Industry today: Geo-tagging Studio Practice and Company Analysis in Your City – Part 1
As part of this module, we had to research and investigate design studios in our city (in my case, country). Below are the three examples I have chosen for this task.
Hangar – ‘A Different Sort of Agency’
Hangar is a Maltese multi-faceted design agency located in the suburbs of Hamrun, Malta. It started in 2012, by a designer and two marketers, and today they are a workforce of twelve employees, which includes designers, software developers and marketers. As a design agency, they have worked on projects from various branches of design. This includes brand design, wed apps and promotional campaigns.
The company’s vision is to focus on quality, rather than quantity. As an agency, they are selective in their clients. Selective right down to the name of their own agency. The name ‘Hangar’ was chosen as a hangar is a place where designers and engineers gather to create and work on high precision projects and it takes skill, ambition and craftsmanship to survive. As a company they describe themselves as ‘why?’ people, rather than ‘yes’ people, for they believe that a good project needs to have strong roots and that can also withstand the test of time. Since its inception in 2012, the projects that they worked on were from ground up. In fact, one of their company ethos is to build strong foundations for their projects. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right. In 2015, they introduced marketing in their portfolio, were they worked for a multitude of clients, from start-ups to world leading brands.
Check out their website here: https://hangar.co/
ANCHOVY. p.l.c. – ‘A-Data Driven Agency’
“We’re the digital agency that enables you to work smarter”. This is how ANCHOVY. is described in one sentence. ANCHOVY. is a multi-national digital marketing agency with offices in Malta, Amsterdam and Dubai, with an extensive clientele from various industries around the world. The Malta office is situated in the main street of Hamrun. This agency focuses on digital marketing and advertising, and they offer an all-round service from reaching a target market to a complete creation of an advertising campaign.
It was founded by two brothers, Zak and Benji Borg in 2013, after designing an app called Malta on the move and lending a hand to a friend of theirs with his agency. Initially, they tried tapping into that gap in the market by making apps, however, after realising that apps were becoming redundant, they switched to digital marketing. By doing so, it enabled them to grow simultaneously with the growing market of digital advertising. In 2017, the company went public and raised a bond of €1,000,000. This money helped in funding further international expansion of the company, investing in their workforce and also to invest in other startups.
Nowadays, ANCHOVY. houses more than 30 employees, works with industry leading clients, including Lufthansa, McDonalds and Yamaha. and is a staple name in local creative industry.
Check out their website here: https://anchovyinc.com/
Blonde and Giant Ltd. – ‘Looking to Make the Next Big Bang’.
Blonde and
Giant Ltd is a Maltese ‘full service’ agency founded in 2015. The agency is located
in San Gwann. They describe themselves as ‘a full-service advertising agency
looking to make the next big bang’. They use the term ‘full-service’ as they encompass
a wide range of design services within their agency, including multiplatform
advertising, brand design and strategy and also digital marketing.
In comparison to the previous design agencies discussed above, this is relatively
small. It is made up of a team of 6, including the two co-founders. In spite of
that, the team has a very specific role within the company, meaning that the
team still has a strong collective skill set. Also, this intentionally small
workforce allows them be selective and focus more on the current project at
hand, resulting in a better end-product. They mostly cater for small to medium
businesses.
As an agency, it has a very casual and friendly look and feel. In fact, their agency’s brand identity is sci-fi themed and uses vibrant colours. The personified the ‘Blonde’ and ‘Giant’ as two aliens that landed in Malta and wanting to take over the world, one market at a time. The holistic approach they took to brand their agency, one with a fictitious back story, makes it very interesting, and makes it stand out from the rest.
Check out their website here: https://blondeandgiant.com/
In Conclusion
There are many design agencies that are up and coming in this island. The creative industry has improved dramatically and agencies are focusing more on high quality end product rather than volumes. In recent years, many design agencies are adopting the more polished high-end look, however some are considering a friendlier look to attract their desired clientele. In addition to that, many design agencies are considering moving away from the popular business districts on the island, and moving to more suburban towns.
The above examples are all established companies on the island, even if they vary greatly in various aspects, be it type of clientele, size of workforce and location. With that said, I think having very diverse design agencies on such a small island is beneficial, as it offers variety to the general public, making the local design scene all the more interesting.
