Blick Creative Turns 21!

30 October 2026

This year, Blick Creative celebrates a pretty significant milestone. We’re 21!

What began in Melbourne in 2005 as a small graphic design studio has grown into a digital creative agency working across design, websites, custom development, accessibility, co-design, digital platforms, integrations, video, hosting and much more.

A lot has changed in 21 years.

The technology has changed
The way we communicate has changed
Our team has changed
Our clients’ needs have changed
And Blick has continued to change with them

But some things have stayed the same: doing good work, building strong relationships, understanding the people we are designing for, continuing to learn and finding the right solution rather than simply the easiest one.

21 years later, the tools have changed enormously. Our focus hasn’t: understanding what our clients need and finding the best way to make it happen.

It started with two people and an empty studio

In 2005, Blick was a very different business. Our Director, Mark Schiffer, and Head of Studio Adrian Brierly were setting up the original studio — quite literally painting walls, setting up desks, networking, trying to attract clients and building a portfolio from scratch.
There were no 21 years of case studies to show. No large client list. No established reputation. Just a lot of enthusiasm, hard work and a belief that we could create something worthwhile. In those early years, Blick was primarily a graphic design studio.
There were:

Logos
Brochures
Annual reports
Advertising campaigns
Publications
Packaging
And a lot of print

As the team grew, so did the needs of our clients. Within a few years, websites became an increasingly important part of what we did. And that started another chapter.

From graphic design to digital creative agency

The interesting thing about looking back over 21 years is seeing how one capability gradually led to another. Graphic design → Websites → Development → Accessibility → Co-design → Integrations → Digital platforms → Digital creative agency.

Over time, our work expanded into:

Custom website development
WCAG AA and AAA accessibility
CRM integrations
Membership systems
Online communities
eLearning
Booking systems
Live data
Digital publishing platforms
Video and photography
Co-design and lived-experience research
Hosting, maintenance and security
Digital strategy

Today, describing Blick simply as a graphic design studio or web agency doesn’t really
capture what we do. We are a digital creative agency, bringing creative thinking, technology, accessibility and strategy together to help organisations solve real problems.

Work that has taken us places

Over the years, Blick has been fortunate to work with an extraordinary range of organisations. Much of our work has been in the:

Not-for-profit sector
Health sector
Disability sector
Government
Education
Advocacy
Community services

Our clients and collaborators have included organisations such as: Deafblind Australia, Monash Health, GV Health, Bendigo Community Health Services, VALID, Inclusion Australia, SARU, Merri Health, Victorian Transcultural Mental Health, VicTESOL, Brave Foundation, Martin Luther Homes and many more.

And our work hasn’t been limited to Australia.

Blick goes global

Members of the Blick team have:

Travelled to Vietnam to work with Plan International Australia and Plan Vietnam
Created photography and visual learning resources for ethnic minority communities
Travelled to the United States for the Leap 4 Life and Optimal Self projects
Collaborated with organisations and teams across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas
Worked on projects associated with WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, WaterAid and Grow Asia

Twenty-one years ago, we certainly weren’t sitting in our newly painted studio imagining that one day Blick would be facilitating global co-design sessions in the middle of the Melbourne night or developing large international digital resources for health professionals around the world.
But that has been one of the great things about the journey. We’ve never really known where the next project might take us.

Accessibility changed the way we work

One of the biggest influences on Blick over the years has been accessibility. Initially, accessibility was something we approached through standards, testing and good
design and development practice. Over time, it became something much deeper. Through work with organisations such as:

Deafblind Australia
Monash Health
VALID
SARU
Rainbow United
Inclusion Australia
QIDAN
GV Health
Bendigo Community Health Services
Victorian Transcultural Mental Health
Merri Health

…we had opportunities to work directly with people with lived experience.

We ran co-design workshops
Listened to personal stories and experiences
Tested our assumptions
Changed ideas when they didn’t work
Developed new ways to present concepts accessibly
Attended Deafblind events as a team to learn directly from people with lived experience

Through the My Lived ID project with Monash Health and VALID, we worked alongside people with intellectual disability to create a more accessible mental health resource. That work went on to receive recognition through the Victorian Disability Awards for Leadership in Co-design, and members of the Blick team later presented on stage alongside collaborators from Monash Health and VALID about what we had learnt through the process.

Accessibility didn’t simply become another service Blick offers. It changed the way we work.

Today we develop websites to WCAG AA and AAA accessibility standards, but we also understand that accessibility cannot simply be reduced to a compliance score. It requires listening to people.

