About us
Established in 2004, Supercool is
an independent creative consultancy based in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. We're here to help you make the most of branding, design for print and digital communications.
What we do
Put simply, we're problem-solvers.
Whether the right solution involves developing a brand identity, designing a piece of print or building a website, our work is project-specific and never off-the-shelf. We build lasting relationships with the people we work with and have lots of happy clients.
Who we work with
We believe that good design is integral to effective communication, whatever your message and whoever you're talking to.
We have experience across a wide range
of sectors but in particular: Arts, Culture & Heritage; Conferences & Events; The Built Environment; and Education & Training.
When we've done our thing …
Supercool's positive, can-do attitude is matched by strong creativity and innovation. What really sets them apart, however, is the rigour with which they address the brief – learning about the subject, tailoring the solution to the audience and the client's needs.Steve Heywood, Communications Officer, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
The Team
James Coleman
James co-founded Supercool whilst still at university and remains at the heart of the agency. He plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day running of the business and his experience in both print design and, in particular, web development helps to seamlessly translate Supercool's principles of accessible, usable design into the work we do for our clients.
As well as his work at Supercool, James is a non-executive director of C&T (an applied youth theatre group in Worcester) as part of the pilot Arts & Business scheme Young Professionals on Arts Boards, has lectured at Birmingham City University and University of Warwick, was shortlisted in the Entrepreneurial category of Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2008 and was invited to become an RSA Fellow in 2009. Phew!
Katie Parry
Having started her career at a small design consultancy and quickly becoming their ‘branding guru’, Katie went on to freelance at some of Birmingham’s leading design consultancies (including Supercool) before being headhunted by the regional office of a global advertising agency to become part of their creative design team.
In 2005, Katie joined Supercool as co-director and designer, as well as content editor of the Supercool website and in-house copywriter. (Though she still finds writing in the third person a bit odd.) She's a member of Association Typographique Internationale and the Arts Marketing Association and, when not designing or baking, is fairly prolific over on Supercool's blog.
Kristian Kaupang
After graduating with a first degree in Visual Communication and an MA in Fine Art from BIAD, Kris co-founded Supercool with James in early 2004. His graphic design style defines the Supercool aesthetic; restrained and intelligent yet still highly creative.
A perfectionist, Kris has exacting standards and is a stickler for every job –
no matter how large or small – to be ‘just-so’. And if being a highly talented designer (and photographer) wasn’t enough, Kris is also a qualified subject teacher of Media & Communication and lectures at Sandvika Upper Secondary School in Oslo, Norway.
Joel Evans
With a degree in Maths and Computer Science from the University of Birmingham and more than 12 years experience developing websites (as well as working with other online technologies), Joel provides an authoritative overview on Supercool’s back-end web development work.
Joel is most comfortable when elbow deep in PHP, ASP, Actionscript, XML, C# or even a spot of Javascript. It’s this knowledge of anything with an acronym, smooth saxophone playing and general avuncular manner that have earned him the moniker ‘Uncle Joel’.
Josh Angell
A graduate of Birmingham City University, Josh's role at Supercool is based around front-end web-development; coding, testing and basically keeping up-to-date with the very latest in web development … developments.
Josh brings a tonne of youthful enthusiasm to every project, as well as a well-developed coffee habit and a profusion of musicality; a folk musician and composer, he's just as at home with an accordion as he is with <a> tags.
Associations
Extra-Curricular
We Make Nice
A site to show off some of the rather nice things we work on, outside of our commercial projects.
Yoo-hoo!
A website we've set up, containing crowd-sourced tips and advice for graphic design students/graduates on how to approach design agencies.
Design Glossary
A resource to help clients and others understand some of the technical terms and jargon used in branding, print and web development.