Two Stories was founded in 2019 by Bekkie and her business partner Rob Ellis, with the aim of creating a brand studio that did things differently. Its team of ten specialists focus on creating purpose-led brands and campaigns that bring what businesses do and believe to life through meaningful creative.
Hull’s passion for design was first sparked through her schooling experience, developing a deep passion for Art, Media, and English literature at an early age. Rather than do an Art foundation course, as advised by her art teacher, Bekkie fast-tracked to Manchester Metropolitan University, earning a degree in Graphic Design and Communication.
Despite the degree’s many challenges, Bekkie persevered, graduating with a studio designer job lined up at a large digital agency in Lancaster. While there, she lent her immense talent to design projects across all mediums gaining a lot of background knowledge and experience from people in the field.
Bekkie did want to point out that you don’t have to go to university to be in design, having that experience, going to agencies, and meeting those exciting people, are all ways to find your break.
After a while, Bekkie moved to a smaller studio where she met her now business partner Rob and told him, ‘One day I want to own my own design studio’. Striking up a friendship alongside their working relationship, and lots of hard work and determination later, the pair made that dream a reality.
In all the previous studios Bekkie had worked in, the heads of design and creative directors were all men. While Bekkie learned a lot from these individuals, as she stepped into her role as creative director she was keen to use her position to champion more women in senior positions, both within her own agency and the wider industry.
Two Stories was established to have a keen focus on brand. The pair created its distinctive brand process, informed by research and workshops, that gets to the heart of why a brand exists and allows its team to develop a narrative and visual brand identity that tells its individual story.
Two Stories prides itself on its four specialised areas of digital, brand, design, and brand communications. For Bekkie, ‘brand is paramount to everything we do,’ whether that’s designing and developing a client’s new website, revamping and reigniting the voice and appearance of a brand through its social channels, or rebranding an evolving brand. Everything Two Stories does goes back to the brand foundations.
We asked Bekkie if the often intimidating and amorphous task of creating a brand identity becomes easier after years of experience. She told us that with such diverse cliental, some have their brand strategy already outlined, whereas others are starting from square one. The wonderful thing about this range in clients is that it gives Two Stories the ability to ‘flex its process’ and work uniquely with each client based on what they are desiring. Easier is the wrong word to describe it, but having clients buy into the Two Stories process and come on this creative journey with them is what makes creating the branding so engaging.
Sticking with their forte, we asked Bekkie to describe the Two Stories brand identity to us. She absolutely described what we felt, ‘warm and approachable while being professional.’ Two Stories are more than passionate about what they create and what they do, but they do this with a fantastic, personalised element that is authentic to them, their team culture, and who they are as a business.
Of the companies that Two Stories have worked with, we wanted to know if there was a dream client they had ever worked with, or one they would want to work with. Although there were a few that came to her mind, Bekkie had to highlight the work they did with Channel 4. The work is so varied and challenging, allowing them to be truly creative as a design studio. Alongside the bigger scale brand projects, there also comes smaller and almost ‘mini’ branding identities for other projects that all starts to fit together. On a personal level for Bekkie, working with Channel 4 was a true ‘full circle moment’ as she wrote her dissertation on Channel 4 and its branding while at university.
While discussing dream clients, we wanted to know if there was anything currently cooking at Two Stories that they could tell us about. Now, while Bekkie couldn’t tell us everything, she let us know that they’re working with an exciting AI (Artificial Intelligence) consciousness research organisation now, focusing on its brand and website.
People at all levels of commercial or personal success can suffer with imposter syndrome, something that Bekkie can ‘one hundred and ten percent’ relate to. But to her, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, ‘It’s a good thing to question whether the work you’re creating is right and good.’ She also highlighted the importance of her team here, and how working together and bouncing their ideas off one another is essential to ensuring their output is of consistently excellent quality. Still, understanding your worth and reflecting on your achievements is an important part of the creative process, ‘it’s hard to celebrate your own successes,’ but it is so vital that you do.
Bekkie also divulged that her favourite moments working at Two Stories come with the team. Here we insert a lovely ‘aww’ as the team was sat beside us for the interview. As a company, they are intentional about building a sense of comradery and community, ranging from the Christmas and summer parties, and the bonding moments that come with working together. This culture of closeness and mutual respect bleeds through when you visit their office.
It is wonderful to feature a company like Two Stories on our blog, especially since they have their own as well. A digital space for them to ‘champion different voices,’ whether this is their clients, staff, or design community in general.
Finally, Bekkie offered some guidance for designers trying to break into the industry. Her main piece of advice? ‘Constantly keep creating, and don’t be disheartened.’ Feedback from uni, clients, and everything in between is so important, it’s what keeps pushing creatives to new extremes. Feedback and collaboration are the best way to develop your skills, even if it’s scary and hard to put yourself out there.
‘Constantly keep creating, and don’t be disheartened.’
