2601 operates under the ethos of Creative Print which reflects its offering of being ‘not just a printer’
Not Just a Printer
The brainchild of Steve Williamson and Paul Johnson, 2601 has its fingers in many pies. The company operates under the strapline ‘Creative Print’ with production taking place just a stone’s throw away from SignLink’s own offices in Bristol.
It’s Williamson’s creative background as an artwork designer and Johnson’s long career history in print that enables the business to offer much more than simply print and graphics.
It’s because of this that the company has a healthy book of clients from a number of industries including interiors, hotels, retail, and the ever-demanding TV and film industry which requires extremely tight turnarounds and little notice in between jobs.
The two founders came together in 2015 having worked together over the years before at various print companies and 2601 was born. “I’ve known Paul for 20 years,” explains Williamson.
“My dad’s business was a typesetting company and Paul was working for a digital print company in Bristol. We needed an apprentice at my dad’s company to run a new printing machine, so we hijacked Paul.
[L to R] Paul Johnson and Steve Williamson founded 2601 in 2015
“Unfortunately, the company eventually folded and Paul went back to his previous employment and I went off working freelance to start with as an artwork designer and then started working for an agency.”
Despite this, the pair’s paths continued to cross when Williamson called on Johnson as his large-format print contact for the agency he was currently working for. Two decades later and they decided they wouldn’t mind giving it a go themselves.
“The company Paul was working for was going to be moving to Wales and there was going to be a big hole for a digital print company in Bristol,” Williamson continues.
Taking the Reins
Starting out, the pair had only one agreement. Williamson didn’t want to be involved with print and to do the creative side of things, and Johnson didn’t want to do design, he just wanted to sell and print.
This suited the founders fine and taking on two members of staff and investing in a HP Latex 360, a Design Jet Z 6800, and a laminator, off they went.
Working within a mailing house on a little mezzanine floor in the premises, Williamson recalls the company’s first ever job being a bright orange roller banner.
“It seemed ‘wowing’ for me as I’d never been involved with the actual print element of it before. Before we knew it, we were doing a lot of car campaigns for Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, but via a design agency. I soon got very bored of seeing roller banners and PVC banners by the boatload. But it was fantastic for us to get going.”
Some may be wondering what the significance of the numbers ’2601’ are and what they stand for, and the story behind the business’ name started years before the inception of the company itself. Having been working for a design agency for so long, Williamson had decided he wouldn’t mind giving it a go himself at some point so he created himself a brand.
The company has designed its own premises to reflect the broad range of services it can provide
“At the time, I’d just had a baby girl and she was born on January 26th, so I called it 2601. I created some colourful branding for myself and raised the company on Companies House, got everything ready, and then didn’t proceed with it and stayed with the company for another four-odd years.”
The benefit of this however meant that when Williamson and Johnson came to launch their own business, the branding was done and the company was already registered and ready to go.
“It didn’t mean anything to anybody apart from me, and it was quite quirky and left a bit of mysteriousness to it,” says Williamson.
No Pigeonhole in Sight
This is quite fitting when you consider the broad range of products the company has since grown to offer and as a result, the name hasn’t pigeonholed the business into just one area of print.
According to Williamson, the founders never wanted 2601 to be a large-format printer only due to the design and artwork skills Williamson offers.
“We don’t want to just be a printer because we work with other printers. We wanted to let people know we are here to create whatever you need, but predominately in the print environment. We’re a little arm to your company in whichever respect you want us to be, rather than ‘we only do print’ or ‘we only do design’.”
We’re a little arm to your company in whichever respect you want us to be, rather than ‘we only do print’ or ‘we only do design’”
This ethos can be seen in the work 2601 produces today, having moved away from traditional work such as posters and banners, the company enjoys producing interior work due to its creative nature.
This includes a lot of wall coverings, and playing around with various materials. Then came the TV and film sector which is very fast-paced and what Williamson and Johnson have been used to in previous roles.
“We’ve always been geared to quick turnaround, so to be able to apply quick turnaround to quality and bespoke work and design was like the golden recipe I believe,” says Williamson.
“It’s lovely to have someone turn up at two o’clock in the afternoon with a fully printed job that is very lucrative to us, and ticks the boxes for them and has gotten them out of a hole. A lot of the people in TV and film rely on us so heavily for our speed and expertise.”
When you look at the quick turnarounds and variety of work being produced day in, day out at 2601 HQ, it can be baffling to comprehend how the company is pulling this off with such a small team.
The workforce is made up of four in production including a newly hired production manager, Williamson and another in the studio who do artwork and design, Johnson and another in sales and production, and another person who works a couple of days a week who assists in things that aren’t day-to-day work related.
Working Smart
When quizzed on how the team stays on top of the never-ending load of jobs coming in, Williamson says: “Work smart. get the right kit for what you’re trying to achieve. We’ve always wanted machines that we can chop and change materials on really fast because we’re not doing metres and metres worth of print on the same machine.
