40 specially invited business guests from leading businesses and organisations across the Isle of Wight recently joined Matt Jeffery, Founder and Managing Director of Brightbulb Design and Ced Wells, a Director of AJ Wells & Sons Ltd, at the AJ Wells Studio in Newport for a special business event entitled ‘A Creative Journey’.
The event provided an opportunity for like-minded guests to meet and network prior to the ‘A Creative Journey’ presentation which charted the rise of Brightbulb Design and the 46 year history of AJ Wells & Sons, reflecting the importance of collaboration in business.
This covered the 2 companies’ rise to business success and many of the key milestones, challenges and tough decisions made along the way. Something that also highlighted the close working relationship the 2 companies had developed; from the time when Matt worked as part of the AJ Wells creative design team to starting Brightbulb Design in 2014.
Matt presented his creative journey, explaining the Brightbulb ethos of being ‘out of the box’ thinkers and how Matt had brought his knowledge and experience from the Corporate Design world to benefit the Island’s SME’s. The success of which was reflected in their multi-award winning status and the fact that Brightbulb now worked with many of the Island’s most successful and aspiring companies, a number of whom were present at the event.
Matt comments:
“This event was about showcasing a great relationship built over many years between Brightbulb and A.J Wells & Sons and how business relationships can be mutually beneficial. We wanted to do something unique and offer an interactive experience, sending attendees home inspired by our passion for our businesses across differing industries.”
Ced Wells followed Matt’s presentation, charting their journey, from when AJ Wells & Sons was first founded as a family business in 1972 from a small workshop in Niton to today where the company now operate from 50,000 sq/ft of dedicated facilities in Newport. The company now employ over 140 people and is acclaimed as one of the country’s leading designers and manufacturers of clean burning stoves and architectural vitreous enamel products.
This also looked at how the company had met many of the challenges faced over its 46 year history and how they had adapted and diversified as a business, to meet changing customer needs, trends and challenging economic times.
Following the presentation guests were treated to an exclusive tour of the AJ Wells Manufacturing facility by Ced including a look at how enamel is milled, applied to the metalwork and fired in their huge furnaces at over 800C. The tour also included a visit to their secret London Underground mock station.
What many on the Island do not realise is that since 1990 the company have been producing much of the official London Underground signage and cladding. Working in partnership with TFL (Transport For London) they re-sign and re-furbished stations across the London network and are also involved in their Art on the Underground projects. Other recent commissions also include signage for the Paris Metro and the new Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) which stretches 60 miles from Reading to Heathrow.
