James Good is an identity design, brand identity and graphic design company based in Swansea. It recently became the first Swansea-based member of the Design Business Association (DBA), one of only four member agencies in Wales. This, says founder James Good, represents a critical step on its road to achieving its goals.

The DBA promotes standards within the design industry both in terms of how design companies are run and how they interact with clients. Good says that becoming a member will help towards the company’s ultimate goal: to appear in Design week’s top 100 agencies. “We are an ambitious design agency and we have some pretty clear goals,” says Good. “We want to appear in Design Week’s top 100 agencies. To do that we have to increase our fee earning capacity, get some household brands as clients and raise our profile. Being a member of DBA will help us develop the skills and knowledge of the team through their excellent training programmes, making it easy for us to remain at the top of our game.”

Good embarked on his career as an independent designer when he was just 17, back in 1997. James Good Limited was incorporated in 2002 and moved to Swansea in 2006 - when Good followed his girlfriend who was studying in the university to the city. It has stayed here ever since, taking advantage of the abundance of design talent produced by the local universities.

The founder is now looking to take things to the next level. The company has plans to open an office in London where it will base one or more account managers. But the studio work will remain in Swansea. Good then has his sights set on an office in Birmingham. “That would complete the triangle for us,” he says. “I have good contacts in the city and we get a lot of web traffic from businesses based in the area.”

Good says he feels having a presence outside Wales is important for two reasons: local clients are reluctant to pay higher prices for quality design; and there is a perception that quality designers only exist in the bigger cities outside Wales. This second point is backed up by the number of design contracts for Welsh public bodies that end up outsourced to London Companies.

“It infuriates me that other local designers have two pricing structures: one for national and one for local clients. It frustrates me that local businesses always seem to be looking for the lowest price rather than taking advantage of the exceptional standard of design we offer locally. It can be very difficult to charge adequate rates in Swansea as a result.

“Meanwhile, this dynamic exists whereby using design agencies in London is seen as the aspirational thing to do. That is why we must have a presence there. We could be more active in advertising our presence here, but on the other hand, why would an aspirational design agency want to be based here? Whilst it’s a great place to live, in some ways basing a design business in Swansea is commercial suicide!”

Good says his company’s USP is the quality of the people who work for him. The company is fundamentally a full service brand agency but also has a dedicated web development team and will also get involved in the related areas of marketing, photography and copywriting where required. “Swansea is something of an island and we must capitalise on every opportunity we can,” he says.

The company also gained a new team member recently. Benjy Stanton has been running his freelance design operation, The Colour Mill, for years, and brings new experience to the James Good team as well as his much valued skills as an illustrator.