Andy and Paul founded Element Creative Ltd in 2020; it was born from a passion and rich history in design and engineering.

Historically working for and with large blue-chip organisations such as Dyson, BMW and Rolls Royce Marine, Andy and Paul decided to give up the corporate life and utilise their 25 years combined experience to start offering their own design and engineering services into sectors where they have gained the most knowledge and can add real value.

Element Creative are a specialist design agency based in Bournemouth.

Having graduated in product and automotive design and gaining years of industrial engineering experience enables Andy and Paul to combine design, engineering and manufacturing services so they can go on the product development journey as far as their customers want to go. Whether that's conceptual design, design and engineering, or prototyping and setting up for manufacturing.

Currently they focus on marine, automotive and product design which has seen them work on projects from designing tooling for automotive carbon fibre components to designing luxury RIB boats used on super yachts.

The pair don’t like to pigeonhole themselves though, so they are completely open to working on any projects that challenge them creatively with any size company. In fact, their motto is to be brave and take on new challenges!

Element Creative decided to join the Residency Programme to have access to the collaborative workspace and be able to integrate with likeminded people. The duo see the access to academia and the potential to collaborate with students, the university and other local businesses on diverse projects.

Likewise, another attraction of the residency was having access to the latest manufacturing equipment available in-house with specialist technicians to operate it. This is really exciting for Element Creative as Andy and Paul want to start to expand their offering of prototypes and components, as was always the intention for the business.

When asked what they hope to achieve though the residency, Andy and Paul say:

"The business started successfully and has grown to a point where we haven’t had the capacity, resource or access to the equipment to enable us to move forward. It is our goal whilst being at the Innovation Studio to fast track the design, development and execute a go-to-market strategy of our own product with help and influence from collaborative working and the facilities available at the AUB and Innovation Studio."

So far throughout their residency, the team have utilised the materials library and have created designs that they plan to have manufactured on the SLA and SLS printers in the 3D printing hub. Soon, too, they plan to requesting time on the 5-Axis CNC and Router in the digital fabrication workshop.