The Engine Room

The Engine Room team of (from left) Mark Edwards, Lesley Gulliver, Darren Evans and Leo Parker

The Engine Room is proving a powerful force among design and branding agencies.

The business, based at the Media Centre in Huddersfield, was launched in 2001 and boasts a talented team of designers, strategists, web developers, photographers and creative writers.

The Engine Room boasts clients across all sectors – from global multi-billion turnover medical technology companies to regional SMEs in the manufacturing and service sectors.

The agency has three Design Effectiveness Awards to its name – the only design awards that recognise and judge projects on the basis of the effectiveness that design has on the client’s business upturn and ultimately its growth.

The Engine Room is also a member of the Design Business Association, which exists to promote professional excellence in the sector. It also has a close connection with the Design Council, the industry’s national strategic body. Managing director Lesley Gulliver is one of only a small number of design associates representing the Design Council in the UK.

Fourteen 19

Graham Sykes, Managing Director of Huddersfield-based youth engagement agency Fourteen19

A digital agency set up to get more young people engaged with the world of work has secured contracts with some major names.

Fourteen 19 was set up in 2010 by Graham Sykes, managing director of In House Marketing, to celebrate 10 years of trading. This philanthropic gesture was also taken in response to the changing landscape in the marketing sector which was seeing margins cut, clients going out of business and a proliferation of start-ups buoyed by low barriers to entry and widespread redundancies.

After being a runner-up in the 2012 Examiner Business Awards, Fourteen 19 won a contract to promote the Kirklees Youth Enterprise Centre, where more than 70 people were encouraged to start their own businesses.

In 2014, with the contract delivered, the agency was identified by Leeds City Regional Enterprise Partnership as a “potential high growth” company and allocated funding to work with a business adviser. Since then, th agency has increased turnover by 53% and seen profits more than double. It has employed two more people to take its total to six and has worked with more than 100 young people on live client projects, research sessions or mentored commissions.

Key account wins have included ones with the FA to promote football in schools.

Crafty Praxis

Elisa Etemad of Crafty Praxis, Byram Arcade, Huddersfield.

A grant from the University of Huddersfield helped Elisa Etemad embark on a sparkling career running her own business designing and selling jewellery, millinery, illustrations, handmade greetings cards and craft kits.

Almost four years after she launched Crafty Praxis, based at Byram Arcade in Huddersfield, Elisa has more than tripled the number of suppliers she works with, moved into bigger premises and seen her turnover and profit steadily increase.

She organises successful craft fairs and workshops as well as handling the day-to-day running of her own shop, manufacturing many of the products, communicating with suppliers and handling social media, advertising, admin and accounts.

Elisa said: “As well as the various commercial sides to my business I offer my own expertise to other young entrepreneurs hoping to set up their own businesses; I am working with the University of Huddersfield as an official placement provider.”