The story of Inkfish design studio started a long, long time ago, in 1997 to be exact, Suzan finished her graphic design studies in the Netherlands and arrived in Cape Town. Young, naive and absolutely determined to stay, Suzan and a South African partner founded MATCH! advertising and design.

Neil McCreadie joined the small studio in 1998. During his time at MATCH! Neil cut his teeth at designing websites. Those were the days of HTML, frames, animated gifs, pozzi’s and dial-up internet…

MATCH! did not make it through to the year 2000, but Suzan and Neil realised they worked very well together as a team, and yes you guessed it they got romantically involved. After tying the knot, Neil started working for Fuel Design, based in Vredehoek, and created a wide selection of stunning work such as the Tank Restaurant logo, a site for Rock Jewellery and various promotional material for Gavin Rajah.

Suzan freelanced from their house in the Bo-Kaap. Originally named “oneword design”, Suzan and Neil envisioned this studio to be focused mainly on webdesign, but Suzan also designed logos, corporate identities, brochures etc.

As the workload increased for Suzan and their first child, Sasha, arrived, Neil decided to join the home based studio. After the first apprentice from Switzerland joined the team, an ongoing stream of mainly Dutch interns contributed to the growing portfolio. A few interns from South Africa continued to stay on as juniors.

The whole household and studio moved to Fish Hoek in 2006 to have more space for the growing team and the growing family. Neil and Suzan’s son Victor was born that year. In 2007 the team increased, working from the granny flat in the back of the Fish Hoek house, and the company was renamed Inkfish design studio.

In April 2012 the team grew out of the granny flat and moved into a cottage at the bottom of Boyes Drive, overlooking the Kalk Bay harbour. Mid 2013, the McCreadie family moved out of Fish Hoek themselves and into a large house in Imhoffs Gift. This is where Neil continued on his own as web developer for a select group of clients. After two great years smelling the sea air and enjoying the occasional whale visits in Kalk Bay, it was time to make use of the opportunities the internet had to offer.

All INKFISH team members continued to work from home from that point onwards.

At this point the design studio was slowly starting to switch it’s focus from once off design projects such as logo’s, websites, brochures etc. to becoming increasingly more involved in the strategic marketing side of their clients. In early 2013 the first commission based investment into a company with an online shop, was a fact. Coffee Capsules Direct went live and has since increased to a great online sales success.

In 2015 a long wish from Suzan was fulfilled and she travelled with her daughter Sasha to The Philippines to meet her Asian team in real life. It was as if they knew each other for years already – except for the surprising height difference!

In line with the new focus to be green and eco, the subsequent contracts kickstarted INKFISH properly in the new direction of digital marketing. With a nice variety of brands cross pollinating yet still providing the initial services, INKFISH is well on it’s way to carve their own niche in branding and marketing organic and eco-friendly products.

Inkfish is the family name of cephalopods, or otherwise known as octopus. Each tentacle represents a field of expertise in the graphic and webdesign field, while the head ensures they all work together as one flexible, intelligent creature.

CLIENTS

14FACETS

'Exquisite jewellery made from diamonds left in their most natural state possible - with just 14 facets leaving a unique representation on each stone of the journey of the diamond from the bowls of the Earth, in its scars and marks, to you.'

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AUTOTECHNICS

Car Styling and Accessory Fitment Center

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CAPE VISITS TOURS

Day tour company offering tours in Cape Town, South Africa

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DIERBARE ONTMOETINGEN

Knowledge institute for dog professionals and dog owners to prevent bite incidents to children. I help dog owners to prevent starting aggression towards children. If a problem has already arisen, I also offer treatment for the problem.

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THE DUNG BEETLE PROJECT

The Dung Beetle Project is an international outreach programme working to create a sustainable new economy powered by plastic. The Dung Beetle Project is working with communities around the world to divert waste plastic from landfills and the ocean and turn it into valuable energy people can use today.