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Bristol companies among UK’s top creatives
Two Bristol businesses have been named in a list of the country’s 50 most creative companies as part of a report by Creative England.
Celebrating start-ups and individuals who have turned a creative idea into commercial success, the organisation ranked multimedia company Anagram, based at the Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, in its top-three; while Stokes Croft-based Opposable Games came in at number 30 on the list.
The report, now in its second year, aims to shine a light on the abundance of creative innovation that exists outside of London, as well as celebrating the industry as a whole and the £76.9bn it contributes to the country’s economy each year.
Anagram was named the third most creative company in England, a business created by film, documentary and interactive game specialists May Abdalla and Amy Rose.
The multi-award winning company that has worked on a range of creative projects for high-profile clients, including experiential documentaries, public art, video games and even children’s toys.
“It’s quite an incredible thing to have happened,” says co-director May of the recognition. “After all, we founded our company on a whim to give up our day jobs and go on an adventure making the kind of creative narrative experiences we could never get away with in the film industry.”
“The dream was to create meaningful and intimate stories using all the tools new tech innovation had to offer. When it’s difficult to explain what you make because the language to describe the genre is still being created, then I think you’re onto something good.”
May and Amy rose to international acclaim when their immersive documentary Door Into the Dark won a prize for Best Interactive Work at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, and since then they have gone on to create similarly thoughtful and innovative interactive work such as the Nightwatchers experience at the Tower of London.
The second Bristol business to make the list is Opposable Games, who have created several award-winning video games for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Their biggest project to date, tactical action game Salvaged, is currently still in development, but the company have received high praise for past work including Android app Legends of Xor, and a game for iPhones and iPads based on Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies.
For more information, visit www.creativeengland.co.uk/story/CE50-Report-Creative-England.
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