who we are - Design & Marketing - Fox Graphics Design

“We Listen, we understand, we interpret, we innovate & we deliver!”

“Design adds value & we’re here to help businesses improve & strengthen their market communication & message.”

Established in 2008, FGDM work with a diverse range of businesses to help them improve their market image involving branding, digital, animation/video, websites, direct marketing, exhibitions, marketing material designed to build and bolster brands.

The firm is able to take a project from conceptual design all the way through to implementation. As for what differentiates FGDM from their competitors, it is their ability to generate design and marketing strategies which helps their clients keep ahead of their competitors, generate new business and increase revenue.

A brief history and background…

Background

At aged 28, Kate worked for the South & East Cheshire TEC where she ran training programmes for the long-term unemployed working with both blue and white collar workers.

Kate gained enormous experience in project management for the hotel industry, and with a high IQ she achieved more by the time she was 30 years old than most others achieve in a lifetime.

Having trained in London, Kate spent many years in operational management within the Hotel and Catering industry where she was a renowned trouble shooter. She joined the ‘A’ team, and her brief was to train the ‘B’ team to re-organise establishments by turning them upside down and inside out to create a more efficient and flowing department resulting in delivering a high quality service to customers.

Once known as an International Foreign Expert, her vast experience stems from working for large hotels in the UK and Turkey. At the Piccadilly in Manchester, she had 144 staff reporting to her including 7 departmental management staff. Kate held the position of Line Manager/F & B, reporting to the Deputy General Manager, and her task was to empower and train department managers to run their department as individual units inside hotels to become more efficient and cost-effective. Kate provided training manuals for employees to operate more effectively for the European market.

In her early forties, Kate went to Manchester Metropolitan University to train in Graphic Design, and then started her own business in Graphic Design and Marketing in 2008.

She now has a very successful business helping a diverse range of businesses to achieve their goals and far beyond.

Personal Achievements

Became the highest paid female Food and Beverage Manager in the Northwest during the 80s when working for Embassy Hotels. Trained and worked in London for 9 years.
Fought hard to become accepted in a male orientated environment.
She has extensive international experience gained from working with a large hotel in Turkey, together with international recruitment experience.
Kate was appointed Deputy General Manager at Hoole Hall in Chester.
Gained her degree in Graphic Design in her forties.
Created an eBook to give marketing survival tips during the pandemic.
Kate has recently been appointed as a non-executive director of a recognised company.

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

I started the company from nothing whilst at University, although I had several paid small commissions which enabled me to start building up my portfolio. I had a business background, hence I was able to have meetings and talk to business people; my first large commission which developed and stayed with me for over 10 years – was from Topspeed Couriers Ltd. I did all their work and asked for them to hold back on the pay cheque until I launched so when I actually started Fox Graphics their cheque was placed in the bank as my cash flow, they were happy with that arrangement also.

One piece of advice I was given very early on was to ‘plough my own furrow’ and to ‘find my own clients and do not rely on Agencies’. So I have slowly built and adapted a powerful portfolio and varied experience in many sectors. As I did not work for a large agency no one told me I could not do things or work in certain sectors; therefore, every commission has been a learning curve and has kept me fresh and interested; not stuck in a stale design vacuum.

Eventually, the company expanded and evolved in different ways with staff and with associates, and now with trusted quality partners. The key balance is innovation, quality and consistent personal service.

What challenges did you face in your initial years?

Within the first six months, the worldwide recession began and with businesses spending less on marketing and branding, it was always going to be difficult to gain new commissions. But Fox Graphics was able to gain work and maintain a steady turnover until the end of the recession whereupon business improved at a comfortable level.

This was an opportunity to establish a reputation, craft a wide selection of sectors and give good design for a reasonable price enable a competent portfolio to be built up.

Cultural feedback is crucial to the success of every organisation.

We always welcome feedback from our clients and have commissioned case studies so that we can learn and grow to ensure our future clients get the best service –

‘When you ask Kate to do a job it gets done.
I let Kate know what the problem is – it gets picked up, considered, acted on, printed and delivered to our doorstep – and it’s right every time. We get a lot more from Fox Graphics than just design; we get knowledge, added value and tangible business input.

Stephen Clegg – Topspeed Couriers Ltd

Repositioning & relaunching at 10 years… 2018

We have started finding our own niche after 18 months of relaunching from having a year of being seriously ill, whilst keeping Fox Graphics in business. We are heading into celebrating ‘being in business for 10 years’ in June this year. I started the business having finished my degree at MMU in Graphic Design and just jumped into setting up Fox Graphics.

Having had 12 years of senior operational management experience in the Hotel and Catering industry nationally and overseas. Then International recruitment experience and training the long term unemployed back into work, I had a whole range of skills to call on that I didn’t realise I needed to set up a business. oh yes, and no one told me it was the beginning of a recession!

At the time, I was by then a single mother with a teenager. I had only gone to Macclesfield College to learn how to switch on a computer and 6 years later I came out of MMU with a first class degree! So, I’m current, seriously techie and on the far spectrum of creative, which was normal for me, I just thought everyone else was the same as me until I met my class mates at Uni and found that I had finally met a group of people who were similar.

My inspirations/playgrounds…

I had a very different upbringing where my Father lived in Paris, behind the Sacre Coeur, my Auntie in Switzerland, and my family in Cheshire, oh, and Anglesey! So my playgrounds were watching artists in Paris and spending days with my brother absorbing the art and world of the Champs Elyses, La Louvre, museums, art galleries, cathedrals, the posters on the Metro and all that was creative in Geneva, in the Alps and London. Years later I realised that my eyes had been taking pictures for research in my head and I still do that.

These are my resources that enable me to keep designing and keep fresh. Someone asked me recently, how do you know it is a good logo. I know instinctively and all our work is crafted creatively, proudly designing for the business, company, sector, person not to trend. Being ahead of the trend and knowing what might be next or in front of the next style is the clever thing.