26 June / July 2023 - Issue 247 www.signlink.co.uk Not Just a Printer The brainchild of Steve Williamson and Paul Johnson, 2601 has its fingers in many pies. The company operates under the strapline ‘Creative Print’ with production taking place just a stone’s throw away from SignLink’s own offices in Bristol. It’s Williamson’s creative background as an artwork designer and Johnson’s long career history in print that enables the business to offer much more than simply print and graphics. It’s because of this that the company has a healthy book of clients from a number of industries including interiors, hotels, retail, and the ever-demanding TV and film industry which requires extremely tight turnarounds and little notice in between jobs. The two founders came together in 2015 having worked together over the years before at various print companies and 2601 was born. “I’ve known Paul for 20 years,” explains Williamson. “My dad’s business was a typesetting company and Paul was working for a digital print company in Bristol. We needed an apprentice at my dad’s company to run a new printing machine, so we hijacked Paul. “Unfortunately, the company eventually folded and Paul went back to his previous employment and I went off working freelance to start with as an artwork designer and then started working for an agency.” Despite this, the pair’s paths continued to cross when Williamson called on Johnson as his large-format print contact for the agency he was currently working for. Two decades later and they decided they wouldn’t mind giving it a go themselves. “The company Paul was working for was going to be moving to Wales and there was going to be a big hole for a digital print company in Bristol,” Williamson continues. Taking the Reins Starting out, the pair had only one agreement. Williamson didn’t want to be involved with print and to do the creative side of things, and Johnson didn’t want to do design, he just wanted to sell and print. This suited the founders fine and taking on two members of staff and investing in a HP Latex 360, a Design Jet Z 6800, and a laminator, off they went. Working within a mailing house on a little mezzanine floor in the premises, Williamson recalls the company’s first ever job being a bright orange roller banner. “It seemed ‘wowing’ for me as I’d never been Always pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in the world of graphics and wide-format print, 2601 very much lives up to its ethos of ‘Creative Print’. We speak with founders Paul Johnson and Steve Williamson to find out more about the company’s unique approach We’re a little arm to your company in whichever respect you want us to be, rather than ‘we only do print’ or ‘we only do design’ COMPANY SPOTLIGHT / 2601 involved with the actual print element of it before. Before we knew it, we were doing a lot of car campaigns for Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, but via a design agency. I soon got very bored of seeing roller banners and PVC banners by the boatload. But it was fantastic for us to get going.” Some may be wondering what the significance of the numbers ’2601’ are and what they stand for, and the story behind the business’ name started years before the inception of the company itself. Having been working for a design agency for so long, Williamson had decided he wouldn’t mind giving it a go himself at some point so he created himself a brand. “At the time, I’d just had a baby girl and she was born on January 26th, so I called it 2601. I created some colourful branding for myself and raised the company on Companies House, got everything ready, and then didn’t proceed with it and stayed with the company for another fourodd years.” The benefit of this however meant that when Williamson and Johnson came to launch their own business, the branding was done and the company was already registered and ready to go. “It didn’t mean anything to anybody apart from me, and it was quite quirky and left a bit of mysteriousness to it,” says Williamson. ▲ 2601 operates under the ethos of Creative Print which reflects its offering of being ‘not just a printer’
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