The Click at 20: creating a legacy, one brand at a time.

Branding as a vocation found Bobby early on. His first job was for an agency designing packaging for fast-moving consumer goods. But it didn’t sit well with him that even when great work was made, it was typically redesigned a year later. “What I was drawn to with branding is that if you did a really good job, what you created might not change again for years and years. That longevity is really fulfilling. And making that investment for the long-term means more value for the client too.”

He pointed to The Click’s recent rebrand of Norwich Castle as an example of that longevity in action. “It’s hard to imagine that the core mark will change in my career now. When you create something really good, there’s no reason for anyone to update it. I’m not saying that we do every job perfectly, but we’ve always been strong-minded about avoiding trends, certainly in terms of the core brand mark or logo, to make something that stands the test of time.”

In a 2024 film called Ideas with Identities by documentary-makers Eye Film about The Click’s work, Robert Jones, Professor of Brand Leadership at UEA’s Norwich Business School and Brandland Founder, said: “The business of branding all runs on conviction. There’s no provable right or wrong answer. It’s what we believe in. So a lot of the time, yes, you’re buying design and you’re buying thinking, but really what you’re buying is conviction and confidence.”

The Click creates “identities with ideas” – those ideas are the clever rationale behind the work that makes it memorable, iconic, and infinitely usable. Whether that’s instantly gratifying designs for the American Library and Rabbit coffee shop or more subtle system-based solutions.

So what’s it like to build a brand from the ground up? Agencies of all shapes and sizes take different approaches – from lengthy market research and competitor stages to sharing mood boards to gauge client reception. For many, the process starts with a strategic phase to understand the foundations that underpin the brand.

At The Click, the result is a brand story. It’s created by distilling straightforward conversations with key stakeholders down into something compelling. “We find the common threads that hold a brand together and its unique characteristics, and bring them to life with words,” said Bobby. “A good brand story should feel familiar, authentic, and a little aspirational.”

This strategy then informs a visual stage, which Bobby described as “the most tangible, touchy-feely part”. It’s when clients get to see their new logo, the colours, the typefaces, and all the good stuff that makes up their brand identity.

“And that’s where the magic starts to happen,” said Bobby. “We’re responding to the brand story, which gets to the heart of the brand. And it might be something that’s right in front of you.” He referred to Mattressman, the UK’s largest online mattress retailer, which rebranded with The Click’s help last year. “A mattress brand taking ownership of sleep is something that you might step away from because it feels too obvious. But that’s the bit that really cuts through and people connect with.”

In 2025, Norwich was rated one of the best places to live in the UK by the Sunday Times, and it was the highest performing city in the East of England region in the PwC’s 2023 Good Growth for Cities index. With 8,000 companies already located there, it’s clear that business is booming.

In the 20 years since Bobby made that move from London, Norwich’s creative, independent spirit has fuelled his business as much as it has contributed to the city. He’s made the most of the close-knit ecosystem, two leading universities (hiring multiple designers who happen to be Norwich University of the Arts grads), and the breadth of local businesses.

“Norwich feels like a place that welcomes doing things differently and creating things,” he said. “There’s an open-arms, collaborative culture where if someone makes something, especially when it’s new and independent, there’s just this ready-made support for it. And I think we’ve really tapped into that.”

Beyond The Click, Bobby, together with his wife Fiona Burrage, have co-founded and launched a number of successful businesses and initiatives, including co-working space Studio Inn, lifestyle brand Nor-Folk, football collective Left Field, electric-powered coffee roaster Buzzing, e-learning platform Reuzer, and hair, body, and mind care brand Sop.

Like many of his peers, Bobby used to question if he’d made the right choice leaving London and all its creative opportunities. He’d make a point of telling people The Click wasn’t a “local” agency. That they were competing at the highest level and just happened to be based in Norwich. “I was probably overly defensive,” he said. “Now I have a real sense of pride in what we’ve done. We’ve got the best of both worlds.”

If there was any doubt remaining, it has surely evaporated. Last year, The Click won a prestigious D&AD Pencil – a global benchmark for creative excellence in design and advertising – for its Jarrolds rebrand. The work was a bold upgrade of the Jarrolds’ lion, that cleverly incorporated the new word mark’s “J”.