Member Article

Altogether is born as Newcastle creative agency Sumo disbands

The creative team behind Sumo is breaking away to launch a new agency, Altogether.

Sarah Tempest and Michael Sutton have worked together at Newcastle-based Sumo Design for the last 10 years, and when Sumo founder Jim Richardson recently announced his plans to close the agency to focus on his events business NXT, the pair decided to launch a new agency.

Sarah Tempest, Altogether’s strategic director, explained: “The disbanding of Sumo marks the end of a 16 year journey but only the beginning for Altogether.

“Our ambition is to build a collaborative culture where talented creatives, illustrators, thinkers and doers create great work for passionate organisations with ambition and open minds.”

Between them, the Altogether team has worked with culture and corporate clients including Natural History Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Hepworth Wakefield, Naylors Chartered Surveyors and Northern Powergrid, winning several awards for its work.

Sarah continued: “Michael and I have been integral to Sumo’s growth over the last 10 years, and to work for ourselves and to grow an agency together is an amazing opportunity, one that we have worked hard to create and that I’m very proud to be part of.”

The team is already working on a number of brand identity, communications and audience engagement projects and hopes to evolve in these areas.

Creative director Michael Sutton is excited about the move: “Having worked together for several years we are starting Altogether with a team whose combination of thinking and creative ideas really is something special.

“We have been fortunate to work with some fantastic organisations and amazing people and we are all looking forward to building on that work.”

Jim Richardson, Founder of Sumo, commented: “The decision to go in different directions is huge, but having watched Sarah and Michael flourish and become an integral part of Sumo’s success, I thoroughly believe in them and I am excited about where they will be in a year’s time.

Jim added: “I have no doubt they will be a major agency in the North East.”

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