About
Our reason for being is to produce praise-worthy work that gets you the best results possible. Everything we work on gets our undivided, loving attention. And because we’re not a lumbering corporate beast, we’re never forced to rely on off-the-peg answers to your brief.
Who we help
Brand marketeers, business owners, companies without a creative department, creative collectives, web consultants and developers (and anyone else who’ll make for an exciting collaboration).
Our clients and what they think of us
MUTV
“Stiff Rowlands have become an important partner to MUTV’s marketing department. Fundamental strengths like listening, learning and clearly communicating have enabled them to understand our business needs and react effectively. They have approached every single job with the same level of creativity, attention to detail and professionalism and delivered to some very tight schedules. And the bonus, they’re a happy bunch which makes working with them a pleasure.”
Lee Kelly, Marketing Manager
Umbro
“Delivered an online campaign to support a key initiative incredibly quickly. They brought quality design, flexibility and expertise to the project.”
Nick Oram, Advertising Manager
IPC Inspire
“Stiff Rowlands’ experience, creativity and knowledge of the NME brand has enabled them to seamlessly compliment our in-house digital resource on many occasions. They are great at applying themselves to anything from directional media to large scale co-branded campaigns, often at incredibly short notice and always with a smile!”
Mike Dixon, Head of Web Technology
Manchester International Festival
“We chose Stiff Rowlands for their range of experience but also for their attitude and approach. They had an intuitive understanding of what we wanted and an appreciation of the particular challenges that an artist-led, commissioning Festival is likely to present. They’re particularly good at keeping calm and coming up with appropriate solutions. It’s been a great experience working with them.”
Cathy Gallagher, Marketing Director
Mediaburst
“Creativity in abundance. Stiff Rowlands listened, created and delivered. Not only that but genuinely decent guys to work with. Would recommend them every time.”
Gary Bury, Managing Director
The Drum
“Working with Stiff Rowlands on the Drum Yearbook was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Their professionalism and helpfulness made the project fun and pain free. With their fresh creative I think everyone would agree that the resulting book looks fantastic”
Amanda Dewar, Production Studio Manager
The way we work
From start to finish, our projects tend to follow a pattern. It’s a conscious thing; in fact we wouldn’t want it any other way. It goes like this:
- Establish an open, honest two-way dialogue
- Listen, learn and understand
- Identify goals
- Set a realistic budget
- Set a realistic timescale
- High fives all round :)
Manchester’s most wanted
James Stiff
Co-founder and Creative Director
07980 882 408
james@stiffrowlands.com
Thanks to his surname, James has always been forced to rely on his tenacious side. As a young lad this was mostly to save himself from getting battered, but he also learned to put his resourcefulness to other uses, and at the age of eight won £10 in The Abbey National Tall Ships painting competition. Since then he has proved his metal as a freelance designer and, after teaching himself HTML, went on to create websites for the likes of Apple, Fosters, NME, Nuts, Sony and Vodafone before joining forces with Simon Rowlands in 2007. James is 6ft 2” and hasn’t been punched since he was 14.
Simon Rowlands
Co-founder and Creative Director
07769 696 402
simon@stiffrowlands.com
Simon’s desire to be his own boss is largely down to his mum and dad’s washing up rota. One evening, after having his favourite activity (lying in front of the telly, drawing) cut short “yet again”, 12-year old Simon vowed that, in the long run, he was never going to work for anyone else. True to his word, after honing his skills at TBWA, JWT, BJL, Love and McCann Erickson, winning a D&AD and a Cannes Lion, Simon set up shop with James and hasn’t washed a pot since. Well not by hand, anyway.
Our green(ish) credentials
Producing a national press campaign or designing a year’s supply of bespoke stationery is going to leave a footprint, so we try and make amends by sticking to the following self-imposed rules:
- Recycle all paper waste and, wherever possible, reuse envelopes
- Use recycled paper and vegetable-based inks when appropriate
- Store archiving and accounting on software, not paper
- Walk or cycle to work
We’re not exactly eco warriors, but we feel better for doing it.
Membership & associations
