Overview of Participating Companies

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Arris Design
www.arris.co.uk

Arris Design is based in Hunsingore a small village north of Wetherby. It is a company that is passionate about design. The team includes a creative director, design director, artworker and new media person along with admin staff. The company has gradually grown over a number of years and has a wide range of clients.

Elmwood
www.elmwood.co.uk

Elmwood is an independent branding and design consultancy based in Guiseley, Leeds. Established 16 years ago it now employs 60 people in the UK and Australia. Of the 60 full-time staff, 68% are creative people so the company has very few administrators.

Originally focussed on design work, Elmwood repositioned itself six years ago to offer a full brand consultancy service and at the same time opened office in London. They offer strategic advice to clients about their communications and use graphic design to implement their strategies, for example by developing advertising campaigns or helping them to launch new products.

Elmwood also has offices in Edinburgh and Melbourne, Australia.

A.C Hainsworths
www.hainsworth.co.uk

A W Hainsworth and Sons Ltd is a family owned and managed business. The family traces its roots in textiles back through eight generations to the end of the 18th century when Abimelech (Old Bim) started manufacturing woollen cloth in Farsley, near Leeds, West Yorkshire. In 1882 production was moved a mile up the valley to Stanningley by Abimelech William Hainsworth, his grandson. The mill is still situated there today.

Originally Hainsworths concentrated on the manufacture of uniform cloths. In the late 1950's however it was decided a change of approach was needed and the company started to diversify. A series of acquisitions were made which brought both new products and new people with experience in the woollens area to the mill. Whilst many textile mills have foundered, Hainsworths' flexible approach to diversification and innovation have helped the company to flourish.

Today Hainsworths is made up of a group of speciality textile divisions which lead the world in their specific areas.'

Rakusen Photography
www.rakusen.co.uk

Rakusen Photography is a company that specialises in industrial photography focusing in on energy, social housing and other environmental issues. The company is a husband and wife team. Monty is the photographer and Liz takes care of the marketing and organising. They have a purpose built studio near Tadcaster. Monty works with a number of assistants who train with him and then go on to be freelance photographers.

Thompson
www.thompsondesign.co.uk

Thompson is a brand communications company based in Oakwood in Leeds. It has two account directors, one account manager, four designers, an art worker and a couple of administrators. Two years ago Ian Thompson the owner took on a managing director and as a result substantially extended the service so they offer advertising as well.

"When you're reasonably skilled it's easy to run a business and simply do the jobs that come along. It takes courage and focus to say, 'This is the type of work I want - or don't want - to do.' I still have to do that from time to time, because as you get a reputation for a particular type of work you tend to get more and more of it. It may not be the kind of work you want for the future so you have to keep taking stock and asking, "What is our goal?" Ian Thompson

Thompson aims to be the best brand consultancy in the North of England. They take a common sense approach to business and understand the commerciality of design. Its clients include Smith and Nephew, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Yorkshire Forward.

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