Once upon a time...
...in a pub on Psalter Lane in Sheffield, an assorted bunch of artists, climbers, general enthusiasts and graphic designers got together to produce a climbing fanzine, called The Thing. Fairly soon, just three young men and the The Thing were left. Not much later it was just three young men: Jon Barton, Paul Evans and Simon Norris. Experience producing Britain's best loved and smallest, climbing magazine led to a number of graphic design commissions.
Early clients included Rab, Feet First, The Broadfield (yes the pub) and most notably Adidas.
Adidas commissioned VG to launch its adventure footwear range in the UK. This, in addition to our considerable expertise in the outdoor leisure market, means that VG has grown over the years to become one of the leading agencies in the UK specialising in the outdoor market.
Onwards & Upwards
Success continued: VG won the Llandudno Mountain Literature Festival's Grand Prize for an Outstanding Contribution to Mountain Literature for the graphic novel November, and gained a major account: Outdoors, the trading arm of the Scout Association.
Prestigious work for such clients as Jagged Globe, the BMC, Outdoor Industries Association, BBC Radio Four and Jennic, led to further success, but Managing Director Jon wanted to harness the company's resources and experience to move into book design and publishing. Consequently, a number of successful, award-winning titles were produced, including a selected climbing guide to the Lake District, a bestselling series of training handbooks for Mountain Leader Training UK, and Dark Peak Mountain Biking, which turned out to be the first in Britain's best-selling series of mountain biking guides.
The company still focuses on its core graphic skills, increasingly centred on e-commerce and php-driven websites. Success has been born from producing websites with real quantifiable results: helping the client make a profit! A particular area of expertise is in promoting to emerging markets in the Far East and China.
New year 2005 brought big changes for VG. Founding partner Paul Evans left to pursue his own artistic ambitions, while the company started to focus itself on its web design, publishing and core graphic communication projects.
By late 2005 VG had entered a new era in its history. Key designers, refreshed from additional training and higher expectations from our clients, were producing ever more brilliant pieces of work.
New clients had been enticed by the commercial success of our existing clients, and the obvious contribution we were making with our communication graphics. Vertebrate Graphics' excellent combination of service, value and above all cutting edge technical and creative ability today represent our future as a successful company.
