Where We Come From

ThinkTank’s roots lie deep within the music industry, as Niki Salter cut her production teeth at various music industry printers and packaging suppliers, including the big players at AGI. She was at a smaller agency, called Tribal Manufacturing, when she decided to start up ThinkTank in May 2000.

Why take such a risk? Well, Niki wanted to show clients how seamless production solutions could be combined with a genuinely creative approach. And she craved the independence to do it her own way.

So Niki spent two years doing the whole works – sales, production, admin, the lot – all from one computer. That obviously wasn’t enough for her though, so she had a baby as well. (The computer wasn’t much use for that.)

In the end, even Niki had to admit she needed some help. Justin Deighton joined ThinkTank in 2002, bringing with him a wealth of music industry experience. What he hadn’t expected was that joining this fledgling company would unlock a deeply felt passion for accounting. (He doesn’t like to talk about it.)

By 2003 Dean Rose had joined the team, adding his extensive knowledge of print, packaging and sales to the table. And by 2004 the three had become equal partners in the business.

We never wanted to leave music, but we did want to expand into other areas. So as we’ve gone along, we’ve done more and more stuff for corporate clients. The production challenges have got more and more complex and challenging too, which we love. It keeps life interesting. These days, the list of clients and projects is fantastically varied.

In 2004, we got an email from a chap called Alex Higgs, asking if we had any production jobs available. We read his CV and were all suitably impressed. So we got him in for a chat and the rest, as they say, is history. Alex has been with us since 2004, and we wouldn’t be the same without him.

Today we’ve got five full-time people and two part-time. Things only seem to get more manic, more complicated and more challenging. Which is just the way we like it.