A Northumberland design company has moved into new, larger offices as part of its continuing growth strategy.
AS Design North East is now based at the Spetchells Centre on Front Street in Prudhoe, having moved across from its former location on the nearby Dukes Industrial Estate.
The new offices, which are more than 50 per cent bigger than the company’s previous home, provide the business with the room it needs to expand the range of services it can offer and accommodate the new recruits who will deliver them.
AS Design North East already provides graphic design services across print and digital media for a range of different functions, including branding, logo design, web design, social media and marketing.
And having worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers earlier in the year to bring in a growth capital investment from the North East Small Loan Fund, it is now adding further services to this list, including SEO, e-commerce, digital advertising management and coding.
Over the past two years, the team has grown to five people, including young designer and web developer Nathan Cockburn, who was originally recruited via the Government’s Kickstart programme and who has since gone on to become a senior member of the team, leading work around the launch of and co-owning AS Design’s sister company, SNAC Digital.
Nathan’s younger brother Josh has now started a new role within the business as a Junior Digital Marketing specialist after spending two years working part-time for the firm whilst at school.
AS Design’s clients include a range of North East SMEs as well as influential musicians Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.
Alan Sawyers says: “With both our team and our range of services continuing to grow, we knew we needed somewhere with a bit more space and we were also keen to stay local.
“The Spetchells Centre offers us a perfect central space in the middle of the town and has its own community of businesses, organisations and groups that make it the ideal venue for us.
“Josh has regularly helped Nathan and I out over the last couple of years, with his role being predominantly working for our ecommerce and production clients, and our new office allows for us all to work together in the same place while we train him up.
“Providing a wider range of services means we can meet more of our clients’ requirements and offer them an efficient single point of contact that delivers more of what they need, and we’re already seeing demand for them growing among both existing and new clients.”
Josh Cockburn adds: “I’m really enjoying my new role, especially learning how to use Photoshop and AI to help create social media content.
“I’ve loved seeing how well Nathan has done over the past couple of years and I hope that I can do the same.”