Businesses evolve, change and adapt because of so many reasons... but we never thought it would be because of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC!?
We opened Recreate HQ as a photography business, in fact we were called Recreate Photography at first. And we explored so many avenues to find what worked best for us. We did weddings, engagement parties, birthday parties, fashion, headshots, MUA shoots and property photography... and then COVID hit.
The year of COVID brought on so many challenges for us as a business and as a family. We sadly lost both of our grandparents (not due to covid) who have been such a huge part of our lives growing up, so we took some time out.
Spending time with family became our biggest support and from this we had more clarity and time to really think about our business and the direction that it is heading. Were we going to continue with photography? How could we adapt the business? What could we do to continue building what we had started? And thats where our new business name was formed; Recreate HQ LTD - The Creative Hub!
We learnt how to create digital cartoon drawings using illustrator and procreate and this became an extension of our business... people loved it! It was something so different and personal and became a great gift idea bought by many! As this part of the business slowly grew, our photography side became quieter. Maybe graphics were the way forward? Maybe this could be the 'thing' that makes the business grow??
Meanwhile, Locks, decided to buy a laser cutter. A LASER CUTTER!! In the midst of a global pandemic! We ALL thought he had gone mad. But little did we know this was the move that changed our business forever!
Locks was designing and manufacturing small gifts, Christmas products, cabin crew tags and so much more... and the best part was that we were selling quicker than we were making! So in the new year we decided to explore more with the laser and we began making (in addition to the other stuff) home decorations, personalised 3D Portraits and business signage... and we kept growing!
Now here we are in 2022 kicking the year off we took a leap of faith and decided to enter into the wedding market offering customised welcome signs, seating plans, name tags, table numbers and so much more. Our first exhibition was at The National Asian Wedding Show in Heathrow. We were so blown away with the incredible feedback of our products, we just thought - this is where we need to be and what we need to be doing! So then came our next show at The National Wedding Show at ExCeL London in April! Let me tell you, that was the most surreal thing that we had done as a business! It was absolutely incredible to be a part of and again we were receiving such amazing feedback so we booked onto the next 2 shows - October 2022 and April 2023!
We're approaching the end of the year now and we CANNOT wait for what 2023 has in store! We believe hard work pays off but also being an honest and fair business to our customers, by providing them with products they LOVE at reasonable prices!
Follow us on Instagram to see behind the scenes and product photos! We love what we do, and we hope you do too!
And thats a wrap - for our FIRST BLOG!
Nikki ~ Co-founder of Recreate HQ
