Double Click Design and Print CIC – just ‘Doubleclick’ to its friends – is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a social firm in 2025, and there is much to celebrate!
Doubleclick’s origins go as far back as 1993, when it began as a research project run by Flintshire County Council – called Capability Cards, later Capabilities – operating from a bright and welcoming shop in Buckley – to “create a realistic work opportunity for people suffering with or recovering from mental health problems”. Initial aims were to focus on the landscapes and natural beauty of Wales, using the group’s photography and design skills to produce greetings cards and other items to be made available for sale to the public.
Additional training was offered to anyone wishing to learn a new skills, which proved very popular, and a move to a larger, dedicated workspace in Shotton, to facilitate the group’s ever-widening range of skills and services followed – along with a new name: Double Click.
After achieving great success within the community, and atttracting interest from local businesses, the desire to expand the scope and services offered by the project grew further. And inspired by input from some of the project’s members, a groundbreaking new idea to relaunch Double Click as a social firm was put forward, and discussions began.
After a number of years of planning, including invaluable support from Social Firms Wales, it was on 14th April 2015 that Double Click Design and Print CIC came into being. And over the past decade, Doubleclick – as a community-focused social firm – has continued to build on its solid foundations of supporting mental health, while developing a successful graphic design company. Evolving from its roots as a work scheme, Doubleclick today is a unique blend of commercial graphic design agency and creative vocational training centre. Training is made available via referral to members of the local community who are in mental health recovery, and continues to be managed in close collaboration with Flintshire County Council’s mental health teams.
This training is designed to develop creative skills that will help and inspire individuals to get back into work, start a business, return to education or simply gain the confidence to enable them to move forward. These skills may include graphic design, photography, web design, or creative writing, but we do our best to tailor training to the individual’s needs and their creative passions, as we believe this gives them the greatest chance of success.
Design and print work and training all happen within the same open plan studio, based within our characterful annexe at Deeside Enterprise Centre, a space that offers ‘good vibes only’ – made clear by a neon sign that promises just this as you enter!
We have all experienced some of the stresses and anxiety that can come with traditional working environments, so we ensure that the studio is always a relaxed, welcoming and inclusive environment. We have an amazing team of staff, trainees and volunteers at Doubleclick, and so much support from local businesses and organisations.
Over the past year, Doubleclick has introduced a number of new ideas, most notably further expansion of its training and trainee support, including regular photography and writing groups, plus trips and outings to foster creativity and general wellbeing, made possible with a new electric minibus kindly funded by the Postcode Lottery Community Trust.
The company has also rebranded, with the new, more modern trading name of Doubleclick (Double Click Design and Print CIC was always quite the mouthful!) together with a new logo and strapline: ‘A Creative Social Firm’. The new logo also gives a nod to the company’s Welsh roots (is it a ‘K’ or is it a cursor?). New commercial services include web design, branded clothing and merchandise, digital graphics and video marketing; they will also be relaunching their popular magazine ‘Like Minded’.
With such talented people coming through their doors each week, and helping them tap into those talents and turn them into real skills that may help shape the rest of their lives is very rewarding, and the team at Doubleclick are looking forward to supporting people to do that for many more years to come!