More than 9,000 trees and a lot of muddy shoes

Not every important Blick memory happened behind a computer. For many years we held annual tree-planting days with TreeProject, bringing together staff, clients, friends, family and suppliers. Across different areas of Victoria — including the Yarra, the Yarra Valley and farmland surrounding Melbourne — the Blick community planted more than 9,000 trees and native seedlings.

Along the way, we learnt about, revegetation, native plants and seedlings, wildlife corridors, erosion control, soil stabilisation and restoring local habitats.

The days became an important part of Blick culture too. Eventually, tree planting evolved into Blick Fest, combining planting with camping, food,
drinks, a bonfire and plenty of time together outside the studio.

Our environmental work also contributed to Blick receiving City of Yarra environmental recognition.
More than 9,000 trees. A lot of muddy shoes. And some very good memories.
We have never claimed to be perfect when it comes to sustainability. The philosophy has simply been to try to make better choices where we can and do our bit.

Awards are nice. Relationships are better.

Over 21 years, Blick has been fortunate to receive recognition for:

Design
Digital projects
Accessibility
Environmental initiatives
Co-design

We’re proud of those achievements. But when we look back, the thing we value most isn’t an award. It’s the relationships. Some organisations have worked with Blick over many years and through multiple generations of their digital presence.

A relationship might begin with: A brochure → a website → a campaign → another website → hosting → accessibility → video → CRM integration → something that didn’t even exist when we first met. That ongoing trust means a lot to us.

Likewise, many staff members, freelancers, developers, photographers, videographers, suppliers and collaborators have contributed to the Blick story over the years.

A 21-year business isn’t created by one person. It is created by a lot of people contributing ideas, solving problems and trusting each other.

We’ve learnt a few things along the way

Twenty-one years is long enough to learn some things. Some lessons have been profound. Others are mostly practical. A few things 21 years has taught us:

Listen before assuming you know the answer
The people using something will almost always teach you something you didn’t expect
Accessibility makes better digital experiences
Simple-looking solutions are often the hardest to create
Technology should solve a problem rather than become the problem
Good relationships matter
Backups matter
Websites are never really finished
Keep learning, because technology never stops changing
And launching a large website late on a Friday remains a questionable life choice

We’ve also learnt that Blick apparently has a tendency to take coffee very seriously. At one stage we had a professional coffee machine, barista training, multiple milk options and strong opinions about the correct age of coffee beans. These days, with the team working remotely, coffee is more likely to happen during a team catch-up — but it remains very much part of Blick culture.

21 Years in 21 Days

To celebrate our birthday, we’re launching 21 Years in 21 Days. Over 21 days, we’ll share 21 different stories from Blick’s journey. Not just projects. We’ll look back at:

The people who helped build Blick
Our early studio years
Memorable clients and projects
Accessibility and co-design
Our environmental journey
Tree planting and Blick Fest
International work
Awards and achievements
Lessons we’ve learnt
Behind-the-scenes memories
And a few slightly less serious Blick stories too

It is an opportunity to celebrate where we’ve come from — while also recognising just how much we have changed along the way.

Our 21st birthday offers

A birthday deserves a celebration, and we wanted our clients and community to be part of it too. For Blick’s 21st birthday, we’re offering:

21% off graphic design and website development services (Ts&Cs apply): If you’ve been considering a new website, refreshing an existing one, updating your branding, creating publications or tackling a design project that has been sitting on the list for a while, now might be the perfect time.

21 months of hosting for the price of 12 months (Ts & Cs apply): A special birthday offer for organisations looking for reliable website hosting, maintenance and support.

21 years of Blick – by the numbers

21 years in business
2005 – the year Blick began
9,000+ trees and native seedlings planted
AA & AAA accessible websites delivered
Multiple continents reached through international projects
Hundreds of projects across design, digital, accessibility and communications
Countless coffees consumed along the way

What comes next?

Perhaps the most interesting part of turning 21 is looking at how impossible it would have been to predict the business we are today when Blick started in 2005. We couldn’t have predicted:

The technologies we now use
The rise of mobile and cloud platforms
AI and automation
The complexity of modern digital platforms
The importance accessibility and co-design would have in our work
Some of the places our projects would take us
The people we would meet and learn from along the way

And we don’t know exactly what Blick will look like 21 years from now either. That’s part of what makes it exciting. What we do know is that we want to:

Keep learning
Keep evolving
Keep listening
Keep working with good people
Keep supporting organisations doing meaningful things
Keep creating work we’re proud to put the Blick name on

To our current and former team members, clients, collaborators, suppliers, friends and
everyone who has supported Blick over the past 21 years:

Thank you. You’re part of the story too.

We’re incredibly proud of the last 21 years — and very excited about what comes next. Happy 21st, Blick.