Nameless : digital creative agency
Every fortnight we’ll showcase our members, their work and their companies. We’ll be featuring in-depth profiles and interviews of the city’s brightest creative talents, from exciting new start ups to multi award winning agencies who are all doing their bit to help shape Bristol’s creative and media landscape.
To launch the showcase, we’ve asked digital creative agency Nameless to do us the honours. They opened their studio doors to BM this week and we got down to business with founder and agency MD, Jaya Chakrabarti who gives us the history, low down and an insight to their future plans for one of the cities most established digital agencies.
Jaya, tell us what Nameless do?
“We’re a digital media agency that combines creative juices with Fairtrade caffeine fixes (and an element of cuddliness) to produce creative web-based solutions for a diverse range of organisations.”
Where did it all begin?
“We started in 1999 having spun-out of a larger company, which in turn came out of the BBC. So I guess they’re our great grandparents?! At the time the dotcom bubble was getting bigger and thanks to our original company being bought out we were allowed to leave and set up ourselves bringing with us a healthy list of blue-chip clients.”
So, you’ve got the idea of a business and you’re in the fortunate position of bringing some clients and projects was the main focus of the business to design web sites?
“Not really, we actually started out with an idea for a search engine in 1997, when Google was just a twinkle in the web’s eye. Unfortunately, by the time we’d raised funds to develop the idea, Google had beaten us to it. We like to think that in another universe we’re very, very rich! Nevertheless, thanks to circumstances, a couple of years later we were able to start a creative digital agency.
We were pretty lucky for our official start-up phase, as once our former competitor companies heard we were in the market as a fully-fledged, blue-chip experienced production team, we were inundated with outsourced work. We were also fortunate that some very influential business people helped us out by pointing work our way.”
You’ve got the business up and running and 2000 comes; the bubble burst. Clients stopped spending money and as a result we saw lots of small local web firms go out of business over night. How did the down turn and the subsequent 18 months impact on you and the agency?
“Yes, one of the biggest lows was being hit by the dotcom bubble bursting. With many of the larger agencies that had been sourcing us work going under too we were faced with the decision to either close up shop or battle on. All of the team wanted to continue so we remortgaged our house and everyone opted for little to no pay for a few months, which was enough to see us through the worst of it. The fact that everyone believed in the company so much is something I’ll always be proud of the team for.
After coming through that, we recognised that whilst all the business advisers we met were adamant that we needed investment to grow, we were confident that it wasn’t just about money, but rather who you knew and what you knew. So we decided to make friends. Lots of them. We owe our success today to those friends, as well as the commitment, talent and integrity of our team as we’ve grown. Today, we’re very proud to say that we’re an organically grown company with no artificial investors or preservatives.”
So here you are nearly 10 years on. You’re one of the most established digital shops in town, so what’s driven you and kept you going?
“Having a vision of where you want to be always helps. Of course we want world domination, but that actually translates into making a difference, not just to our clients but also to our community and our planet. We started as a not-just-for-profit company and we’ve seen a lot of good karma as a result. The opportunities we’ve had, and continue to have, help shape us into who we are today: an antibrand that wants to work with brands that keep their promises and care about the world they live in. We’ve turned down some pretty hefty jobs for organisations that didn’t meet with our ethics, but even those have led to even better opportunities around the corner. Good corporate karma works every time.”
What does the future hold? More of the same?
“Well, there’s a lot to be excited about at the moment with some brilliant projects currently underway, not just for clients, but also our own internal research and development projects. Much of our work is understandably hush-hush, but if you keep an eye on the Bristol Media news section you’ll be the second to know when we’re allowed to shout about them.”
Our next phase of development will be exploiting our own in-house intellectual property. Now that we’re bigger and stronger it’s time to take our ideas seriously, giving us and our clients an equally serious competitive edge. It’s too easy to stick to routine client work – they become a comfort zone for many companies, and I never want to be a part of a company that follows success with complacency. I also want to make sure that whilst we never want to be (physically) the biggest company out there that we’re the best place to work… ever. We’ve got a really good thing going and it’s my responsibility to ensure that we don’t lose sight of that.”
“We’ll still grow and expand carefully. We all care about how the company grows – our reputation and ethics are important to us. Many companies have grown by working their staff to the bone or getting investment from potentially damaging sources and that’s not the way we want to be. We’ll be growing in the types of projects that we do, whilst always sticking to things we’re good at.”
So, careful, gradual organic growth; that’s the Nameless mantra?
“Well, the 5 year world domination plan is a little behind schedule, but I see no reason why we won’t be snugly settled in our underground lab and floating data crypt by then. Seriously? I hope that the business will spawn a few more spinout companies based on our collection of IP, each of them able to fuel our future endeavours. That’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.”
And home will always be Bristol?
“Bristol has given me a lot to be thankful for – my independence, my confidence, my education, my husband, our business. I’m one of many who feel an intense ownership of Bristol as a result. It also happens to be one of the most creative cities in the UK and we should all be screaming much more loudly about how great this place really is!”
