London-based design studio that helps brands do something great. We believe that great design backed up by great strategy, can enhance all aspects business.
Tell us about yourself?
I have always had an interest in creating things, initially when I was a school I wanted to be an architect, after a brief stint of work experience I realised that there wasn’t enough colour involved.
At the same time desktop publishing programs such as Quark Express and Photoshop and Apple Macs were starting to become more accessible and after my A-levels (Art, Design & Communication and Geography) I went all in on design and did a BTEC in Design & Communication.
That really kick started my love affair with the possibility of Graphic Design and specifically what could be done digitally.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
There’s a global pandemic coming, but don’t worry you’ll get through it, buckle up, enjoy the ride and don’t give up!
What problem does your business solve?
We give businesses a new or updated brand identity that their customers can get excited about. We delve into the ‘why’ and find out what really makes a business tick and what problems it solves for its new and target customers.
Thorough strategy defines everything we do and we ensure that this carries across all touch-points and channels, stand-out creative that lives in clear ownable space.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Having worked in creative agencies in the UK and Australia, I’ve always had an interest in starting my own agency, to do it my way. The joy comes in helping clients get the very best for their budgets.
We don’t have a niche sector and work with everyone from small start-ups to large multi-national companies.
I believe that’s it’s key to work on different sectors to keep it interesting, designing for sports brand all the time would be boring for the team and I also believe that what you can learn in one sector can influence thinking in another.
What is your magic sauce?
Our team and our partners/external resources, I am trying to bring together people that challenge everything.
Thinking differently about each and every project and a customers needs is what gets the best outcome. We want to create stand-out work that makes the rest of the sector take note.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Continue to grow the team, and the types of projects we work on with trusted and supportive clients.
All of the team has direct exposure to our clients, we want them to be ambitious people and companies that are ready to challenge the status-quo. Otherwise it’s boring right?
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The biggest issue was Covid, but to be honest it was just learning how to work differently. It taught us so much and the legacy is more work life balance for everyone, one thing as a founder is learning when to stop, this was hard when your workplace is your home as well, the lines are blurred.
Now we are back to a hybrid model we’ve learn to get the most out of the days when we are all in the studio together. I have just introduced summer hours, which means we finish at lunch on Fridays in August. I have an opportunity to build a company that I’d love to work at, so that’s what I’m doing.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
Simply put we want ambitious businesses, founders or marketing types to come to us if they are ready to do something great.
Whether it’s a new brand, a website or digital product or even a business problem such as how do I get more customers?
We’ll put our thinking caps on and solve it for you, and it will be fun as well! www.klutch.studio
