Tell us about yourselves and your creative background
Gruff: I started in the creative industries when I was in school, making awful gig posters with photoshop and doing some design work for my Dad’s business. I then went off to university to study physics but changed my mind last minute and opted to do something creative, dropping out to work for a television company in Swansea. In that role, I got to do a lot of work on Photoshop, like building educational games and websites, so I ended up being a freelance web developer whilst also doing a music production degree at the University of South Wales, where I met Nick. Although we were not necessarily friends when we studied together, I was busy working full-time and studying whilst Nick was the class clown.
Fast forward a year or two after we graduated, Nick had stayed to do a master's and I was busy doing the freelance thing, I met Josh, who is another co-founder of ours and we became good friends. At the time, I was helping my Dad set up this charity walk to raise money for the Wales Air Ambulance. The first year, I did the branding and photography of the event myself but for the second year, I was keen to do some video. It was so much work that I decided to bring Josh in to do some filming and editing, but Josh didn’t speak Welsh and it was then that I remembered this guy in uni who’d done a bunch of editing for his master's who could speak Welsh. I happened to see Nick on a night out and approached him about the job.
The three of us became good friends during the period of this charity walk, getting up at 6am, filming all day until 8pm and then events in the evening, then all the editing, constantly working for eight days. We still got on really well at the end of it, so we decided to start a business, forged in the fires of a stressful-but-successful project.
Nick: To fill in the blanks of my creative background, all the way through school, me and my friends used to record stupid videos of us just having a laugh, and we used to write songs, we even made an album in like year 11, full of really rubbish comedy songs.
I went to uni to study music technology which is obviously where I met Gruff. During my course, I’d come to the realisation that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a music producer, but I did a master's in music production because at the time it was really well funded. I was like, why not put off real life for another year? During my master's I had a six-month project for my thesis and they said, 'just do whatever as long as it's got to do with music'. I got all my mates from school back together and wrote a bunch of songs and shot and edited some music videos that were just ridiculous. But it was a study into viral media and how artists can leverage trends to establish themselves, which is comical now because it's just the norm. We posted three videos on the channel and had about 500,000 views in seven weeks, seemingly from nowhere. That project went really well, and I enjoyed editing, but I’d never necessarily call myself a filmmaker, I just enjoyed that aspect of it. When the opportunity came to do it full time I was like, yeah- why not? Let’s give it a go and see how it goes!
So, what’s your Creative First?
Our Creative First is pitching for our first large-scale project a few years after we started the company. We had done a lot of smaller-scale work before then, mainly music videos, but this was the first five-figure project that we were asked to pitch for. This was a turning point in terms of Storm & Shelter’s growth and in helping us understand how to approach a pitch of this scale.
Funnily enough, the last email we sent to the client before being offered the project was a meme of Michael Jackson and ET! This showed us that you can be yourselves and still get the job and that it can actually make you more likely to get the job if it’s a good match. Obviously, there are some professional situations where memes and smiley faces aren’t suitable, but generally, we advocate for being yourselves when pitching for projects. Relationships with clients should be well-matched, with them understanding you and you understanding them.
It also showed us how much we value people-led client relationships, writing a pitch to an unknown entity feels so impersonal. It’s meeting people, understanding them and what they want to achieve, that’s what’s key to a successful pitch and an output that’s as creative as it could possibly be.
What was the biggest challenge you faced?
The main challenge was learning how to sell our skills and expertise, especially in the early stages when we were very new to writing proposals for projects like this. It was a challenge to learn how best to demonstrate our relevant experience and skills in an engaging way which showed the client who we were. Although imposter syndrome can be a challenge, we tried to let that competition drive us rather than intimidate us. You need to have full confidence in your abilities and be willing to sell yourself and your suitability for the job, which is something you learn to do the more times you pitch.
Thanks to this project, we then had evidence of working on a large-scale brief to add to our portfolio, which made it much easier to pitch for other projects of this size. Getting this first big job was key to us growing as a company and working out exactly how to cost and position our work.
Can you share tips for others who are approaching their first big pitch
- Demonstrate your experience - Make sure you have a relevant portfolio of experience before pitching for a project. You must ensure you’ve got the skills your client is looking for and plenty of examples of these skills in action.
- Be passionate – Pitch for projects which align with what you’re passionate about, it will show in the quality of your work.
- Establish your brand – Although you’re often creating content for a client’s brand, you must establish your own brand and tone so people can understand what to expect from your approach.
Looking back, is there anything you would’ve done differently in this first big pitch?
The only thing we might’ve done differently was the presentation; it was black and white and very text heavy. We now use visually engaging branded slide decks for pitches and wish we’d done the same with this first big one. Having said that, we’re constantly learning, and it’s all about trial and error. You might do something one way and never want to do it that way again, but you’d never know that unless you’d done it in the first place!
Why choose Cardiff for your creative first?
Cardiff is such a collaborative place, especially in the music industry, which we engaged with a lot at the start through our degree and by creating music videos as a company. There are also so many people to work with here, with the BBC right in the middle of the city and multiple Universities we work with regularly, both doing content creation and leading/teaching sessions at the University of South Wales.
We’re both Welsh language speakers, so working in Wales’s capital city is great for us. We like working on bilingual content with our clients; it’s a valuable additional skill we can offer by working in Wales.
Find out more about Storm & Shelter and its work.
Creative Firsts feature
Want to be featured? Email us at creativecardiff@cardiff.ac.uk if you have a Creative First (first-time industry experience) to share with our community.
