Creative Times

The Loop - James Sommerville, ATTIK

Published by Creative Times, Creative Times, 22.04.08

Graduating from Batley School of Art in 1986, James founded ATTIK with close friend, Simon Needham, in his hometown of Huddersfield. With a grant from the Prince’s Trust, James and Simon set up shop in an attic bedroom in the house of James’ grandmother. They bought themselves the then-revolutionary Apple Mac and started to trade.

The graphic style they made their initial reputation on was a combination of passionate energy – sheer creative freedom – and the discipline of form, in particular, the use of multiple layering. In fact, multi-layered energetic explosions typify what came to be known, especially early on, as ATTIK style. It was this style – best exemplified in the experimental books produced in NoiseLab – that grew the company from Huddersfield to London, and from London to the United States (New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles), with strong affiliates in both Asia and Australia.

By the mid-90s, the company became known for working in just about every medium conceivable, from broadcast to Web to music videos, with clients including Nike, Coca Cola, Ford, Baileys and AOL.

From small acorns, mighty trees do really grow….