Believe in launches new Canadian studio

Exeter-based brand design agency Believe in® has today announced the launch of a second studio in Canada, operating alongside the agency’s founding operation in Exeter. The company will operate as a single team collaborating across both studios, serving clients in Europe and North America.

Founder and Creative Director Blair Thomson, along with Business Director Joanna Thomson, have opened the studio in Mono, Ontario, just north of Canada’s largest city, Toronto. The pair relocated ahead of the official launch to allow time for thorough testing of the new communication processes, ensuring seamless integration across both studios.

2016 marked 20 years in business for Believe in®, and this provided the impetus to expand their offering with a permanent base in Canada. Blair, a returning Canadian, believes that his homecoming represents an amazing opportunity for the business:

Blair said: “I’m enormously proud of my Canadian heritage, and have deep admiration for those pioneering designers who established Canada as a centre for modernist design in the 1960s and 1970s. I believe that the time is right for Canada to reassert its position as a global design leader, and if I can play a small part in helping to make it happen, it would be a major achievement in my career, and my life.”

The business enjoys a strong family ethos and a very loyal team. In an industry that often struggles to retain talent, this has been vital to setting up the new studio: “Getting used to collaborating across continents and time zones on a daily basis has been a challenge that we’ve enjoyed getting to grips with. I’m lucky to have the support of an amazing team who I trust wholeheartedly. Without their energy and commitment, no amount of technology could’ve made it work.”

The company has already secured several new business opportunities both in Canada and the US, while continuing to build a network of likeminded creative professionals to draw upon and collaborate with.

Believe in’s Strategic Director Tim Burley will continue as the senior point of contact for existing and prospective clients in the UK, while also providing strategic support for new clients in North America. The UK-based design team is led by Design Director Tish England, with overall creative direction sustained by Blair in Canada.

Strategic Director Tim Burley said: "As an agency we’ve always looked far beyond our local area, whether its for clients, inspiration or partners to collaborate with. Toronto serves a metropolitan area of over 6 million people and is the main centre for design in Canada. When you also consider that it’s just 100 miles from the US border, then you start to get a sense of the scale of opportunity.”

Blair Thomson founded Believe in® in 1996. For two decades the studio has helped brands to inspire their audiences with simple, meaningful design, primarily working in brand identity, packaging and brand communications.

The company currently works with a diverse client base including Fontsmith, Greenwich Peninsula, Pinnacle Group, the Redbush Tea Company, Clive’s Organic, Lorient, the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers, Devonshire Homes, Oxford Brookes University, Scandia Foods and LittlePod.

In 2015, they were one of 100 leading designers selected by the Coca Cola Company to contribute work to a book and exhibition celebrating the centenary of their iconic ‘Contour’ bottle.

Their work is regularly showcased in many leading design publications and has received numerous international awards including recognition from the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), Hiiibrand, How and Communication Arts.

In addition to Believe in®, Blair is also behind a number of creative side projects, including Graphilately, an online collection of modernist stamp designs that was recently made into a book by leading design publisher Unit Editions.