More than two decades of creative thinking, brand development and strategic marketing experience.

Every business has a story. Ours began with a belief that great marketing and communication should do more than look good. It should solve problems, connect with people and make a meaningful difference to the organisations behind it.

Long before Makin Marketing, there was twohundredby200.

Founded in 2002, twohundredby200 grew into an award-winning multidisciplinary creative studio, delivering branding, design, marketing and communication projects for organisations across the UK and internationally.

Today, that experience forms an important part of Makin Marketing’s foundations, combining creative thinking with commercial understanding, strategic direction and practical marketing leadership.

Where It All Began: twohundredby200

twohundredby200 was established with a straightforward ambition: to create intelligent, distinctive and effective design and communication solutions.

As founder and Creative Director, I led the studio’s creative direction, worked closely with senior decision-makers and helped organisations address complex branding, marketing and communication challenges.

Our work spanned government, defence, infrastructure, engineering, cultural institutions, consumer brands and the creative industries.

Some projects demanded imaginative approaches to established problems. Others required translating highly technical or complicated information into communications that people could actually understand, and some needed someone to ask the awkward but important question: What are we really trying to achieve here?

That question remains central to how I approach marketing today.

Trusted by Recognised Organisations

Over the years, twohundredby200 worked with an extensive range of public- and private-sector organisations, from internationally recognised brands to specialist businesses and cultural institutions.

Notable clients and organisations included:

Government, Defence & Infrastructure

The Home Office, The Scottish Government, The Royal Navy, The Royal Marines, The Royal Air Force, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, Balfour Beatty, Babcock Thorn and the Olympic Delivery Authority (London 2012).

Corporate & Consumer Brands

The BBC, Virgin Trains, The RBS Group and TAG Heuer.

Culture, Heritage & Environment

National Museums of Scotland, The Natural History Museum, The Imperial War Museum, RSPB, RHASS and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Music, Festivals & Events

The Wickerman Festival, Loopallu and Boardmasters.

Working across such diverse sectors provided an invaluable education in how different organisations operate, how people make decisions and why effective communication is rarely a one-size-fits-all exercise.

Whether the audience was a government department, a technical specialist, a corporate board or a music festival crowd, the underlying challenge was remarkably similar: understand the audience, communicate clearly and give people a reason to care.

Pioneering Digital Publishing: The twohundredby200 Magazine

Alongside its commercial work, twohundredby200 also published an internationally recognised digital creative magazine.

Published between 2002 and 2018, the magazine became known for showcasing design, illustration, photography and creative talent from around the world.

At a time when online publishing was still finding its feet, the magazine explored new ways of bringing creative work to a global audience.

It became an important part of the studio’s identity, reflecting a willingness to experiment, embrace emerging technologies and challenge conventional approaches to communication. More importantly, it reinforced something I still believe today: great content earns attention by being interesting, relevant and worth someone’s time.

That principle applies just as much to a modern B2B marketing strategy as it did to a creative publication twenty years ago.

From Creative Direction to Strategic Marketing Leadership

As my career developed, so did my understanding of what businesses really need from marketing.

Good design matters. Strong branding matters. Clear communication matters. But none of these works particularly well in isolation.

A beautiful website cannot compensate for unclear positioning. An impressive advertising campaign cannot fix a poor customer experience. And a new logo is unlikely to solve a business’s underlying commercial challenges, no matter how enthusiastically it is unveiled.

Through twohundredby200 and subsequent senior marketing leadership roles, my focus increasingly shifted toward the bigger picture: business strategy, market positioning, brand development, customer behaviour, demand generation, and commercial growth.

That evolution ultimately led to Makin Marketing.