Forty minutes east on the M69. Brand, web, packaging and print design for Leicester businesses — the Cultural Quarter independents, the Belgrave-Road family firms, and everyone the chain agencies don't know how to talk to.
Leicester has one of the most genuinely varied independent-business scenes in the country — a textile heritage that never quite went away, a famous Belgrave Road of family-owned shops and restaurants, a Cultural Quarter that's been working for two decades, and a university spin-out scene growing quietly around DMU. Most of our Leicester work sits somewhere in that mix.
The LCB Depot end of town is full of small creative businesses, small-plates restaurants, independent fashion and design studios — the briefs we see most often come from there.
Leicester's South Asian-owned businesses around Belgrave Road — restaurants, jewellers, sari shops, sweet centres — frequently need work that respects a long heritage without looking trapped in it.
A steady trickle of research and product spin-outs need to look credible to investors, customers and a sceptical press — usually before they can afford a London agency.
Most of the work happens over video — same as it does for our clients in London, Bristol or Milan. But for Leicester briefs there are four moments where we'll always come to you in person, included in the quote at no mark-up.
A 90-minute discovery session at your office, café, studio or building site — wherever the work actually lives.
In LeicesterTwo design directions presented and worked through over Zoom or Meet — usually 60–90 minutes, recorded and shared.
VideoDesigns refined and shared async via Figma and PDFs. Two scheduled review calls; ad-hoc questions handled within the working day.
Async / videoWe attend the press-check for print and packaging work, or run a handover session at your office for digital projects — at no charge for Leicester-area suppliers.
In LeicesterWe'd been quoted by two big East Midlands agencies who clearly thought a 30-year-old Belgrave Road jeweller was a charity case. Nicolas spent two hours in the shop before drawing anything, came back with a rebrand that respected the wordmark we'd had since 1992, and modernised everything else around it. Our online orders are up 4× since launch.
A non-exhaustive list of Leicester districts we've shipped projects with clients in. Numbers shown are projects shipped, not active campaigns. If your part of the city isn't listed, that's not a problem — we're still 22 miles east on the M69.
If yours isn't here, drop us a note at projects@saint-nicolas.co.uk — written response inside one working day.
Yes. Our studio is 22 miles from Leicester city centre — a 40-minute drive on the M69, or a 30-minute train ride. We'll come to you for the kickoff and any decisive sessions (press-checks, brand reveals, launch reviews) at no additional charge.
Day-to-day work runs over video, which keeps the budget on the design and not the travel. If you'd rather meet at the studio in Nuneaton, that's an open invitation — we've got coffee, a long table, and a wall to print work onto.
All of Leicester and the surrounding districts. Our recent work has been concentrated in the Cultural Quarter, Belgrave Road, Clarendon Park and Highcross — but we've shipped projects with clients in Stoneygate, Knighton, Aylestone, the West End, Oadby, Wigston, Glenfield and Birstall too.
We also work regularly with clients in Nuneaton, Coventry, Warwickshire, Rugby and Birmingham — all easy reach from the studio.
Same-day if needed, with reasonable notice. The M69 connects the studio to Leicester's printers and trade estates in 40 minutes off-peak; the train is faster than driving in rush hour.
We attend press-checks for print and packaging projects as standard, and proof sign-offs at suppliers in Leicester, the Frog Island print cluster and the Meridian Business Park. If your printer's local, we probably already know it.
Independent food and drink (cafés, roasteries, small-plates restaurants, bakeries) clustered around the Cultural Quarter, Granby Street and Clarendon Park; family businesses on the Belgrave Road (jewellers, restaurants, retail); independent presses and design studios in the Lanes; spin-outs from De Montfort and the University of Leicester; and a steady stream of professional-services and healthcare firms across the city.
We work across nine design disciplines — brand, web, packaging, print, editorial and social — and most projects combine two or three. Browse the full portfolio for examples by discipline.
Same as anywhere — every project is quoted bespoke against scope, complexity and turnaround, with a written estimate before any work starts.
No travel mark-up for Leicester projects: we're close enough that on-site sessions don't change the brief. We don't publish day rates or package prices because every brief is genuinely different, and a fair quote needs context. Send us a brief or just a paragraph about what you're trying to do and we'll come back within one working day.
A 40-minute drive, a 30-minute train, and a written response inside one working day — no travel mark-up, no sales call.