Optima Design | Blog | The week that was

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The week that was

By Rhona, Graphic Designer on 30 May 2010 | Category: Optima 0 comments

These past few weeks have been massive for Optima. Behind the scenes the web guys have been putting together our new site, taking staff photos (putting up with 'models', some fussier than others...), people have been writing blogs, getting black dresses and black ties ready and there's been lots and lots of finger-crossing...

Last Thursday was the big day, the site went live at last, and at 9am I got a message from Jayne saying we were in the Design Week Top 100 for the first time ever! Last year we were just outside the 100, this year 85! I can only imagine the atmosphere at work that day as I wasn't in, honestly, what a time to book off work, but I heard there was a fair bit of bubbly to say the least. That evening the HEIST Awards in Manchester was the cherry on a massive icing-topped cake with a Silver award for the University of Lincoln prospectus for 2010.

The kudos of a 'Top 100' label is bound to have an effect on us, its certainly a morale-booster in what has been a difficult time for the industry, and its satisfying to know that even in a recession we can move forward. Everyone's going through it but surely our rise this year must mean that we are dealing with things better than a lot of others. I read in Design Week a couple of months ago that there's about 250,000 of us that call ourselves 'designers', so goodness knows how many agencies there are in the UK, let alone in places like London.

So... where do we go from here? The culmination of a lot of hard work over the last year has made this week possible, but as we recycle the empty bottles of bubbly and come back down to earth I wonder how this will affect us going forward and what (if anything) will change.

I've been working here for about 8 months now, and I've come to see our company as a creative, ambitious agency full of individual talents making up a solid team. We pride ourselves on putting clients first, being attentive and approachable, honest and reliable. Our recent achievements have been due to excellent relationships with current clients. For them, nothing should change; we will make sure we continue to look after them.

And for prospective new clients we must seek them out, introduce ourselves and offer the same service, the same values and attention that is our hallmark.

We already have a number of national and international clients, but our raised profile and status will hopefully make us a honeypot for attracting more. I believe we are the first company in the region to make the top 100, another big step for us. The digital age has led to location being less of an issue than it used to be, and with improving road and rail links Lincoln is growing and developing all the time. I'd like to think the fact we've made the top 100 whilst being in Lincoln, not London or Manchester, might show others the merits of investing in this region where we're crying out for more businesses. We now have a top 100 design agency, hint hint!

One thing that this week will provide us with is a platform for future development. We have so much to offer, we're a full-service agency, with a diverse range of talents making up our creative, digital media and print design teams, not forgetting the skills of our account handlers and support staff. We have specialists in typography, packaging design, all things web and print. We even have an award-winning illustrator and a marketeer with over 30 years general marketing and product development experience, specialising in B2B and B2C direct marketing and e-commerce.

Our reputation amongst clients has always brought new ones through the door, but in these difficult economic times we can't take anything for granted, and self-promotion should be at the heart of going forward. In this industry it’s about getting yourself noticed and heard. Our achievements this week need to be our megaphone, to build for even better weeks in the future.