Ex-Deepend staff to pool again as Recollective

The second breakaway to emerge in the wake of digital communications group Deepgroup’s demise is planning to launch this week, Design Week can exclusively reveal.

The eight-strong team, called The Recollective, includes two people who are currently working to complete a revamp of the Design Museum’s website, which was originally undertaken by Deepend (see below). Three graphic designers and two interactive designers are involved in the breakaway, including Nicky Gibson.

Designer Chanuki Serefinhe, one of the eight, says, ‘We all met at Deepend and enjoy working together. We have chosen The Recollective name because we want to re-establish what we had at Deepend.’

The Recollective plans to keep its activities ‘small scale’ at the moment, adds Serefinhe, and is not seeking outside investment. In order to reduce overheads, the team will be looking to work with ‘outside project managers’.

The group intends to make a formal announcement of its launch imminently. No new clients have yet been won, but the team are speaking to ‘contacts’, according to Serefinhe.

The news follows the launch of De-construct a fortnight ago (DW 27 September) led by former Deepend design director Fred Flade and the appointment of Gary Lockton, former Deepgroup chief executive, as chief executive of North Creative, a print and multimedia promotions company in the film and leisure sectors.

Last week, on-line ad agency Gluemedia, one of Deepgroup’s six constituent companies, rebranded as Glue London.

Deepgroup employed 180 staff before its liquidation. It was formed in 1999 on the back of Deepend London, which was founded in 1994 by Gary Lockton, Simon Waterfall and David Streek.

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