CC Designs UK

Today our guest is Chris Oliver the managing director / founder of CC Designs UK - A UK based web design and print design company. We have conducted an interview with him.

What is your secret to overcome the great discomfort in uncertainty?

A good question, when I first became uncertain about achieving the goals I desired in life, I was told one line from a contact in the industry "If you feel negative, you will never notice or fulfil oppourtunities, if you create a dream, you'll build a vision"

It took me a while to understand this but in the end I realised to think positive and not expect the future to just be given to me, but to make a goal on what I wanted my future to be and what I want to do in later life and work towards this. Yes, you will always experience discomfort and uncertainty in your life and the best way I feel personally to prepare for this is to expect both positives and negatives. If you are simply expecting positives, and you hit a negative, dealing with the negative will simply bring you down more and make the goal your aiming to achieve harder to achieve.

In life I feel you have to hit a high amount of negatives, I hit a rather lot of negatives in my younger years, and I look back now and to be honest, although they were hard, and at times I felt as though I had to throw the towel in - the easy route out, would be less stress and disapointment but I had my goals firmly in my life, and every negative that hit me and I overcome simply made me a stronger person and made me in to the person I am today.

What are your strengths? Which is your most valued strength?

Another great question! I would say being able to deal with negative issues in my life and business life, and turning a negative in to a positive. If I did not have this strength, any small hurdle I come across, I would simply fall at, but by using a vision of my future, I feel I can deal with the negatives more easier and find a solution around them.

Everyone has strengths - some maybe more valuable than others but unless you can deal with negative issues or problems that occur in life, I feel you would struggle in life. Personally having this strength I feel is vital to me and each day/week I try to make it stronger and to this day, I still have the same vision and goals in life I made when I was a teenager.

Which aspects about game design was the most interesting but challenging for you?

I come across a few challenging and interesting areas, but the most challenging I would say was trying to create ideas/designs that no other game designers had introduced, from simple little changes to where a feature was placed or a feature lighting up when the player received a message from another in-game player, once I had created the idea in front of me, I then began to slowly add other ideas, at first many would not blend at all, but little changes to areas and the idea blended in perfectly.

In gaming at that time, every game I played, whether the game was Mafia based MMORPG or Pimp based MMORPG, every game had the same, simple design, players were use to the design , just a few banner changes and word changes was the main difference between games. This was another challenge, trying to create a design that both new players and experienced players could easily understand and still access all important actions in the game quickly.

Personally I would say, gamers are one of the hardest clients to please, along with the game webmasters. As a lot game webmasters would be nervous about an entire new design, or worried there players would leave the game because of this - this I would say was the most challenging.

For the next five years, what do you envision to achieve with "CC Design UK"?

At the moment, plans are already in place to further expand our translation services from 4 languages to 12 languages and to enter another market in our industry.

We also have further plans to introduce professional "Voice Over" services and video design services to our clients. At present we are aiming to launch this new service November/December 2016.

In the future, we are also aiming to open 2 town centre office premises, to offer clients the chance to come and meet with us in a neutral enviroment and take in-depth project information, check on project processes and see our other services in person. Including Video examples and roll up banner designs. At present, our first location we are looking in to would be Chesterfield, Derbyshire (Our Local Area) followed by possibly Sheffield or Birmingham.

About surrounding yourself with the right people during the set up of your company, what is your advice on retaining good people, determination and communication?

A good question again! In the past I was surrounded by negative people, basically people who were simply out to have a good time, no goals in life. I spent alot of time around these type people however, it turned in to a positive impact on myself as I always wanted to be different, and being successful and turning my life around from where I was in my younger years, if I managed to do it, I felt it would be the biggest achievement of my life. I have done this, and to this day still hold as my biggest achievement in life. I will admit, it was hard and challenging at times, but when achieved, there is no better feeling.

I would say when I was setting up CC Designs UK, and due to re-locating, it made it easier to focus more on the visions I had set in my life. I would also say that having the right partner/wife was another main reason I was more determinded in making CC Designs UK a successful company. As Cloey, everytime I come across a hurdle and felt just a touch of a feeling of throwing in the towel - she would quite literally tell me to sort my head out and get back on track, and without her, I know I would not be where I am today, just being told off by her but fear in me (In a good way) and the determination she had in me also helped a great deal.

Also being able to talk to people close to you about negatives in my life or negative issues also helps I feel, as at times, everyone needs someone to talk to or even cry to, and without anyone by your side like that or on the other end of the phone, I feel it is harder to deal with any negative issues.

I would personally like to thank my parents Tina & Colin for not giving up on me. My brother Daryl for putting up with me. Mick and Mandy for giving me the work oppourtunity and the chance of meeting there Daughter Cloey. Cloey for being by my side everyday and standing by me through thick and thin. I would also like to thank my Uncle Mark for standing by me when I was a bit of a little terror.