The days are getting longer and work is in full flow for the year ahead. After the first couple of weeks settling back in and echoes of ‘I can’t believe it’s 2018’, everything seems to be back to normal. So, as we look set for the year, we thought now was the perfect opportunity to tell you a little bit more about Kal, how we started, our staff and the offices.
When clients come to visit us the two things that shock them are the size of the team and how nice our offices are.
With so many different personalities and types of people working here it only makes sense for us to work in a building with just as much character. The original brickwork walls, open plan offices, floor to ceiling length windows and windows into the board room make our offices quirky and different; after all you couldn’t put our designers into a plain room, they’d hate it!
Our offices have a relaxed feel, and with nearly everyone in the same open room, you really feel connected to the people you’re working with, although three Chris’s in one room can get quite confusing at times.
Kal Designs Limited was set up in 2000 by our manging director Andrew Wood, it was originally called Kaleidoscope but with many people struggling to spell it, the decision was made to rename it Kal Designs Limited. Initially set up in Andy’s front room in Lincolnshire, the company grew organically over the years meaning that in 2010 the team moved into new offices in Marshall’s Yard in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire where we’re still based today.
Marshall's Yard site was formerly occupied by the Marshall family's Britannia Iron Works which was founded in 1848. The company built steam engines, threshing machines and agricultural machines which were exported all over the world. Appropriately enough, our offices are located in a part of the complex known as The Pattern Store, where designs and blueprints for the company’s products were kept.
Kal has quickly established itself as the leading provider of marketing solutions for the mobile leisure industry and has grown to a team of 21. That growth shows no sign of stopping, so watch this space for some exciting announcements throughout the year!
Walking through the doors into Kal the first desk you pass is Rick, our bubbly operations manager; he’s a keen vlogger and never fails to lift the team’s moral with his funny stories and smiley face.
Rick is part of the management team along with MD Andy, sales director Helen and creative director Martyn. The management team are very hands on; with them all in the same office we have regular catch ups and team meetings, and they certainly know how to keep us sweet with a high-tech coffee machine, breakfast deliveries and trips to Dublin!
After Rick, you reach the digital team which is made up of six (two being called Chris), they all do something slightly different, from backend developers, whose screens always seem to be full of little dots and dashes, to frontend developers, who work in much more plain English. There are also our application developers, who are currently designing some very exciting, top secret, new apps.
The digital advertising department took off rapidly and has had good continued growth. SEO stands for search engine optimism and PPC stands for pay per click, not that this ever made it much clearer to some of us in the building! In short it means making sure as many people as possible see your website! Kelly, our SEO/PPC manager, is a huge part of our team; when she’s not getting clients to the first-place listing on Google, she keeps us all entertained with her latest cat stories or spiritual theories. With our client list continuing to grow, this department saw two new additions last year with both Lottie and Hannah joining as SEO/PPC executives.
Our design team, the ones that make everything look pretty, eye-catching and stylish, are one of the busiest departments in the business. All artwork that leaves the building is built completely from scratch by this talented bunch and they are continually successful at making everything unique and individual. Although Martyn, our creative director, won’t reveal any of the work that is currently being produced (it’s all very hush hush), we have in the past produced the Coachman website, the Auto-Trail brochures and various e-shot campaigns for many dealerships, to name just a few.
The business development and support department deals with a wide variety of work, in this part of the business you have administration, which controls all the jobs in the building, ensuring you all receive work on time. Charlotte joined the team in September as administration apprentice and is already making sure everyone is super-organised by overseeing time sheets and workload.
If you move through to the smaller office in the building you have PR and sales. The PR team look at all things fluffy, they have a varied role, from proof-reading work to raising the profile of the company and client copywriting. Both Michelle, communications manager, and Jess, communications assistant, can usually be found knee-deep in press releases and magazines.
Our sales team is made up of managing director Andy, Helen, sales director and Emma, sales executive They all work continuously at pulling in new clients and keeping our current clients happy. The sales team often attend industry shows to meet potential clients and catch up with our current clients, the next show they are attending is the Scottish caravan, motorhome and holiday home show.
As the leading digital marketing company for the leisure industry, we’re always looking at ways to improve our work and offer more services to our clients. Currently, just some of the things we offer are websites, brochures, apps, SEO/PPC and software. So that’s us! If you ever want to pop in and say hello, we’ve got a posh coffee machine and we love a chat!
