Happy Giraffe's philosophy has helped the Midlands-based creative agency build a reputation for thoughtful, strategically driven work, and it has now earned the team the title of Branding Agency of the Year at the local business awards. Established as a name for 24 years, the agency specialises in branding, websites, digital design and marketing, helping organisations develop stronger identities, connect with their audiences and stand out in competitive markets. Led by owner Kerry, alongside a team of creative professionals, it aims to become an extension of its clients' businesses rather than deliver a project and move on.
That approach is guided by five core values: Perspective, Intelligence, Ecosystem Awareness, Courage and Partnership. The agency is delighted with the award, and sees it as a chance to celebrate the relationships, experiences and people who have shaped the business.
An inspiring start and a route into ownership
Happy Giraffe's story stretches back 24 years, but Kerry's part in it began in 2010, when she joined to manage its operations and finances. The agency was then owned by its original founder, Heidi Cooper, whose way of running a creative business made a lasting impression. Kerry was completely inspired by Heidi and saw in her the kind of businesswoman she hoped to become. As she recalls, “I want to be a woman in business too.”
That thought stayed with her. Over the following years Kerry became more and more involved in the agency, learning the creative industry and finding a passion for both the work and the people behind it. In 2015 she bought into Happy Giraffe and took over ownership, working alongside Matt Peace, whom the agency fondly calls its very own website wizard. It was a major step: from managing day-to-day operations to shaping the long-term vision of the business, building its creative capabilities and developing relationships with clients.
Since then the agency has continued to change, expanding its expertise and adapting to the needs of the organisations it supports. Looking back, Kerry finds the path from being inspired by another woman running her own business to leading Happy Giraffe herself particularly rewarding, with challenges, opportunities and achievements she could never have fully anticipated. After 24 years, the business is every bit as enthusiastic about what comes next.
Looking beyond the logo
Happy Giraffe believes successful branding begins long before anyone starts designing. Logos, websites and marketing campaigns matter, but the agency thinks the strongest creative work comes from first understanding the wider business environment. Every organisation sits within its own ecosystem of customers, competitors, challenges and opportunities, and seeing how those elements interact is essential to a brand that can support business growth. In practice that means asking questions, challenging assumptions and looking past what first seems the obvious answer.
The team is not afraid to question a client's thinking or offer a different view, even when the conversation gets a little uncomfortable, because the aim is the right outcome rather than agreement with whatever has been suggested. The five values shape how the agency thinks, creates and builds relationships on every project; they are not ideas put on a wall or in a presentation. The team also believes creativity should have a purpose. Being different can help a business attract attention, but being different for the right reasons is what creates a real advantage, so the agency wants its work to help clients communicate clearly, build trust and connect with the people they need to reach.
Twenty-four years of creativity, change and strong relationships
Lasting 24 years as an established agency name is something Happy Giraffe is very proud of, in an industry where technology, design trends and customer expectations keep shifting. Over that time the business has grown from its earlier creative foundations into an agency working across branding, web design, digital marketing and strategic consultancy, able to support clients at different stages of their development. For Kerry, that change shows the agency's willingness to keep learning and respond to what its clients need.
The business has also built lasting relationships with a wide range of clients, and Kerry never takes it for granted when organisations return year after year: repeat work shows trust and confidence that the team can keep contributing to a client's success. Happy Giraffe has worked with organisations including Birmingham Hospice, Higgs LLP, William Avery Fine Art, King Edward's School, Dudley College and Go Beyond, each with different ambitions and challenges across a variety of sectors. Seeing the finished work used by real people and making a difference to those organisations is one of her greatest rewards. The achievements she values most also include the growth of the agency's people, the relationships formed along the way and the opportunities Happy Giraffe has helped create for others.
Helping talented people grow
Kerry is particularly proud of the team behind the agency's work. Creating a place where talented people can develop their skills, grow in confidence and produce work they are proud of has become one of the most rewarding parts of running the business. The agency values the different perspectives each person brings, knowing that creative thinking gets stronger when people are encouraged to put forward their own ideas, and for Kerry the development of individuals matters as much as the success of a major project.
One example is Orlagh, who joined the agency as a school leaver. Kerry has watched her grow professionally and personally, building her skills, confidence and understanding of the marketing industry, and Orlagh went on to graduate from Aston University with First Class Honours, a source of enormous pride for everyone who supported her. Seeing her become the marketing professional she is today is something Kerry finds hard to put into words, and a reminder of what encouragement, opportunity and a supportive workplace can do for a career.
