Feature : TCB Designs

Going it alone

With some experience under his belt and investment from his dad, five years ago Chris took the plunge and decided to set up on his own, and TCB Designs was born. The company, which at the time consisted of just Chris and girlfriend Mhairi, initially focussed on printing clothing for university societies and creating shop signage for small local businesses.

“We spent hours emailing university societies every month to see if we could help with the group uniforms and from a £600 cutter, we would work through the day into the night cutting and weeding clothing vinyl. There were many times when I would sleep over in the shop just to keep the machine running to complete deadlines. To make it worse, our first shop on Brown Street didn’t have a toilet - the staff at Marks and Spencer’s were convinced we worked there, as we were in there so often using the facilities!” says Chris.

So, how did the company grow to what it is today?

Since the company’s launch in 2018, the team has grown to eleven, with the most recent recruit focusing solely on writing tenders and bid applications, with the aim of gaining larger contracts across the country.

As the business has grown, the team has found that they have needed to expand their skillsets as well. In addition to designing and manufacturing signage, they also wrap vehicles, install neon signs and knock down walls and plaster to hide wires.

“This is a fast-paced industry, and you have to be able to keep up with the latest techniques and trends. The projects we work on are so varied, and no two days are the same,” explains Chris.

Growing client base

Over the last five years, TCB has generated an impressive client base including Barnfield Construction, Burnley Football Club, Calico and Burnley Leisure and Culture Group. We love it when Burnley Bondholders come together in this way!

One of the team’s most challenging and rewarding projects to date has been the two e-sports rooms at Burnley College. Chris tells us why this has been such an important addition to their portfolio:

“This was a really interesting project to work on, the college is very forwardthinking and gave us a lot of freedom to design the full concepts for the rooms.”

On the first room design, the team worked with Walker Audio Design to create a bespoke lighting design so that the room can be fully controlled and go into various game modes. They also made bespoke hornet neon signs and installed gobo projection signs that rotate on the floor.

For the second concept, they fitted a textured feature wallpaper that looks like the concrete of a stadium. They also designed and manufactured low-hanging suspended ceiling lights, as well as 3D text that subtly pops out the walls with warm white LEDs. This was finished off with two huge pillars displaying the e-sports branding and the Burnley Football Club logo.

“The project involved so much more than just signage and required us to have shop fitting and interior design skills. It’s opened our eyes to expanding our portfolio outside of just signs, and we are hoping to now work on more office fit-outs and feature walls,” adds Chris.

The future

Scaling the business further is very much at the forefront of Chris’s thoughts: “We love that we work with so many local businesses, but we feel ready to scale up and expand our services nationwide. We’ve already worked on signage for five JD gyms around the country and are hoping this will extend further afield.”

“Over the past year, we have invested £60,000 into a CNC machine, which was part-funded by Lancashire County Council with a grant from the Growth and Innovation fund. The machine allows us to be endless with our creativity and we can fabricate and design almost any product that we can think up. We’ve also invested in a new £37,000 flatbed printer, that prints straight onto the sign boards, creating minimal waste and allowing us to be so much faster and more efficient with our process,” he explains.

With a growing team and a desire to keep up with the latest techniques and trends we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for TCB – watch this space!