Celebrating 40 Years of Creativity
In 2026, Shaw Marketing and Design reached a major milestone in its long story – the 40th anniversary of our establishment. We’re amazed and delighted to clock up our ruby anniversary. It’s been quite a trip!
The story began back in 1986 when a charismatic son of Belfast, John Shaw – with Lyn Drysdale (now McMorland), Gordon Lee, and Chico Ramos – set up Shaw Marketing, Design, and Print Consultants. From a basement in Edinburgh’s Queen Street, the creative wheels began to turn. These were heady and fruitful days, catapulted forward by award-winning work for clients such as the Scottish Tourist Board, Wm Low, the Edrington Group, Scottish & Newcastle, the Scottish Sports Council, Scottish Equitable, and many others from across the private, public, and third sectors.
With a focus on building great relationships and delivering outstanding results for clients, the business grew rapidly. A long-served member of today’s team, Gordon Murray, joined in 1987 and two years later, Alastair Bruce, one of Shaw’s first clients who would go on to become managing director, joined from the Scottish Sports Council (now sportscotland). New designers such as Dave Sneddon and Paul Storie, and digital experts such as Darren Wilson, brought their expertise and drove forward the quality and breadth of our service.
Congratulations
Anne Budge
“What a milestone and what an achievement! Well done to you all!”
Shetland Office Launched
In 2000 Isabel Johnson set up our Shetland office, a unique initiative for a Central Belt-based marketing consultancy and one which continues to serve clients in the Northern Isles and beyond. Isabel herself went on to take up the post of Shaw’s deputy managing director.
All businesses operate in the context of political, financial, technological, and even health-based challenges and opportunities, and over our 40 years we have seen our fair share of all of these. We have battled through recessions and a pandemic, we have embraced new technology to enhance the service we deliver, we have aimed to create a culture which enables our people to thrive, and we have always gone the extra mile to further the objectives of our clients.
Along the way, we changed our name (slightly), we were the first marketing services company in Scotland (just the third in the UK) to achieve the Investors in People award, we were selected as the best small business in the Lothian region, we picked up a national award for our sponsorship of the arts, our team raised funds for a number of charities, and we’ve moved office a few times.
All About Our Clients
Most importantly, though, these 40 years have been all about our clients. We have helped them to develop their marketing strategies, communicate effectively with their audiences, grow their business, look and sound great, and win some awards. And equally importantly for us, we (and we hope it works both ways!) have absolutely loved working with them.
So our thanks go to every one of our clients with whom we have worked over the years. It has been our pleasure to have great relationships with many businesses and organisations, big and small, in Scotland and beyond. We thank you sincerely for trusting us and we look forward to continuing these relationships and driving your marketing and communications forward for you now and in the future.
Thanks, too, to our wonderful suppliers and partners – photographers, illustrators, techies, printers, production houses, and others. The quality of your support has been invaluable.
The Next Chapter
And finally, any business is only as good as its people, and that is especially true in our sector. We are a small team, and as such any success we have is built on every member of that team working together to deliver a quality service focused single-mindedly on clients’ aims and requirements.
To Isabel, Gordon, Aimee, John, Sophie, Stephanie – today’s Shaw team – thank you for doing just that, for playing your part in our reaching this significant milestone, and for being the foundation for the next chapter in Shaw’s long and creative story.
Alastair Bruce
Managing Director
