To kick off our new series we caught up with Lee Wood, former St Albans player and owner of Ember Designs to find out more about the work that they do and the challenges of the last year:

When was the company founded?
I started Ember in 2014. I’d spent 20 years as a specialist design manager in London and I wanted to create my own path in and around St Albans. I am passionate about the City and the local community.

What do you do?
Ember is a complete graphic solutions company. Design is where we started, however, we are also specialists in marketing, print and advertising. Currently we are working with around 15 different sporting organisations, producing all their promotional material, match day programmes, online graphics and everything else they would possibly need to help promote their club. It’s not all sport though, our client base also includes a number of prestigious hospitality and commercial businesses. We are proud of working with our clients closely and understanding what they really need. We come on board to support, drive and work with our clients every step of the way. Their goals are ours.

Number of employees ?
Ember Designs is very much me, I am the director and the contact for all clients. I work with a number of very talented independent designers and this means our clients can benefit from all the skills and experience available from the wider team.

What challenges have you experienced over the last year?

It’s been extremely tough of course but we’ve adapted well to the situation and always pride ourselves on the quality of our work. We’re in regular contact with our clients to help them through this tough period and the local business network have very much collaborated to help each other. I’m extremely proud of what we have continued to achieve and been able to assist our clients with. Our relationships are growing stronger, and we are seeing that people are diversifying to help get through – we are able to support them throughout this, and certainly looking forward to watching their success grow as we come out of lockdown. Things have changed but great design, ideas and strength of message is still the main core business development and essential for success.

Why did you get involved with St Albans Rugby Club?

I’ve always loved the sport and I’m born and bred St Albans, once I had finished playing, I soon found that coming down to watch a game was the next best thing. My first visit to Boggymead was about 20 years ago in the days of Ed Coy, Dan Hillier, Mark Kentish and many more!

I was made to feel welcome as soon as I ordered my first pint and I’m proud to say I’ve been a follower ever since. I absolutely love the community spirit and team ethos at the club. Obviously with my business hat on, there’s so much potential here and in the relatively small time Ember have been involved, I hope it’s evident just how invested we are in helping promote and grow the club and establishing greater links for all involved. It’s a really exciting time to be a sponsor, and whilst we are in a hiatus at the moment, the passion, vision and drive the club has is impressive, infectious and I can’t wait for things to get going. Ember are thrilled to be a part of the Club and it’s future.