Left: The entire
team, in front of
Rose’s studio at
The Old School in
Rotherhithe,
London. Front, left
to right: Simon
Elliott and Garry
Blackburn.
Second row: Abbie
Edis, Rémi
Mortimer, Joanna
Waclawski and
Yafet Bisrat.SEPTEMBER 2019 ROSE
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMHOW TO STAY SMALL
AND SUCCESSFUL
As it celebrates its 20th year in business,
designers at London award-winning consultancy
Rose tell Tom May about how it pursues big
visions while keeping its team streamlined
STUDIO INSIGHT
W
hen you’re always hearing
about a studio winning
awards, or landing major
clients, it’s easy to assume
they’re a global behemoth,
with thousands of full-time staff. And you’d
certainly be forgiven for making the same
mistake about Rose.
Despite regularly ranking among the world’s
top creative branding agencies, winning more
than 100 international creative awards, and
continually popping up in the design press, Rose
consists of just six full-time employees. And they
have every intention of staying that way.
We sat down with Rose’s designers to
chat about the secret to their longevity, their
20th anniversary celebrations, their unusual
workplace, and more.What’s the story behind Rose?
Simon Elliott: Rose was founded in 1999 by
my good friend Rebecca Oliver, the ‘Ro’ in
Rose, and myself, the ‘se’. We’d both worked in
several famous agencies, and learned from the
best people, before deciding to create our own
independent business.
Garry Blackburn: When I started working with
Simon in 2003, the studio had become renowned
for publishing, print, stamps and marketing
campaigns. My background had been in brandingROSE
Branding consultancy Rose works with organisations ranging from
small businesses to global corporations around the world.
Recognised by more than 100 major creative awards, Rose is also
part of the inaugural Department of International Trade Creative
Taskforce – the UK government’s top 100 creative agencies for
exporting British creativity across the globe.
http://www.rosedesign.co.ukand we both felt our skills would complement
each other. Since then our focus has been on
branding, which is now what we’re best known for.Twenty years in business is certainly a great
achievement: can you tell us the secret to
your longevity?
SE: We’ve never been a fashionable agency. On
the contrary, the word that makes us happiest,
when people describe our work, is ‘timeless’. In
an industry as transient, fast-moving and fickle
as ours, we’re proud to have remained consistent
and relevant in what we do.
GB: Our intention has always been to stay
small. We chose to work in the creative industry
because we love creativity. Staying small gives
us that luxury, so we never have to say yes to
anything and everything just to feed a lot of
mouths. Being the size we are, we can be more
selective, which also helps us manage our
workload. We get to plan projects and dedicate
time to clients, big and small.
SE: People who don’t know us often see our
client list and assume we must be much larger
than we are. But we’re proud to be only six people
full-time. Garry and I don’t need lots of people,
just really good ones! We like the freedom of not
having to say yes to everything, or creating a
monster that needs constant feeding.And now you’re publishing a special book
to celebrate?
SE: We are! It’s a little ironic, but designers don’t
usually spend enough time on their own brands,
and marketing themselves. So part of the reason
for our book is an unapologetic celebration of
our 20 years. It’s also been cathartic to remind
ourselves of projects we were once so proud of,
but had almost forgotten about. Most copies will
be going to clients, collaborators and friends, but
we’ll be selling a limited number ourselves.