Perfect partnership in print

It is far more common these days to do your entire food shop in one supermarket, rather than visiting the butcher’s, baker’s, greengrocer’s, and so on. It takes the stress out of it, and saves time. Now, bringing things back to sign and print, this could be why design agencies offering the whole package are so influential. Quickly disappearing are the days of going to one company for a brochure and another for web design.

Take Hoggett Creative, for example, a company which can produce design, print, web, photography, video, signage, and more. The Annan-based company has grown 300 percent over the last year and is continuing down this avenue of expansion. Founder, Simon Woolley, keeps an eye on all of the projects as many of its clients have been with the company since day one.

Woolley, who studied graphic design at university, tells me why he enjoys what he does: “Every day is different, and you never know what is coming through the door next. It is all I have ever done, from university all the way through to now, so I do not know anything other than this, but I would not change it.


“We see ourselves as, if you will pardon the cliché, a one-stop-shop. The idea is that a client comes to us, we can manage every part of the project from designing the logo and packaging, through to printing the business cards and making a website. We manage it from start to finish, which takes the headache out of design projects. In fact, we have just brought out a new tagline for the company of, ‘We can do that’.”

Hoggett Creative is currently outsourcing all of its signage work, but Woolley says bringing this in-house is something the company is looking at following the success of bringing its digital printing in-house.

“We are outsourcing signage mainly to one supplier which is based in Stoke, but we have got a few different suppliers for different projects,” comments Woolley, adding: “We have been using our current supplier for over 15 years so we have got a good relationship. They know us and our clients, so it is a lot easier, although time scale and delivery is always an issue.

“This is why we brought the digital print in-house, for time scales, more consistency, and being able to have the designers check over the artwork so we know what is designed is what will come out, and that the client will be happy with it. We like to have control over what we are doing.”

Game-changing kit

Woolley’s reference to bringing digital print in-house has been a major project for the firm, and it has largely been made possible through a close working relationship with sector-specialist supplier Xeretec; indeed, Hoggett Creative received its third machine from Xeretec in mid-November this year.



He says: “The machine we have got currently is the Xerox Colour J75 press, but we have just taken delivery of a Xerox Versant 180 press, which is a game-changer for us. As soon as we saw the quality of it, we knew we had to get it, also for the speed but mainly the quality. We are always looking for the best thing for our artwork, so our designers do not have anything to hold them back.



 
“The support we get from Xeretec is really good. Even if it is just a quick phone call, it could be at half past five, I can phone them and talk through ideas. When we were growing, they came to see us straight away and talked about the different options we had. Also, we are based in the middle of nowhere, but it has never been an issue for a Xerox service engineer to come and repair the machine if it has gone down.



 
“We probably would not have grown on the print side of the business the way we have without the support of Xeretec, and we know as we continue to grow they will do their best for us. I do not feel they are just looking for the sale, they want to support us and help in any way they can.”


Hoggett Creative has a wide range of clients it produces work for. Woolley tells me about one particular client that is a manufacturer and worldwide distributor. He explains: “We do their design work, print, photography, signage, and exhibition work. It ships around the world, so we produce work in five different languages for them: English, Finnish, Swedish, German, and Russian.



 
“We provide an English document in Word, send it to their distributors, and they send it back in the right language. Russian was the hardest as we had to change the typefaces as there are only certain ones that work with the Russian language and you cannot hyphenate because it changes the meaning completely.”

The future looks bright for Hoggett Creative, as it is looking to expand its team, equipment, and production space.

Woolley says: “We are looking for additional designers at the moment and for print finishing equipment. Space is also a bit of an issue. We moved into our new premises in January thinking that the place was big enough, but we have outgrown it already, which is a good thing as it says something about the demand we are getting. We will look to expand out the back or take on separate unit.”

Hoggett Creative is a fantastic example of a company making the most of its facilities, equipment, and skills by offering the whole package to its clients; and this is certain to see it continue its success.


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