Coffee Design
Newcastle (HQ), Leeds
Website: Coffee Design
Type of agency: Creative
Founder: Lee Stobbart
Year founded: 2006
Headcount: 48
Offices: Newcastle (HQ), Leeds
Because of our size, we can react quicker and be more agile than the juggernaut networks.
Profile
Coffee Design has been “busy being busy” for the past 20 years, reaping success under the radar in the heart of Newcastle.
“We’ve just done the work,” says founder Lee Stobbart, whose career began as an illustrator in the early 90s. Testament to the high calibre of that work and the people behind it, most of the agency’s growth has come organically since launch – through both referrals and clients taking Coffee with them when they move jobs.
In 2026, Coffee is a 48-strong multi-skilled team of creatives, strategists, planners, designers and developers. They offer Coffee’s global client portfolio a full suite of services, from branding and campaigns to packaging and digital marketing.
Coffee primarily operates from a five-story once-dilapidated Georgian house in Newcastle, but it has another office in Leeds and is looking to put some feet on the ground in Dubai next.
Lee’s ability to bring in the right teams and skillsets along the way is what has helped Coffee to remain quietly competitive. It is broad in what it can deliver, agile in its delivery and selective in what it pitches for. Samsung, Amazon and Sage are among its key clients, the latter of which has been on the books from day dot.
While steady organic growth has served the agency well, Coffee is trying something different in 2026. Specifically, Lee is setting the agency up to target more strategic growth, which means being more bullish, actively pitching and making more noise in the industry.
But this will not be at the expense of the culture and trusted client relationships Coffee has been building over the years. Lee is rightly proud of the strong and healthy agency he has created without having to bang on doors and shout about the work. But in 2026, he knows that improving the agency’s visibility and getting his teams the recognition they deserve is what will unlock that next stage of growth.
“From there, once everything's in the right place and people can see who we are, we're just in the game a little bit more actively.”