What an Incredible Year! Creative Clique 2024 Roundup

They say you should start as you mean to go on, and we can certainly say we’ve lived by that mantra this year. We kicked off 2024 with a bang, winning the Business of the Year Award at the Shaping Portsmouth Conference. What a way to start a year! It’s been a 12-month journey filled with achievements, growth, and success, and we are absolutely buzzing for what’s to come in 2025.

Here are some of the standout highlights from our cosy coastal office in Old Portsmouth:

Supporting local charities 

One of our core missions this year was dedicating time and resources to support local charities with our creative skills. “Good vibes and great designs” has been our motto, and it’s been amazing to see it in action through our Free Work Friday scheme. Every month, we’ve had the privilege of donating our creative services to fantastic local organisations like Pompey in the Community, The Elizabeth Foundation, Sussex Green Hub, Spark Community Space, and many more. It’s been a joy to give back to the community and make a real, positive impact through design.

Growing our Clique Club

2024 has seen our Clique Club grow in leaps and bounds. For those unfamiliar, Clique Club is our monthly design service, and this year we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming a host of amazing new clients into the fold. How does it work? It’s simple: for a fixed monthly fee, we take charge of your regular marketing activities, ensuring everything is executed seamlessly and on schedule.

It’s our tried and tested method of providing a VIP pass to stress-free marketing for our lovely clients. From designing engaging visuals to managing content creation, we’re here to take the hassle out of marketing so our clients can focus on what they do best. With the Clique Club, it’s all about ensuring your marketing is consistent, professional, and, most importantly, stress-free. We’re excited to keep growing and bringing this level of service to even more businesses in 2025!

At the same time, we’ve continued to pour our passion and creativity into the marketing and design needs of our long-term clients, some of whom we’ve had the pleasure of working with for years. It’s been a year of nurturing relationships, and we’ve been honoured by the kind words from clients like:

“Just want to say a masssssiveeee thank you for your time and effort to get this over the line! Absolutely nailed it, the document looks epic!”

We’re proud of the work we’ve done together, and we can’t wait to keep growing those partnerships in the new year.

Team growth

As our client list expanded, so did our amazing team. In the summer, we were thrilled to welcome Lily to the team as our new Social Media Manager, joining the already fantastic Marie. Together, they’ve been rocking the social media scene, creating compelling content and driving engagement across our platforms and for our clients.

Networking and expanding our connections

Our director, Jo, and Marketing Manager, Naomi, were out and about this year, meeting wonderful people and building meaningful connections. They joined the Network My Club network and became Trade Service Members with Hampshire Fare C.I.C., where they delivered presentations on crafting compelling social media content and achieving social media success. We’ve also been actively involved in Bizpedia and BNI networking groups, growing our circle and fostering new opportunities.

Celebrating our 17th Birthday

In July, Creative Clique turned 17! That’s 17 years of creativity, innovation, and great relationships, and we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve achieved. A huge thank you to everyone who’s been part of the journey.

The Autumn “Bake-Off Challenge”

In the autumn, our office embraced a little friendly competition with a weekly bake-off. What started as a fun idea from Jonathan quickly became an event to look forward to every week.

We had everything from salted caramel choux pastry éclairs from Lily, to Victoria sponge cakes from Jo, cheesy puff pastry twists from Naomi, chai cookies from Michael, brownies from Marie, apple crumble muffins from Jonathan, and an apple caramel cake from Flo. It was a tough decision, but in the end, one baker emerged victorious:

Glenn wowed us with his salted caramel brownies with peanut brittle, peanut ice cream, and honeycomb.

Safe to say, he’s the office’s official bake-off champion now!

Bring on 2025!

As we look ahead to 2025, we’re more excited than ever to build on everything we’ve achieved this year. From helping charities with creative services, to nurturing long-standing client relationships, to growing our team and expanding our network – it’s been a year full of incredible milestones.