Established in the year 2000, design and digital agency 4FX has chalked up an impressive 25 years in business.

To celebrate this major milestone, we reflect on the highs, lows and everything in between in reaching  4FX’s silver jubilee year.

 

 

The Early Years


4FX founders Julie King and Chris Coomber met while working as illustrators and creative artworkers in advertising for blue chip companies almost three decades ago. The internet was only just coming into its own and social media was yet to be invented, however they sensed an emerging trend towards digital marketing, so decided to go into business together.

4fx Design & Multimedia was created initially to offer online and traditional marketing collateral for local businesses and big brands. Julie King adds: “When we first set up camera phones had only just become available, Wifi was cables and there were no Android or iOS smartphones.”

Hitting high notes


Over their time business, striving to be at the forefront of graphic design and digital development has been a focus and brought with it some key highlights. Chris and Julie attribute these to:

  • Early Adoption & Innovation: As a team we have successfully embraced new technologies and trends early on, particularly the shift from print to web and then rise of apps and interactive multimedia. This helped us grow significantly in the early days and has since earned us a reputation as a forward-thinking digital marketing and web development company.
  • Building a Strong Portfolio & Reputation: We have amassed an impressive portfolio of successful projects and built a strong, respected brand name within the industry. From branding and websites for local taxi firms to complex ecommerce platforms for global cosmetics brands, there’s not much we can’t turn our hand to.
  • Adapting to Market Shifts: We’ve successfully navigated major industry changes, like economic downturns and the emergence of new media platforms. A major achievement for us has been using our experience and problem solving skills, coupled with the agility and flexibility of our small, tight knit team to adapt our service offerings to what our customers need.
  • Long-Term Relationships: Cultivating lasting relationships with clients, suppliers and our team. Trust, reliability, experience and resilience has provided a stable base of work and revenue, as well as opportunities for repeat business and referrals built on jobs well done.

“Highlights for us are always seeing the complexity of the systems we’ve built and how they benefit the client or end user. We build some clever stuff, but we can’t always shout about it. Seeing one of our apps featured in The Times Educational Supplement and on TV’s BBC Click was fantastic.”

Chris Coomber, co-founder, 4FX

Longevity to tackle the lows


Anyone who has been in business for 25 years knows that it is not all plain sailing. Julie and Chris are pragmatic about it, as they outline some of the challenges:

  • Technological Disruption: The rapid pace of technological change presents significant ongoing challenges. Keeping up with new software, hardware and platforms requires continuous investment. Companies that failed to adapt might have become obsolete. Our aim is to continually embrace and adopt change and support our clients in doing the same.
  • Economic Downturns: Recessions can often lead to marketing and design budgets being cut first, which impacts revenue and growth. We have had some lean years, but you get better at managing them and weathering the storms.
  • Client Management Challenges: Dealing with scope creep, demanding deadlines and the occassional difficult client, can be stressful, impact profitability and team morale. However, we enjoy a challenge and it’s fortunate that we are a team of problem solvers.
  • Pricing Pressures: Free internet tools, graphic design packages, the rise of build your own web and hosting packages have made it look like anyone can be a web or graphic designer these days. The perception that design is easy and cheap can make pricing tricky. It’s challenging to manage budget expectations and communicate the value of professional services. However, it always comes back to quality, skill and expertise and that’s what we offer in abundance.

“Recessions are always hard, but because we pretty much set up during one, it has stood us in good stead going forward and made sure we didn’t get ahead of ourselves. Sadly, we’ve seen many agencies come and go during the same time.”

Julie King, co-founder, 4FX

Silver linings


Through the highs and lows, the silver lining has always been the partnership and its ability to adapt, evolve, nurture a great team that gets to work with great clients.  Secrets to success include lots of laughter, give and take, shared values and projects that we can really get our teeth into.

Julie concludes: “It’s important to us that work is enjoyed by everyone and not a chore. That’s not possible every day as we have deadlines and technology often does its own things, but our team and our clients are everything and it’s got us this far. We hope to continue with a happy team, doing projects we love, adding value to our clients’ businesses (perhaps maybe with more holidays) for many more years to come.”

To talk new business or creative with Julie or tech with Chris, why not get in touch today on 01908 375200 or email us at getintouch@4fx.co.uk.

“We’ve always been a graphic design, web development and marketing agency offering a range of services, however, over the years our offer has adapted and evolved as new technology and design techniques have developed to keep pace with the rapid transformation of technology into a digital first world.” 
 
Julie King, co-founder, 4FX