A SHORT HISTORY

The loft journey started all the way back in 2012, here’s a quick run down of some of our highlights. As you can see, it’s been eventful… 

April 2012

All Systems Go!

Our Founder Benedetto always wanted to have a design company, he just had no idea it would happen so early on in his life. An ex-car designer with a love for brands, business and entrepreneurship, he brought all these things together to create the loft. The loft would be a new design and branding agency which brings ideas to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible. ‘Design With Soul’ would be much more than a tagline to Benedetto, it would become a way of life.

May 2012

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce & PSYBT

Community was a big thing for Benedetto, and as the loft was set-up, the company was proud to become members of the local ‘Glasgow Chamber Of Commerce’ a partnership which lasts to this day.

 Benedetto was also delighted to become The Regional Ambassador for PSYBT in Glasgow. PSYBT (now the ‘Princes Trust’ in Scotland) is a charity which supports young entrepreneurs in the early stages of their careers. The loft was one such business.

December 2012

Entrepreneurial Exchange Awards Doo 2012

As a part of the PSYBT family, Benedetto was incredibly fortunate to be given a last-minute ticket to the Entrepreneurial Exchange Annual Awards in 2012. An event which celebrates the finest entrepreneurs in the country and one that completely changed his life. The dinner altered Benedetto’s outlook on business and what was really possible with the right mindset. He was incredibly grateful to become one of the youngest members of The Entrepreneurial Exchange just a few months later…

July 2013

PSYBT Growth Fund

After around a year in business, Benedetto and the loft were delighted to raise £25,000 in start-up investment from The PSYBT Growth Fund. (Just for reference, the money in Benedetto’s hands here isn’t start-up investment money but a separate picture he took for Young Enterprise Scotland’s ‘Tenner Challenge’ later in that year…)

August 2013

‘Branding For The 21st Century’

Benedetto was honoured to be given the opportunity to present ‘Branding For The 21st Century’ to some of the country’s leading entrepreneurs for ‘The Entrepreneurial Exchange.’ The organisation he had joined earlier in the year.

October 2013

Expansion!

Growth, growth, growth – the loft was now in proper expansion mode and moving at speed. New studio, first new staff – Ruth & Alejandro – and a whole host of new and exciting clients. The loft was moving at such pace now that Ruth & Alejandro’s first day began by picking up their Macs at the Apple Store in Buchanan Street, Glasgow. It was then on to our new Bell Street Studio to assemble our IKEA furniture. All hands on deck and no time to waste. Benedetto didn’t even have a chair that first day.

December 2013

Gremlins

 The loft was delighted to be one of the chief contributors to Network Rail’s Charity Event ‘Million Makers’ with a midnight showing of Gremlins at Glasgow Central Station. We supported the event, created the publicity imagery and of course had the privilege of attending the event on a cold winters evening. Unforgettable.

January 2013

Outrageous New Business Cards

New brand, new website and now our new ’quadruplex, letter-pressed, foil-printed, embossed and blind-pressed business cards.’ They came courtesy of Glasgow Letterpress and really were ridiculously chunky to hold. We modestly claimed them as the best-looking business cards in the world and even made a poster about all of the different ways you could use them. Propping up wobbly tables ever since.

April 2014

Client Wins

Whirlwind growth results in being given the opportunity to work with lots and lots of incredible new people – Wood Group, University of The West of Scotland, BenRiach, Network Rail, and so many more.  And soooo much incredible new work too…

May 2014

Brand Launch in The Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium

We were thrilled to see the new brand we worked on with ‘Bridge2Business’ being launched at the Planetarium of The Glasgow Science Centre. This was a memorable nod to ‘Nashira,’ the celestial navigation theme of the brand we co-developed with programme manager Geoff Leask. We continue to work with Geoff to this day, the new brand which can be seen on this grainy image with congratulatory bottles of Prosecco in shot too.

February 2015

Petroleum Experts

We were honoured and privileged to be the first creative company to work with the award-winning Petroleum Experts (PETEX) in 25 years. A very special collaboration and one that resulted in some incredible work. (A selection of concept sketches for the project shown above.)

March 2015

MCR Pathways 

MCR Pathways helps young people, disadvantaged through no fault of their own, to realise more of their potential. We began our support of this incredible charity by helping their Founder Iain MacRitchie, with a little creative work and the partnership is still going strong today.

September 2015

Brands, Brands, Brands…

The loft is now heavily involved in large-scale creative partnerships with many great companies – Altia Solutions, Aqualisa, Percepta and many more. We’re delighted to be winning successive projects in the true spirit of collaboration.

January 2016

#GYPSeminarSeries

The loft’s founder Benedetto, becomes a committee member of Glasgow Young Professionals and the loft plays an instrumental part in organising the new #GYPSeminarSeries. A collection of professional development events where some of the country’s top professionals share insights into enjoying a more successful career. The first event was with Russell Wardrop of Kissing With Confidence at Glasgow’s famous Clydesdale Bank in St Vincent Street. (The pic above is of Benedetto introducing the event.)

