HeX Productions

Here are the questions we got to ask James:

How are you settling in to your new office?

It's been really good! We've moved from Ilkeston where we had a small unit and over the Christmas period we decided to move to Westminster Buildings. I can't speak highly enough of the people here. Nottingham City Council and The Creative Quarter have been extremely helpful. Moving to a city centre is never easy. But to have that support, you've got that comfort coming in and you feel at ease. 'Rome's not built in a day' so it does take time. It's allowed us to settle in a lot easier which has been great.

So tell us about what you do?

We're predominantly web developers, so we look at designing and developing brand new websites for a range of different clients. For example, we've worked with mental health charities based in London, we've redeveloped the way they deliver their information and their annual reports. Everything is online for them now, it's all digital to make it more engaging. We've also worked with local authorities around Nottingham, including Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe. I'd say two of our biggest investors are in London and Longwood University in America, which is pretty big! We helped them with development and design. We're looking at helping a new charity in Nottingham with their branding work as well. As we get more designers in to work with us, we can offer design and branding if they wish, rather than just focusing on websites.

What drew you to Nottingham city centre?

There's lots of options out there! I'm from Beeston for example, and when you look at it, it's a thriving little town. We just wanted to go that step further. Nottingham is the hub essentially, and there are a lot of creative agencies here to work with and help each other. There's a lot more support in the centre of Nottingham. So it seemed logical to follow that - plus we needed more space for the team and the business to grow. By putting the two together it was a no brainer to come to the city centre. The first month that we've been here has been fantastic for us.

Why do you think Nottingham has become the place to be for the creative and digital industries?

A range of organisations and businesses have put a lot of time into the creative and digital industries here. You have to have those first few businesses that are willing to be involved at the start and they are becoming advocates of Nottingham and its creative scenes. By creating something really special at the start and bringing people on board you've been able to grow Nottingham for creative people. In the industry everyone looks at London and the Brighton scene, but I can see that Nottingham is coming up extremely quickly to be a place that people will want to come to. There are so many benefits of coming to a place bang in the middle of the UK, including being able to access Manchester and London easily. With creatives knowing they've got that support, I can see Nottingham growing further. As long as we're getting the message out there, I can see that we'll be getting more creative businesses here. Hopefully more businesses in general to make the scene a lot bigger.

How are you finding working in the city centre?

Our methods are getting better and our processes have improved. I think this has to do with the competition. You need to be slick, efficient and utilise everything you have. With us now saying we're a city centre agency we have to make sure that we're streamlined. We've made sure that every member of staff is comfortable and they've got everything they need. Plus, we have to keep networking and going to events like Tech Nottingham and Second Tuesday. We're keeping up with what's happening more easily because we're already here - our team doesn't have to travel into the city to come and hear industry talks anymore.

How did HeX start?

I started web developing in school and stumbled upon making webpages. I don't know what drove me to it but I've always had an interest in computers, that just stayed with me and I've been doing it ever since. From there I went to college and carried on my interest. Then I went on to the University of Swansea where I did an e-commerce degree, so it's been slowly building up. The first hurdle I had was when I left uni, assuming that I'd be able to get a job straight away with the background I had, but that wasn't the case. Luckily, I was given a fantastic opportunity by Broxtowe Council and since then I've never looked back. It was such a passion to make sure that this worked, and we've had horlix.com for about 15-20 years now. By making mistakes I've been able to grow as a person, both from a web developer point of view and a human being point of view. All of it is hard work and takes sleepless nights but the benefits come in the end. I would never change a thing.

Who's in your team?

We're slowly growing! We've got myself, the main developer plus a great team of web developers including Zara and Jon who work in-house and Mike who’s based in Newcastle - he’s a remote worker for us and specialises in the University market. Emma creates our content and Matt is our graphics designer, he's from a branding background and his forte has really come into the web design work we do. We use freelance designers too and we'll be looking into getting more in-house creatives as we progress, we want to be a good-sized agency. The most important thing is quality and that our clients are happy with the work that we're producing. We want to see how we can improve as an agency and then slowly build as a team.

How did you come up with the company name?

We're in a crossroads at the moment because my nickname at school was 'Horlix' due to my surname being 'Hall'. That's how we go our domain name horlix.com. It evolved into HeX, which on its own wasn't really saying what we do on the production side of things. So now, we're HeX Productions to tell the world we're more than just web developers, there's a whole production behind it and we want to evolve that. We love HeX, including our icon and black and orange colour scheme and we're extremely happy with our branding. HeX Productions has been great and we're going to keep it. We've just got to make sure we get the domain name sorted soon!

What makes your business thrive from the rest?

In the web development industry, the best way to put it is that people can’t talk. The industry has been poor at communication. My background has been in customer services and phone support, before I was given the chance to become a web developer, so I've always been able to talk to people. That's one of the things that HeX has progressed at, so anyone that comes into the team can talk. We know we can go in and fully explain everything to our clients! By doing that we know that our clients are at ease, the last thing you want as a client, is to be baffled by anything that just gets thrown out there. We need to make sure that they're happy and comfortable with what we're doing. The quality of our work is also key. We've got great suppliers, servers and technology. We've done our research and we're making sure that what we're providing is of the highest standard.

To keep updated with HeX Productions and watch them progress, check out their social pages: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Website

Have a look at some of HeX's work in action: www.lepmis.co.uk www.longwood.edu/ www.poppy-pr.co.uk www.pjwconsultancy.com

Photographs taken by: Nottingham Post