A big welcome to Design375 Ltd who join our growing business community

We met up with Jon Hill from Design 375 Ltd, our new resident business at the Harborough Innovation Centre. After looking at other venues the Design 375 team settled on the fantastic facilities here at the HIC. We asked them what specifically drove them to make their decision….

What is it about the HIC that has motivated you to base your business here?

The opportunity to be based alongside and network with other businesses was the main draw, for a start-up like ourselves making connections is essential and the HIC gave us a friendly and approachable feeling from the get-go. To be part of a network of businesses that we could add value to was a particular incentive. From a financial perspective everything is also very straight-forward and simple to understand, with affordable set costs that are easy to budget for – just what we need at this stage of our journey. The location and facilities here are also excellent, the whole infrastructure is really geared up to help businesses establish and grow.

How has your experience been throughout your move to the centre, from your initial enquiry to your physical move in day?

Having looked at a few other venues beforehand we had a good idea of what to expect and where we envisaged ourselves. Carly, Tim, and the team at the HIC went above and beyond to make us feel welcome from the get-go and ensured we had all of the information we needed. Whether it was showing us around having arrived early or lending us some furniture (so that we weren’t sat on the floor!) we cannot speak highly enough of the team here, it really is a community spirit with a can-do attitude where nothing is too much trouble. Thank you.

We were then excited to learn more about Design 375 so we could share their story with the rest of the community.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Having worked ‘in-house’ for over a decade, we realised that there was a gap in the market for a straight-forward and approachable design company. One that provides to it’s clients a more ‘in-house’ way of working, speaking directly to designers rather than the usual jargon and over-complication of projects that results in a lack of understanding of what is actually happening.

When did you start the business?

We founded the company in October 2019 and went full-time in March 2020… Just in time for lockdown!

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer/manufacture?

Straight-Forward Graphic & Website Design Services. As a multi-discipline design company and our team has many years of professional industry experience and we are proud to have worked with clients of all shapes and sizes across a wide variety of industries, providing design services in:

PRINT DESIGN – Brochures, Business Cards, Signage & POS, Vehicle Liveries…
DIGITAL DESIGN – Social Media Content, Email Marketing, Image Editing, Presentations…
WEB DESIGN – Website Design, Web Development, Domain & Email Hosting, WordPress…
BRANDING – Logo Design, Colour Schemes, Iconography & Brand Guidelines…

To what do you attribute your success?

Honest and down-to-earth design work.

Can you improve something tomorrow based on today’s experience?

Absolutely, this has been a huge learning curve that won’t ever reach its end. In an ever-changing environment, it’s our motivation every day to do better.

What are your companies’ biggest achievements?

Gaining new and retaining existing clients. As a small company we rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising, for our clients to feel confident enough to recommend our services is endorsement enough and as true a reflection of our company that we can ask for. And for surviving the pandemic despite starting up in lockdown!

Do you work locally or nationally?

We work with clients from all over the UK and Internationally. Design is perhaps one of the few industries that is less location centric in its deployment, and we will provide a genuine service to anybody anywhere.

What is unique about your business?

There’s often a stereotype when using design services, an anxiety that the client will lose control of the project and end up with something that isn’t what they had in mind and over budget. Design375 is not like that! We are transparent in everything that we do, which means our clients are able to understand and be involved as much or as little as they’d like. This open mindset keeps things simple as we carefully consider every project from different angles, presenting them in a way that you can understand and relate to.

Have you ever turned down a client?

We have a can do attitude so this doesn’t happen often! However, we are also realistic and keep our feet on the ground, our level of service is very important to us, it’s our defining feature and why we have gained and retained our current client base. We assess every project on an individual basis, so if a client is asking for something that we can’t give 100% too, then we would advise other solutions.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Be true to yourself in deciding what is important to your business, and make each decision based around it… 375 days of the year!

More on us……

You can find out more about the Design 375 team through the below channels