DS. Emotion

http://www.dsemotion.com/

This is a large design agency that is based in Leeds and London.
They specialise in design, branding and marketing that 'focus on brand driven solutions that add value that will unlock the company and provide clear and strategic thinking.'
This agency's main selling point is that they are committed and build long term relationships with their clients which adds great value to their work.
They say that they react quickly to the changing market; this is a very important selling point for a client  as they will always need a design agency that is the most aware of the surrounding world influences to go get the best results.
The also offer a FREE 1-hour consultancy about the branding - incising factor for a potential client.

The Company Services

Fuse 8

Design agency in Leeds that offers design services in branding, corporate brochures, product brochures and display material. Their selling point as that they provide will create a brand that will create an exerpeince mentum and they will have continuous involvement in aiding this, as well as the brands being given a rewarding and a 'return on engagement'. 

VIA Creative

VIA CREATIVE is a larger design agency that has grown and expanded over the years and now has two offices based in the north of England, one in Redcar and the Other in Hull.
They offer a range of services; they are a branding, web and print based agency that have an 'down to earth, tell it like it is' work ethic that they believe will save their customers both money and time, giving them fast results. Before branding a company they look into and try to understand more about the buisness itself to give the brand more 'purpose.'

North East Office
The Innovation Centre
Kirkleatham Business Park
Redcar
Cleveland
TS10 5SH
T: +44 (0)1642 777848
F: +44 (0)1642 77784


East Yorkshire Office
High Street
North Ferriby
Hull
East Yorkshire
HU14 3EP
T: +44 (0)1482 637390
F: +44 (0)1642 777847

Location of our Business

We have chosen to locate ourselves in Leeds in the QU2 building
It has a fantastic location in the centre of Leeds, it is a very short distance from the train station and also near the ring road so easily accessed from the motorways (M1, M62, M621) and it is on the direct bus line through the city centre. It is much cheaper than our original plan of basing our offices in London and it is at the heart of a creative city and ideally for looking for new and upcoming design tallent as there are 3 main universities in a 10 minute walking radius (Leeds Univeristy, Leeds College of Art, and Leeds Metropolitan).

By basing our offices up North in Leeds the rent is much lower than down south, we will be saving money in our start up costs. To begin with all our clients will be from our surrounding area, keeping our travel costs lower and in the future we hope to expand our client list to down south and around the London area.

By using these premises, our gas, electricity and telephone bills are included in the rental price.

We have chosen to rent a 4 person office space at £365 per month. There was the option of having a 5 person space at £500, we were tempted by this idea as we felt that the new designer that we will be employing per project will need a design space but we then thought that not all of us will be in the office every day of every week; I as the client liaison may be out a majority of the time having meetings with new clients and will not all be designing every day, in which case we can come in on alternate days.

The city of Leeds is bursting full of young and upcoming tallent and many creative opportunities; from the surrounding universities as well as many business opportunities. This will provide us with a constant influx of the best new upcoming talent from our surrounding areas, also giving the graduates a chance to have an experience in a the design industry and to meet potential companies they can one day work with.

The technology of lap tops and imacs allows us to be flexible in where we base ourselves, we will have imacs in our main offices and have our laptops for when we go to meet clients.

http://www.qu2leeds.co.uk/index.htm

This is a map of the Leeds Metropolitan university campus and you can see the location of our premises in releveance to the centre of town (the Light building)

Group Roles

All the members in the company will be part of the designing team as well as their other rolls

Ben Harwood - Accounting and Finance / Designer
Sam Edwards - Senior Director / Designer
Chloe Wilkinson - Creative Director / Designer
Emily Fairbank - Client Lei-son / Designer

Breaking the business research into sections

Ben Harwood - Accounting and Finances, Loans, Investment
Chloe Wilkinson - Marketing
Sam Edwards -  Promotion
Emily Fairbank - Competitors and potential Business, SWOT analysis of competitors

List of Potential Competiors

Here are a list of graphic design agencies and design agencies that specialise in branding. Many of these agencies are based in and around Leeds / West Yorkshire and so will be competing for clients in the same area. Some of these agencies are large, some are small, and some have a number of offices located around england.
The smaller selection of agencies I will later examine against the SWOT and PEST analysis

Brande
Fuse 8
Propaganda
DS Emotion
Brainstorm
Brand New
BML Creative
The Engine Room
Worthington brown
Better
Allen Design Group
Impression
D4
VIA Creative
4D Creative Media
Visual Harmony
Outsmart Agency Ltd
Bennet & Co
DG3
Industrial Action
7nine
L S One Creative
All good
Blue Print Design
Burton Nigel
Elmwood
Emphasis Design Ltd
Ergo Design
Fab 4 Lts
Graphic Display & Design
Greaves Tony
Ignite
Mercury 75 Design
N K D Ltd
Papyrus Design & Print
Stork Design

Dialect - Logo Development