Tim has been with Little Epic for almost as long as Little Epic has been Little Epic.

We had originally signed with another design company, but we lost confidence in them when they kept moving the goalposts and hiking the price. We stood to lose our £400 deposit by ditching them so we were nervous about starting from scratch with a new designer. But switching to Tim is the best £400 I ever wasted.

That previous company was part of a national franchise that claims to give a personal service but you never actually meet your designer, only the sales guy. Tim is a different breed of design creature. He really is bespoke, and honest and undoubtedly invests a great deal more thought and effort into each project than those popular franchises – but amazingly at little extra cost.

When we approached Tim we had a solid plan of what we wanted our brand to represent and Tim painstakingly got that out of us with a thorough consultation stage. And then a few weeks later, he delivered us our brand. Not just a logo, but a brand – that along with the name sums up our business in an instant and works across all platforms in various forms.

The morning Tim revealed what Little Epic was going to look like in the bar of this hotel after I’d visited one of your meetings, was full of nerves and excitement. He gave us several design options but there was one that stood out as our logo – and I think Tim knew it too.

We emailed it to my business partner there and then and he rang my mobile yelling “It’s f***ing brilliant,” loud enough for Tim – and the rest of the bar – to hear. And it was. F***ing brilliant.

Today, about a year later, the novelty still hasn’t worn off. I still love it as much as that day in the bar at Weetwood Hall. Virtually every time I hand out a business card I get a compliment on it. People recognise and remember Little Epic.

I called a motion graphics company in York recently who I’d never spoken to before and the boss said: “Oh you’re the documentary guys aren’t you? I love your logo.”

Due to the nature of our business, we have relationships with a number of other designers, web developers and marketing agencies and they – Tim’s peers – always leap to compliment our own branding and ask who created it. It saves me from getting any sales pitches off them.

It gives me a confidence in introducing my company as well, which is essential. I don’t feel inferior, no matter what size of company I’m talking to. The only downside is managing expectations. If anything it makes us look too good!

The whole process has helped us to refine the whole business and I think a lot of the way we approach things today has come from that brand creation – with Tim we honed what Little Epic stands for, as well as creating an intelligent visual identity.

Tim goes the extra mile, he’s still always at the end of an email to answer my silly questions (which I really should offer to start paying him for one day) and he likes to check up on how we’re doing and how Little Epic is progressing.

In our experience using a talented, independent designer gave us all the things we found missing in a big agency – integrity, diligence and value for money.

Sarah Crooks
Managing Director, Little Epic

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