The agency is also proud of team members including Ian, whose commitment, ideas and willingness to challenge thinking strengthen its work. Having people who believe in the business and care about the quality of what they produce is, for Kerry, an achievement in itself. It confirms her view that a creative agency is built on people who support one another, share ideas and want to achieve something together, as well as on technical skill and impressive projects, and nurturing that talent remains an important part of Happy Giraffe's future.
New perspectives through difficult times
Like any business that has run for more than two decades, Happy Giraffe has been through periods of uncertainty. One of the biggest came with the Covid pandemic, when businesses across the country suddenly had to rethink how they operated. The disruption touched everything from internal processes and communication to project management and the way the team supported clients. The agency had to adapt quickly, finding new ways to collaborate and keep its services running while the future felt very uncertain.
Kerry also saw it as a chance to reconsider how the business worked. Rather than simply returning to old routines, the team asked whether those routines were the best approach for the future. Happy Giraffe reviewed its operations, adopted more flexible ways of working and questioned long-held assumptions, and in many ways the pandemic sped up changes the agency believes needed to happen. It came out of that period with a different perspective, greater adaptability and a clearer idea of the organisation it wanted to be.
The experience reinforced one of the agency's central beliefs: businesses must be willing to change, because what worked yesterday will not necessarily be right tomorrow. That applies to clients as much as to Happy Giraffe itself. By challenging familiar ways of thinking, organisations can find room to improve and face the future with more confidence, and for an agency that asks clients to look beyond the obvious, learning to apply the same thinking to itself was an important part of its own development.
Creative work for organisations that make a difference
Over the years Happy Giraffe has worked with many organisations whose work improves people's lives, and one relationship that holds a special place in Kerry's heart is with Birmingham Hospice. Supporting an organisation that provides compassionate care brings an extra sense of responsibility. The work has to do more than look professional or attractive: it must communicate the organisation's purpose, connect with its audiences and explain why its services matter, which is especially important when a charity's work makes such a profound difference to individuals and families.
Kerry believes this is where thoughtful branding can be powerful, since a strong message presented in the right way can help people understand an organisation and the importance of what it does. The team counts it a privilege to apply its skills to such a cause, and knows that even a relatively small contribution can count when it helps an organisation reach more people. Projects like this also show why the agency takes time to understand the bigger picture behind every brief. Behind a website, a brand or a marketing project is an organisation with real people, real responsibilities and ambitions that reach well beyond the finished design, and Kerry sees recognising that wider purpose as essential to creative work that matters.
Building community through netball
Outside the agency, Kerry has a longstanding passion for netball and a firm belief that sport should be open to everyone. Her philosophy is straightforward: “If you can catch a ball, we can teach you to play netball!” That belief led her to develop BlueStorm Netball Club, a diverse and welcoming group bringing together people of different ages, backgrounds and abilities. Its players range in age from 14 to 69, proof that enjoying sport and being part of a team does not belong to one stage of life.
For Kerry, the club is about giving people somewhere they feel welcome, helping them build confidence, encouraging friendships and giving them a way to stay active, as well as matches, training and competition. Sport brings together people who might otherwise never meet, and seeing those connections grow is part of what makes the club special. Happy Giraffe is BlueStorm's main sponsor, supporting the activities that bring its members together. Partnership, encouragement and the value of different perspectives matter as much on a netball court as in a creative team, and Kerry is particularly proud of the welcoming atmosphere around the club and the friendships formed between people who might never have crossed paths. For her, that sense of belonging is what community is really about.
Creative talent in the Midlands
Happy Giraffe is proud of its Midlands roots. Kerry and her team have never seen being based outside a major creative centre such as London or Manchester as a limit on their ambitions. Quite the opposite: the agency believes the Midlands is full of creativity, intelligence, entrepreneurial spirit and people capable of exceptional work, and that an agency has no need of a prestigious city-centre postcode to deliver outstanding results. Great ideas can come from anywhere, provided people are given the opportunity and confidence to develop them.
That belief shows in the agency's work to nurture talent and build professional relationships in the region. It wants people to feel they can have rewarding creative careers without having to move away, and Kerry sees supporting that as part of building a successful and sustainable creative industry in the Midlands. Perspective, Intelligence, Ecosystem Awareness, Courage and Partnership have nothing to do with geography; they depend on how people think, collaborate and approach the problems in front of them. Happy Giraffe's location gives it a strong connection to the local business community, but its outlook reaches far beyond it. In the agency's view, success is defined by how far a business is prepared to look, the opportunities it can spot and the courage it has to think differently, not by where it is based.
