ABOUT
story time
tHE WHY
Over the past decade, Sheffield has seen a sharp decline in city-centre footfall, leaving many beloved independent businesses struggling to survive. These quirky, character filled businesses once offered unique shopping experiences, but rising business rates and fewer visitors made it impossible for many to keep their doors open.
Since COVID, a new wave of entrepreneurs has emerged. From homegrown startups to working in shared spaces, and even some returning to the city centre. This resurgence is exciting, but it’s also created a new challenge, a saturated market where every business is fighting to stand out.
Today, branding and a strong visual identity are more important than ever. But for small businesses, finding the right creative support can be difficult. Juggling multiple freelancers with different disciplines or investing in costly agencies isn’t always realistic.
Tools like Canva have made design more accessible, and while they’re great for quick content creation, they lack something vital, human understanding. True branding goes deeper than templates, it requires empathy, creativity, and a connection to your story.
That’s where we come in. JDR Design is created to fill the gap, to help give businesses a better chance at competing in the big leagues without the hefty price tag. It is in our interest to help you as best we can so you can flourish.
tHE business
Starting in college I entered a few local competitions such as the 'Advent Design' and logo design competitions through the 'Higher Skills Higher Growth (HSHG)' scheme. Being successful in these competitions led to further work and this snowballed exponentially, leading to me accepting an award, helping the sale of sports jerseys which raised money for St Lukes Hospice and the story along with a picture of me accepting the award was published in 'The Star' newspaper.
As my reputation in the community grew, the work followed. I was invited to speak in front of 30+ local businesses to share my story, explain the impact HSHG has on our community, and showcase the services I offer.
A few years and many clients later, I completed a Master of Arts in Design and started exploring roles within creative agencies. But with an existing client base and doubts about much of the work I saw agencies producing, I chose instead to look for gaps in the market and build something of my own.
Every day we’re surrounded by poor design. There are many reasons for this, the rise of GenAI, Canva, plus high agency fees that often put quality design out of reach for SMEs and independent businesses who need it most to grow.
JDR Design was created with your business at the centre. The goal is simple, to give you access to high quality, strategic design so you can compete at the top of your industry and in doing so, help both your business and mine thrive long term.
The PEOPLE
John Robinson - I'm the founder and sole designer of JDR Design based in Sheffield. I have a distinction grade Masters in graphic design and have been practicing the discipline with obsessive levels of focus and commitment over the past 6 years both as a Student and as a freelance designer.
I am multi-skilled in various design disciplines as I have pro-actively been learning other skills which were not taught on the design course such as motion graphics and web building, photography and videography.
That being said, I have always been creative but I wasn't always a designer. For years after leaving school in 2006 I have had many trades such as mechanic, vehicle security technician, warehouse operative, solicitors assistant, sales rep and purchaser but I have never felt like I belonged. Due to being persistently unhappy in my work life (for over a decade!) this impacted my mental health and I was forced to take control. After finding graphic design as a potentially new career and the amazing support from my partner, father and her parents, I decided to career jump.
THE SINGLE, MOST SCARIEST THING I HAVE DONE!
but 100% worth it. Graphic design has made my previous varied lines of work worth the experience as I understand the needs of companies in a variety of industries which gives me the knowledge to design with better impact and efficieny.