Code Computer love is a digital design company based in Manchester’s city centre. It is one of the leading digital design agencies in the UK and the number one agency outside of London. Their fresh contemporary and innovative style has gathered over forty awards in the last five years and has acquired an impressive portfolio of clients such as HMV, Umbro, Waterstones, and Huggies.
Code continues to define the digital industry here in Manchester and offers a wide range of services such as online marketing, web development, interactive technologies and TV and animation, making them the only full service digital agency in Manchester. Code is proud of its heritage and collaborates with the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), Manchester Digital and E-Consultancy to raise the digital profile of the region.
Code has a team of 46 designers and marketing specialists priding itself on the work they produce, this means that they recruit knowledgeable people with extraordinary skills. Code is always recruiting the ‘very best’ talent around and has a tough recruitment process where only the right person gets through. In 2006 they head hunted an award winning freelance interactive designer ‘Stewart Hamilton’ so they could offer his skills in the latest technology to clients. They insist and thrive on experimenting in new and exciting ways of presenting clients with innovative ideas in order to connect with their consumers, offering them a service beyond the norm.
The company established itself in 1999 and started off small, in a rented room above a hairdresser’s shop in Stockport. Tony Foggett, Wini Tse and Louis Georgiou are the founding directors of Code. Tony and Louis first crossed paths whilst studying an educational media design degree at the MMU and coincidentally they met again working at the same design company, Mainstream. This is where they met their third partner, Wini Tse and became friends.
As the three colleagues worked with each other they realised that there was a potential market for multimedia at a time when design was predominately paper based. This was a perfect business opportunity to be taken advantage of; as people did not realise. As Foggett recalls: “For us it’s the specialism that’s always been the key, and that’s why we decided to jump ship”.(1)“There’s a huge difference between a specialist agency and a full service advertising agency that offers digital as just one of those services. When digital’s a ‘bolt on’ you may get a nice integrated approach, but digital in its own right needs to have a much more on-going, focused and long term strategy”.(2)
“It surprises me that there aren’t larger agencies with the capabilities of us around. In fact I’d argue that we’re now emerging as the only real full service digital agency (in Manchester) – in that there are other design and build, or advertising based agencies, but nobody that’s actually integrating creative, media and planning like we are.”(3)
In April 1999 they started their business with a mere £3000 and bought a new computer with basic equipment in order to setup their first office. They financed their office space by trading five months of rent for a website! The team then planned a strategy to attract cliental by teaming with the same traditional design agencies that undervalued digital so they could build their client base. Traditional design companies agreed with this and would bring Code on board to develop digital solutions as they could not offer such services themselves. This allowed Code to have access to renowned brand names and media exposure.
Over the years they took on many projects; however, one in particular positively changed their future and cemented the company reputation. The website commissioned by ‘Doctor Martens’ the shoe company’s. This was a breakthrough for them as their work on the website was impressionable and instrumental in securing them a permanent place with the massive corporation KCC Kimberley Clark Corporation (Huggies).
Tony Foggart: “We put an awful lot of love and attention into that website, really demonstrating how well we could get to grips with a brand, and it paid off. We got a lot of great jobs off the back of it and secured a great relationship with DM. It was a real turning point.”(4)
The managing director of Code has well established the company and has acquired a great achievement by attracting big brand names that opted for them over their competitors in London. “We love sticking it up the south”. (5) “We’re Manchester people and we love it here. I think that fact makes us more determined - gives us an extra yard in preparing for pitches – and that usually pays dividends.”(6)
http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-features/special-features/deciphering-code-20070814801/ (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Code continues to define the digital industry here in Manchester and offers a wide range of services such as online marketing, web development, interactive technologies and TV and animation, making them the only full service digital agency in Manchester. Code is proud of its heritage and collaborates with the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), Manchester Digital and E-Consultancy to raise the digital profile of the region.
Code has a team of 46 designers and marketing specialists priding itself on the work they produce, this means that they recruit knowledgeable people with extraordinary skills. Code is always recruiting the ‘very best’ talent around and has a tough recruitment process where only the right person gets through. In 2006 they head hunted an award winning freelance interactive designer ‘Stewart Hamilton’ so they could offer his skills in the latest technology to clients. They insist and thrive on experimenting in new and exciting ways of presenting clients with innovative ideas in order to connect with their consumers, offering them a service beyond the norm.
The company established itself in 1999 and started off small, in a rented room above a hairdresser’s shop in Stockport. Tony Foggett, Wini Tse and Louis Georgiou are the founding directors of Code. Tony and Louis first crossed paths whilst studying an educational media design degree at the MMU and coincidentally they met again working at the same design company, Mainstream. This is where they met their third partner, Wini Tse and became friends.
As the three colleagues worked with each other they realised that there was a potential market for multimedia at a time when design was predominately paper based. This was a perfect business opportunity to be taken advantage of; as people did not realise. As Foggett recalls: “For us it’s the specialism that’s always been the key, and that’s why we decided to jump ship”.(1)“There’s a huge difference between a specialist agency and a full service advertising agency that offers digital as just one of those services. When digital’s a ‘bolt on’ you may get a nice integrated approach, but digital in its own right needs to have a much more on-going, focused and long term strategy”.(2)
“It surprises me that there aren’t larger agencies with the capabilities of us around. In fact I’d argue that we’re now emerging as the only real full service digital agency (in Manchester) – in that there are other design and build, or advertising based agencies, but nobody that’s actually integrating creative, media and planning like we are.”(3)
In April 1999 they started their business with a mere £3000 and bought a new computer with basic equipment in order to setup their first office. They financed their office space by trading five months of rent for a website! The team then planned a strategy to attract cliental by teaming with the same traditional design agencies that undervalued digital so they could build their client base. Traditional design companies agreed with this and would bring Code on board to develop digital solutions as they could not offer such services themselves. This allowed Code to have access to renowned brand names and media exposure.
Over the years they took on many projects; however, one in particular positively changed their future and cemented the company reputation. The website commissioned by ‘Doctor Martens’ the shoe company’s. This was a breakthrough for them as their work on the website was impressionable and instrumental in securing them a permanent place with the massive corporation KCC Kimberley Clark Corporation (Huggies).
Tony Foggart: “We put an awful lot of love and attention into that website, really demonstrating how well we could get to grips with a brand, and it paid off. We got a lot of great jobs off the back of it and secured a great relationship with DM. It was a real turning point.”(4)
The managing director of Code has well established the company and has acquired a great achievement by attracting big brand names that opted for them over their competitors in London. “We love sticking it up the south”. (5) “We’re Manchester people and we love it here. I think that fact makes us more determined - gives us an extra yard in preparing for pitches – and that usually pays dividends.”(6)
http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-features/special-features/deciphering-code-20070814801/ (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
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