A slice of cheese is all you need

8:35am Monday 28th March 2005

BUSINESS is booming for graphic design firm Rubber Cheese but, say partners Paul Wright and Kelly Molson, who knows what would have happened if it had not been for a little luck and a fluke visit to the Friends Reunited website?

The duo, from Bishop's Stortford and Waltham Abbey respectively, set up the business, offering services from illustration and branding to web design, two years ago, when they grew bored of the day-to-day routine at the Essex-based e-commerce firm where they worked.

Recognising each other's design talents, they set up a website where they could bounce ideas off each other and members of the public.

Kelly, 27, said: "I guess that's where we got rubber from it's bouncy. But I don't know about cheese I think we both just like cheese."

Paul, 26, said: "I came up with the name but I don't know where it came from. It just sounded right. It was going to be a website where we could hone our skills."

With the site up and running, the pair decided to make a clean break with their employer and go it alone.

Kelly said: "It was all up in the air. Neither of us had run a business before and we were still figuring what we were doing when we got that bit of luck you always need."

Two weeks after starting Rubber Cheese, an old friend of Kelly's, from her days at King Harold School, spotted news of her job change on the Friends Reunited website and got in touch to offer the company a possible contract.

The contract with PlanIt Architects in Chelmsford involved the rebranding of new Tesco stores across the country, and is still providing work, and a regular income, for Rubber Cheese two years on.

Kelly said: "We've worked extremely hard to get where we are, but there's always that bit of luck involved. Getting that contract has been our bit of luck. I'd been on the Friends Reunited site a week or so before and I don't really know why, but I updated the bit about what I was doing, how we were starting up our own graphic design business, and the next thing I got an email from Glen Franklin who was an architect at PlanIt."

Since then the firm has gone from strength to strength with Kelly's and Paul's digital alter-egos', animated cat and mouse Mog and Waggit, fronting the show and winning clients from Harlow to New York.

Paul said: "It was quite funny. We've both always had these nicknames and with the website name, Rubber Cheese, a cat and a mouse seemed the obvious characters to represent us."

Kelly said: "On the website you won't find us, just Mog and Waggit. We've even got pictures of them on our business cards. People find it funny and it makes us unique."

Next the pair are starting an online shop, www.rubbercheeseshop.com, selling hats, t-shirts and other clothing with their original designs. They are also working to continue expanding business, particularly in the rebranding sector.

Kelly said: "We've had fantastic support from family, friends and advisers at the Harlow Centre for Business Support. We've worked really hard and it's great to have made it to our second birthday. If you'd asked us two years ago I'm not sure that we would have believed it. We're building every year."

For more information visit www.rubbercheese.com or ring 01992 763826.

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