Supporting local

SUPPORTING LOCAL | ACTIONS NOT WORDS

One of the reasons businesses struggle to support local is an economic one. We all need to make profit, however, often the cheapest option isn’t the local option with cheaper options available online from countries with lower wages and operating costs.

In 2021 we launched a new brand, new packaging and new marketing campaigns which required digital assets. The economic reality is that it is cheaper to get packaging produced in China/Hong Kong than in Scotland, where we are based. Even cheaper if you’re not worried about the recycling elements of it. It’s also cheaper to get animations made on sites like Fiverr where talented animators, designers etc around the world (India has a particularly strong army of people on Fiverr) churn out animations, logos, websites etc for a few dollars. As Scotland rebuilds after Covid we feel, as a proud Scottish business, that we should follow a policy of ‘actions, not words’ – support local where possible, where profits generated pay for piano lessons and sports kit for local kids, not a CEO’s second home. Great local businesses we work with are listed below.

 Animator | KaminskaWorks

“When you are at the early stages of your career, you need someone who believes in you, gives you support and the opportunity to shine. Scotlens offered me exactly that and more. I appreciate their professionalism, passion, and creative approach to bringing the highest quality project to life. It was a pleasure to work with Scotlens”

Ewa | KaminskaWorks
Glasgow

Check out Kaminska’s “Your logo animation in 3 easy steps”
– we think this is brilliant!

Packaging & Print | Captivate Creative

“We were originally approached by Scotlens due to our locality, to supply some printed literature for one of their products. Since then, we have developed a great working relationship with both management and their team. As a provider of printed & branded products, we strive to keep our environmental impact to a minimum, and like Scotlens, we too share their vision on creating and using products and materials that are more readily recyclable. We continue to work closely with the team at Scotlens to meet the needs of their business”.

Andrew Dinnes, Managing Director | Captivate Creative
Livingston

Scotlens Academy | Developing local creative talent

The Academy came about after a 12 year old and a 16 year old applied for one of our paid animation jobs. Their animations were so good we felt it was a missed opportunity not to do something. How could we match their enthusiasm and help them develop their talent in a way that would make them more employable down the track? Early stages just now, but we plan to help young local creatives – photographers, filmmakers, animators, designers, artists, poets, programmers etc – give them real projects to work on to develop their CV’s and showcase their talent. If we use their work, we’ll pay them. Hopefully we’ll get them noticed by other local businesses who may even partner us to develop a local pool of talented youngsters. All being well we’ll take some on full time one day. If we can be part of the movement that helps create good local jobs for our youngsters, then that’s a great thing to be part of.