A proud moment
Being named Branding Agency of the Year has been a rewarding moment for Kerry and the whole team, and her first reaction was simple: absolute delight. Running an agency means balancing client relationships, projects, deadlines, creative challenges and the everyday work of managing a business. With so much attention on what has to happen next, there is not always time to stop and appreciate what has already been achieved, and the award gave the team a reason to celebrate its work together and reflect on how far Happy Giraffe has come.
The recognition covers the strategic thinking, creativity, commitment and relationships behind the finished brands, websites and campaigns. Every successful project involves people sharing ideas, solving problems, making decisions and putting real effort into the right outcome for a client, and Happy Giraffe takes pride in that process and the care its team brings to each stage. The award also endorses the philosophy that has shaped the business: taking a wider perspective, challenging conventional thinking and building strong partnerships. For Kerry, it confirms the importance of staying true to those values while continuing to change, and rather than standing still, the team sees it as fresh motivation to develop its expertise and see what it can do next.
What the award means for clients
Client relationships are central to everything Happy Giraffe does. Businesses trust the team with how their organisations are presented and understood by the wider world, a responsibility that goes far beyond choosing colours, designing graphics or building a website. Branding influences how people see a business, the confidence they have in its services and what they expect before they make contact, and understanding that is an essential part of the agency's work.
The award offers extra reassurance to clients who have chosen Happy Giraffe to help shape their identity and communications, and the agency hopes it shows them they are working with people who care about their success. It also reflects how the team builds long-term relationships, aiming to be a trusted partner that brings intelligence, creativity and an honest perspective rather than simply responding to individual briefs. That can mean asking difficult questions or encouraging a client to rethink an established idea, and the agency sees those conversations as part of work that creates real value. The strongest relationships, it believes, come when both sides feel comfortable sharing ideas, challenging assumptions and working towards a common goal. For Kerry, the award celebrates that collaboration and the confidence clients have placed in the business over the years, and she hopes it gives those clients a little reason to feel proud of Happy Giraffe too.
New technology and human creativity
Looking ahead, the team is excited about the opportunities opening up across the creative and digital industries. Technology is moving fast, changing how organisations communicate with their audiences and the tools available to designers, marketers and strategists. Artificial intelligence is one of the biggest areas of change, bringing new possibilities and challenges for creative businesses. For Happy Giraffe, that makes strategic thinking and human creativity more important than ever: technology offers new capabilities, but understanding people, spotting opportunities and developing ideas with purpose remain central to effective branding.
The agency wants to explore how emerging technologies can complement the knowledge, originality and experience of its team. It also plans to keep strengthening its strategic services, developing its people and working with ambitious organisations that welcome fresh perspectives. Kerry finds the most rewarding client relationships are built on trust and a willingness to challenge each other's thinking, since those conversations can reveal possibilities nobody had considered. The agency intends to stay curious, adaptable and willing to question familiar ways of working, just as it encourages its clients to do. Having already come through 24 years of industry change, it knows progress often comes from recognising when it is time to do something differently. The philosophy for that next chapter is in Happy Giraffe's own words: “Wild Ideas. Elevated Perspective.”
A thank you to the people behind Happy Giraffe
Kerry's first thanks go to the team whose creativity, passion and commitment make the business what it is, from developing strategies and producing design work to supporting clients and bringing ideas to life. She also thanks the freelancers and creative partners who work alongside the agency, bringing extra expertise and viewpoints. For an agency that believes so strongly in collaboration, those different views are a strength. As the team puts it, “Different perspectives make one Happy Giraffe.”
There is great appreciation, too, for the clients who have trusted the agency with their brands, ambitions and businesses, giving it the chance to work on meaningful projects and support ambitious organisations. Kerry never takes that trust for granted. The best relationships, she believes, rest on honesty, communication and the freedom to challenge each other in pursuit of the right result, and Happy Giraffe considers itself fortunate to work with clients who welcome that approach. Finally, she thanks everyone who supported the agency and took the time to vote in the awards; for a team that puts so much thought and energy into its work, that recognition means an enormous amount. Her message to clients is in the same spirit of partnership:
“Thank you for trusting us with your brands, your ambitions and your businesses. We genuinely love working with you, getting to know your organisations and becoming an extension of your teams.”
“We're proud of what we've achieved together, and even more excited about what we can achieve next. Thank you for being part of the Happy Giraffe story.”