Hi, I'm Andy Golpys, Co-Founder here at Northern Digital. I started my web career eighteen years ago as a freelancer, whilst at university. I made sites for individuals, small businesses, friends, family, and for other design studios. Most of that work lived in the North of England. A lot of the agencies were in city centres I did not need to sit in every day.
Starting out
As a freelancer my days were split: agency offices, university, or the kitchen table. That mix worked for a while. I was young, I wanted the hours, and I was not commuting into a centre every morning just to prove I had a postcode.
- I could protect making time — email in the morning, design in the day, build in the evening.
- I was not spending three hours a day in traffic before I opened a laptop.
- Client meetings were rare. I turned up, did the work, and left.
The city-centre myth
When Jason and I set up Northern Digital, the reflex was familiar. Get a studio people can walk past. Be in the middle of it. Look bigger. We talked ourselves into the idea that a serious agency had to be in a serious postcode.
That idea does not survive contact with how we actually work. Our clients are not only in Leeds, and they are not wandering the streets looking for a neon sign. They find us because of the work, then they get on a call, then they visit if it helps. Paying city-centre rent to impress a passer-by is a very expensive billboard.
I have also done the other version: park, sit in traffic, lose a day to a meeting that should have been an hour. When you are the person who still wants to design, that is not a badge of honour. It is a leak.
Getting here
We are at West Pt in Leeds — Northern Digital, West Pt, Leeds, LS1 2DZ. Trains, a walkable centre when we need it, and a room clients can come to without turning the day into a logistics exercise. Nobody has ever told us they went with someone else because we were not on a more fashionable street.
Most of the relationship is still email, Figma, and a sensible call. The studio is for the days that need a table. That is enough. If you have a story about where you work and why, I would like to hear it — we are not precious about the postcode. We are precious about the work.