February 2016

Cover Star!

Our Founder, Benedetto makes it onto the front cover of Business Insider Magazine as one of ‘Scotland’s Top 25 Ones-To-Watch in Scottish Business.’

March 2016

New South Block Home!!

The loft has a big, new fancy home so its hello South Block. The wonderful new facility comes complete with ping pongs tables, amazing coffee and Andy, our tremendous building host.

July 2016

Variety, the spice of life

The loft is delighted to continue meeting great people, winning lots of creative pitches and collaborating with great companies – Scottish Leather Group, McCurrach, Levy & McRae, Enable Scotland, Obesity Action Scotland, etc… The variety is mind-blowing yet incredibly insightful. The loft is particularly delighted to welcome Alexander Dennis as a client, 3 years and many, many attempts after Benedetto met their CEO Colin Robertson at a business event in late 2013.

October 2016

First MCR Pathways Talent Taster

The loft is absolutely thrilled to re-double its efforts in supporting MCR Pathways by hosting our first Talent Taster mini work-experience. A number of young people come to the studio and get a brief taste of life as a professional creative. We would since go on to host 12 of these wonderful events with the most recent one just before the start of the pandemic. We can’t wait for them to resume.

February 2017

E-Spark

Back to Entrepreneurial School for Benedetto who is delighted to become a ‘chiclet’ and a part of Entrepreneurial Spark’s Growth Programme in Glasgow. Here he is pitching his business to other entrepreneurs.

April 2017

Myers Briggs Team Building

The whole team are going crazy for Myers Briggs after we do some amazing team-building work with Christine Penman. We take her work so seriously that we even create special cards for different members in the team to better get to know each other.

July 2017

Drink Baotic

The loft continues to knock it out of the park creatively, with the design and branding work for new African, pre-biotic drinks company ‘Drink Baotic’ being a particular highlight.

Mar 2018

MCR Pathways Mentoring

The loft is delighted to build even further on its support of MCR Pathways with team members now giving an hour of their time a week to mentor a young person. (Pic of Benedetto and an MCR Pathways young person above.)

July 2018

Aunty

The loft is delighted to add the BBC to an ever-growing client list. Being entrusted by any new client is incredibly gratifying but there really is something special about working with ‘Aunty.’

July 2018

Memorable Creative Collaborations With Wave

The loft begins the first of its memorable collaborations with the great folks at WAVE and in doing so becomes maybe one of the very few agencies to specialise in Powerpoint. Never intended, but we learn ways to mould the software in ways Bill Gates never intended. We help Wave to win large-scale pitches with a number of international clients. The Start of something beautiful…

July 2019

LOFTCAST

LOFTCAST is born, a new video and audio podcast celebrating the ideas and insights of high-impact people. Our first interviewee is MCR Pathways Founder, Iain MacRitchie. LOFTCAST has since seen a number of exceptional interviews with some of our top business and society leaders.

March 2020

Resurgence

Then the pandemic happens… Like most companies, the loft does all it can in a moment of national crisis.

A few months later, The ‘Resurgence’ series is launched – a range of video interviews with top-business leaders sharing their ideas, insights and best-practices in how we can turn this crisis into something positive for the future for our organisations and the people we serve.

May 2020

Hello Sisco!!

The loft is delighted to add Sisco as a charity partner. Sisco helps prisoners, who are ready, to build a bridge between prison and the outside world. They do exceptional work, are great people and we are delighted to support them.

October 2020

First Ever Digital Panel

Benedetto is delighted to share his thoughts with the students of Strathclyde University and the DMEM society at his first ever digital panel. The second year in a row speaking to the great folks of DMEM and despite enjoying it – he looks forward to being able to do it in person again sometime soon.

February 2022

Design Inspire

Our Founder Benedetto is honoured and privileged to speak to Kadambari Sahu of Value Labs as part of their prestigious ‘Design Inspire Talks.’ He speak to an international audience of creatives about the loft’s unique entrepreneurial approach to design, how this provides more opportunities for young creatives, delivers a better service for clients and can result in some truly outstanding work. Benedetto’s a massive hit and is given the title of ‘Inspiring Designer’ as a token of recognition for his talk.

July 2022

The Entrepreneurs Loft

After many years of successfully working with dynamic entrepreneurial clients, the loft decides to formalise its offering with a new sub-brand called ‘The Entrepreneurs Loft.’ The ultimate service offering for fast-paced scale-up entrepreneurs. An experimental brand (which gave us the perfect excuse to finally use a rocket in our communications.) The new brand gets off to a rip-roaring start and is now formally included as part of the loft’s specialist offerings.

July 2022

London

The launch of The Entrepreneurs Loft coincides with the organisation establishing a formal presence in London at co-working space, The Hoxton Mix, Shoreditch. The beginning of something big and beautiful.

To An Incredibly Exciting Future

The last 10 years have flashed by in the blink of an eye, rest assured we have designs on an even more exciting, memorable and fulfilling future.

Contact us if you’d like to find out more, the loft team.

 

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