“We needed that flexibility of creating whatever we want, whenever we want, and doing it fast. But at the same time, the long runs that we do get, we can run them overnight and work smart that way.”
Also keeping the business going smoothly is the way the entire team puts their hand to any task in front of them. Everyone looks after the day-to-day and gets stuck in.
The addition of a new production manager in recent months has also enabled Johnson to take a step away from the general running of jobs and focus more on the business development side of things.
“Myself and Steve were spinning a lot of plates,” he explains. “I’m not saying that they were falling off, but it took up a lot of our time. You end up coming in on the weekends, staying late yourself, and we felt that the business wasn’t going to grow if we were a big part of being in it.
(Above & below) A roll-out of X Stone at Castle Combe has transformed the visitor shop
“Especially myself, I was up and down the stairs – I managed to get my steps in – but I was ordering inks, materials, couriers, organising all the fitting and installation teams, working out everyone’s holidays and lunch breaks, as well as trying to manage the business’ accounts and make sure all our clients were happy, being responsive with quotes, and going out and doing site visits.
"We now feel that with the production managed successfully, we can add more capacity and add more sales, which is what it’s all about.”
With Johnson now freed up more to focus on the business he says the company will be concentrating more on social media, as well as new products such as its wall surface offering.
The company has been experimenting and playing around with concrete on a roll from X Stone with the business set to become the UK distributor of the product.
Pushing the Limits
True to its ‘Creative Print’ ethos, 2601 has been pushing the limits of what is possible in this sector. Most recently, the company completed a roll-out of the visitor shop at Castle Combe using X Stone products with the results creating an impressive industrial look to the site.
“We’ve been playing around with different substrates and testing them, illuminating them, putting them outdoors, wrapping logos in them, cutting logos out of them, which we’re enjoying at the moment,” explains Johnson.
The way 2601 has bent the boundaries of what’s possible or what has been done before with this product demonstrates the way it approaches work on the whole.
Johnson adds: “When it came to us, it was just concrete on a roll, and then we go ‘what can we add to it? And ‘what can we put on it? We’d seen what its capabilities were but we wanted to take it further.
“We’re now adding to acoustic panels and V grooving shapes and clients’ logos into acoustic panels. So not only have you got a concrete wall, it’s now acoustic. Those properties and values are now added to the wall.”
Johnson says his own team members will even take products home to experiment and find out different ways to add value due to their own interest in the materials.
“As a business owner, to have your staff go and try stuff in their own time is just fantastic and it just opens up a whole new world.”
As the company evolves and expands its product offering, its own premises are set to grow too. The company is preparing for a mezzanine to be built into its 12-metre-high building.
Buying the building the business currently operates from in itself is one of the founders’ proudest moments. “It wasn’t even on our radar to do,” Williamson explains.
“It’s been in our goals in general at some point in our lives to own our own business but we got forced into the situation by being asked to vacate the rented property we were in. But it’s been fantastic.
To be able to achieve a commercial mortgage ourselves is amazing and it genuinely changed everyone’s ethos and mentality once we were here”
“To be able to achieve a commercial mortgage ourselves is amazing and it genuinely changed everyone’s ethos and mentality once we were here. It feels different, even though we are doing the same thing.”
Time to Grow
Currently, the company is operating out of its 4,000sq ft production room with all machines on one floor. One of the main reasons for putting the mezzanine in, Johnson explains, is to split production over two levels and have space for goods in and dispatch, and to have stock in all the time.
“Because a lot of our work requires a quick turnaround, especially for the TV and film industry, we need to keep a high level of stock in, and we need more space,” explains Johnson, adding: “We’re hoping to have it by the end of June.”
As well as expanding the premises, the owners have been busy making the building their own and reflecting the many products and services the company offers.
This has been done through adorning the meeting space and offices with various wall coverings, from textiles to the new X Stone concrete wall covering, and playing around with acoustics and window graphics. The idea is to create a space that is also a showroom for the company to bring customers in to show what it is capable of.
On what he wants people to take away from this article when gaining an insight into 2601, Johnson says: “It’s just to show people that we are not just a printer. Creative Print is our strapline and we provide solutions. We become part of our clients and we’ve got such great blue-chip clients that we’ve become friends with. We want to continue that and grow that.
“We are a fun, good team, and we bend over backward for our clients all the time. Our turnaround time on projects is second to none. We do everything and take the stress away from our clients and that’s what they love about us. We want to show them what’s new out there and what we can offer.”
Since visiting the company before Christmas and returning in May to find out if anything new was happening (turns out a lot was happening!), the company hasn’t stopped and is constantly adding new products to its offering.
This is due to the creative and experimental nature of the team with them constantly looking at how to do more and bend the boundaries of what’s already being done. With that said, we’re excited to see what the company will be doing in another few months’ time, as I am sure there will be lots more to report!
Statistics
- Founded – 2015
- Size of site – 4,000sq m
- No of staff – 9
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