I’ve enjoyed an enduring creative alliance with The Access Group. Helping them disrupt the "sea of sameness" in business management software with visual languages that demand a second look.
Overview
The Access Group is one of the leading providers of business management software. They provide solutions that empower more than 160,000 small and mid-sized organisations in commercial and non-profit sectors across Europe, USA and APAC.
Design thinking
I have collaborated with Access for over eight years, serving both as an integrated member of their creative team and as a strategic partner to marketing leads across all divisions.
The challenge lay in balancing uncompromising standards with a delivery pace that kept up with their rapid expansion. It was a privilege to work with such strong brand guidelines; I had a fantastic time extrapolating those visuals into digital products and diverse campaigns to drive maximum engagement.
I first partnered with Ben on a large rebranding project that required both creative overhauls and new assets from scratch. I was impressed by how quickly he grasped a complex product and brief. Ben is incredibly creative, highly logical in his workflow to minimize rework, and remarkably fast. Despite the inevitable stream of amends, he remained patient and responsive. I’ve worked with him on many projects since.
Karl Russell
The Access Group
The Brief: Develop a standout animation for a cloud-hosted financial management solution that differentiates it from previous character-led content.
The Solution: I used the brand’s new ERP hexagon icon as the central "character," transforming a static asset into a dynamic anchor for the narrative. This allowed me to visualise how the software unifies accounting, procurement, and analytics into a single, accessible data stream. The result is a playful yet strategic animation that simplifies a complex product for a global audience.
Our journey together
I began my journey with Access when they were a boutique team; since then, I have supported their remarkable evolution into a global powerhouse of 9,500 employees. As they reached a £1.15 billion turnover in 2025 and integrated eight strategic acquisitions, my creative assets and consultancy played a consistent role in maintaining their brand's visual narrative through rapid scaling.
The Brief: Im regularly asked to create a suite of templates for Access that are professionally laid out yet fully editable for their internal team's future use.
The Solution: As technology has evolved, so has my workflow. To empower the Access team, I now build 60% of their projects in Canva—a move that gives the client full control without devaluing the design. While the Canva software is often associated with simple presentations, I ensure there is no compromise on aesthetic quality. These examples demonstrate that high-end design and user-friendly editability can go hand-in-hand.
