Impression Studio, a brand strategy and digital design agency working with brands in food and drink, property, tech and more, was founded in Harrogate in 2009.
The agency also has a London office, and most recently launched Next Chapter, a sister business focusing on digital marketing led by Impression Founder Charlie Hartley and Daniel Swepson who joined from Woven.
Following the COVID pandemic and months of working from home, Hartley wanted to make a new, inviting space to welcome the team back as it approached a new chapter.
The agency worked with Design Tonic on its new studio, developing and enhancing Hartley’s original vision to revamp the site on Albert Street, to form a creative and impactful environment for staff.
Charlie Hartley, Co-founder and Owner, commented on the space’s ambition…
“Harrogate has been our home since 2009 and we’re committed to further growing the business in the town. Our investment is part of our longer-term growth strategy.
“We’ve doubled in size over the last 18 months and we wanted to create a creative studio environment where clients and staff come to feel inspired and reflect our culture & values.”
Where is it?
Regent House, 13-15 Albert Street, Harrogate, HG1 1JX
How big is it?
The studio is 1,800 square feet. Built as a collaborative and creative studio, the space includes zoned areas that flow together and include team workstations and hotdesk workstations, a communal breakout area with cafe style dining, benches and armchairs, a kitchen and a large meeting room with 65-inch mounted screen.
On entering the studio visitors are greeted by specially commissioned murals by artist Mr Penfold, and a large screen for personalised client messages.
The desire to evoke a modern, more industrial space is shown in the use of a heightened ceiling that reveals the steel cable, lighting and ducting trays. This industrial feel is echoed in the use of scaffold poles to build the furniture, then topped with reconditioned raw wood planks.
A dark backdrop that involved painting both the walls and ceiling in dark grey was applied, while accents of velvet were included to create plush breakout areas. Feature lighting complements each zone and hard-wearing floor vinyls complete the fun industrial look.
To balance the harder backdrop, playful pops of colour were added throughout, allowing the personality and spirit of the agency to shine.
What happens there?
Since 2009 Impression Studio has been based within Harrogate. Initially designing and building websites, over the years their services progressed to include branding for businesses across the region and beyond.
The team now specialises in brand-building and deliver digital experiences and marketing for food and drink, lifestyle, B2B, retail outdoor and technology brands.
More recently they’ve launched Next Chapter – which provides services that include creating marketing campaign concepts, managing marketing strategies, SEO, email, and conversational marketing.
Both Impression and Next Chapter work with established brands and those in their infancy. Impression helps to create brands from the ground up, from naming and brand identity, to digital ecosystem and ecommerce site design and build.
Next Chapter assists those same businesses and many more with their digital marketing strategy, campaign creation and management.
Why is the workplace appropriate?
The new studio is the perfect environment to promote and showcase the creativity of the team. It plays host to all aspects of the process of working with Impression and Next Chapter; from initial chemistry and briefing meetings, to collaborative brand naming, user journey or wireframing workshops.
The open-plan setting allows the teams to collaborate and service their joined clients seamlessly. Quite often there are clients in and around the studio reviewing work with the team, monitoring campaign performance, and celebrating successes and projects going live.
Their marketing team is able to take over the co-working desks, so are present for the entire creation and launch process of a campaign.
As we work with such vibrant and disruptive brands, our studio reflects their ethos while showcasing the personality of our businesses. Having breakout areas creates a multitude of options for meetings. It’s a space that is inviting for those who work within and for those that visit too.
The growing team now has a space that they can be proud of, and in a post-pandemic world who doesn’t want to work in a welcoming and inclusive environment?
Who works there?
The office plays host to both agencies. As both work across brands and clients, the space needs to play host to the core team as well as the many freelance folk that come through the doors.
On any day there may be as many as 14 people working collaboratively, so plenty of space to work was a crucial factor in the office design.
Both businesses are headed up by the CEO and Founder, Charlie Hartley. In addition to CEO and Founder Charlie Hartley, the management team is made of Daniel Swepson, Head of Marketing for Next Chapter; Jordan Donnelly, Head of Design; and Adam Bushell, Head of Development.
The businesses also include Project Managers, Graphic designers, Web Developers, a Content Marketing Manager and a Digital Marketing Manager. However, the team is growing all the time so the space has been designed to accommodate all those joining.
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