Where We Came From

Soon after graduating from Batley School of Art in 1986, Simon Needham and James Sommerville together founded ATTIK in their hometown of Huddersfield, England. With a grant from the Prince’s Trust and a good deal of ambition, James and Simon set up shop in an attic bedroom in the house of James’ grandmother — the very room the company would be named after. They bought themselves the then-revolutionary Apple Mac and set about evolving the design sensibility that would eventually gain them a trip to Buckingham Palace. The graphic style they made their initial reputation on was a combination of passionate energy — sheer creative freedom — and the discipline of form. 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. By the mid-90s, the company became known for working in just about every medium conceivable, from broadcast to Web to music videos.

It was during this phase, in 2004, that Simon and James were invited to the royal residence to be honored, in an audience with the Queen, for their contributions to British (and global) design. The Queen was pleased to learn that the £2,000 grant James and Simon had received from her son’s trust was the starting point for their small graphic design partnership to explode into one of the world’s most recognized creative agencies. By 2007, ATTIK, a four-office entity whose management team included partners Will Travis and Ric Peralta, felt that in order to take ATTIK to the next level they would have to find a partner that could offer support and global resources while respecting the agency's philosophy, vision and culture. After months of research, they sat down with Dentsu executives Hiromi Yoshida, Toyohiko Shigeta, and Tim Andree and realized both agencies had a lot in common. In November 2007, ATTIK joined the Dentsu family and the next chapter of ATTIK officially began.