Born in Wigan, Darren Titler, 36, opened his first full service creative agency in the heart of Birmingham's creative quarter. With over 10 years’ experience in the industry, he shares his love of design, the meaning behind his business name and his exciting future plans.
A typically grey British afternoon, we meet at his newly decorated studio in the Custard Factory. The bright yellow walls and light bursting into the studio makes up for the lack of summer sun outside. He invites me to sit down at his desk which spans the length of the back wall, that houses a mac desktop, a lightbox for illustration and various design books, paintbrushes, spray cans and unsurprisingly a Lego Volkswagen Beetle. As soon as you set foot inside his studio, its bursting with personality, and you can see that design is truly a part of him.
"I never realised that was a job, that was never something I came across before and instantly got hooked, and that's what I wanted to be."
For Titler, setting up his own agency has been a childhood dream, ever since he became obsessed with design. His love of design started when he was a child, after a visit to Liverpool where he saw a man in his workshop setting up a traditional news print letterpress. He was mesmerised by the art of traditional print; how designers use space and graphics to create something truly remarkable, but also purposeful.
He remembers his parents brought him a similar letterpress set to the one he saw in Liverpool, but a smaller version. A few years later, he was introduced to his cousin's partner who was a graphic designer, "I never realised that was a job, that was never something I came across before and instantly got hooked, and that’s what I wanted to be," recalls Titler.
Titler went onto to college, and eventually university where he studied graphic design at Stoke. During university, he set up his first business designing merchandise for people, bands and sports teams, which continued to grow and supported him through university. Once he graduated, Titler knew he couldn't progress his merchandise business any further and so, started a new venture in buying and selling vintage furniture, which was more of a hobby, but made quite a bit of money within the first 18 months.
However, once his furniture business started to plateau, Titler turned back to graphic design and got a job in a digital agency, Gritt & Co, in Digbeth, "I needed industry experience to kind of understand the structure and the process of what I'm doing. I loved it, but I knew if I wanted to do this business, I needed to go and get some actual experience," said Titler.
After working at the same agency for over a decade, Darren Titler decided to create his own agency, Helson.
"It excited me, it's something I knew I could achieve and that’s why I pursued it, it’s as simple as that."
Titler realised there were other business opportunities in the industry that weren't being perused by his current agency. He had developed the creative department at Gritt & Co to its full potential, and had other offers from different agencies to develop their creative departments as well, "I did have the opportunity to go to different agencies, but every agency that I went to didn’t do what I did.
“I was basically setting up a new department anyway, so that made me think, if I’m going to set a department up and bring extra revenue into a company, why don’t I just do that for myself.
“It excited me, it’s something I knew I could achieve and that’s why I pursued it, it’s as simple as that," said Titler.
The name Helson, inspired by his family, is a nice homage to his roots, and where he came from. "When I was in my early twenties, I used to do quite a lot of graffiti in Manchester, Liverpool and Stoke and my tag was always 'half Nelson' because my mum’s maiden name was Nelson and I just took the 'H’ from half and chucked it on, replaced the ‘N’ and that’s where Helson came from," said Titler.
Helson is an independent full-service agency, that specialises in offering clients creative content alongside offering brand development and marketing. Helson offers a one-to-one service for clients that is personal to them, “Not a lot of people do the whole campaign, you’d have to go to a big agency and not every company can afford that.
“I’ve created Helson to be a full-service agency, without the price tag with what comes with a traditional, bigger agency and it is fully flexible to the client as well,” said Titler.
"Working in an inspirational place helps with work flow, but it also adds to the aesthetic of what you're trying to deliver as a creative."
Helson has only been open a few months, but Titler already has plans in place to expand his business, "Well, my future plans are definitely to grow what I've got here, employ people. Slowly work onto account managers, when things get a little bit too busy for me to deal with that myself. But within two years I would like to have in house people, I would also like to set up another agency up north, just to cover more clients, but still have a base here."
Originally from Wigan, Titler settled in Birmingham and chose to set up his first studio in Digbeth, “The Custard Factory is a great creative hub. Working in an inspirational place helps with work flow, but it also adds to the aesthetic of what you’re trying to deliver as a creative.
“Obviously over the years, I’ve met lots of different clients, which are still clients now and have transitioned, which is great. I’ve built up those relationships with clients, but also suppliers.
“There’s an abundance of suppliers in Digbeth, that can help me with the things that I do and also fill in the blanks with the things that I can’t, like video production for instance. After being in this location for 10 years, people actually do want to help you, and it’s nice.”
