Firm belief in the need to ad it up

Within a few minutes of meeting we are discussing Raleigh Chopper bikes (mine was purple, his was orange with extended front forks), newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell and the joys of "classic" dance music, such as Ce Ce Peniston, Soul II Soul and Ten City.

Adam is managing director of advertising agency Designate, which he helped found ten years ago, so it is not too surprising he knows his popular culture.

Knowing what makes us tick helps him to understand what makes us buy, which has ensured the company he started in the middle of a recession has flourished.

He was born in Merthyr Tydfil and remains "absolutely, definitely" Welsh, although he admits to being somewhat embarrassed by the national team's wooden spoon performance in the rugby in the Six Nations championship.

His parents moved to Cardiff when he was two and it was there he studied and got his first job as a media planner and buyer.

He was always drawn to advertising and, since starting work in his late teens and founding Designate in his mid-twenties, seems to have done a stint in most areas of the industry.

He says: "It's about creativity but it's more about understanding people and the reason they do things. It's a bit like psychology."

He worked for Maxwell Business Communications "before the big man fell off the boat" to get a better understanding of the media owner side of the industry and as a marketing manager to experience the client side.

By that point he was living in Brighton.

Adam says: "The truth of how I ended up here is quite simple. A mate of mine who lived here had a house party and I just decided there and then that this was were I wanted to live."

Designate was born about three years later in a pub at the height of the recession when Adam, Anthony Bullock and Terry Pottle, all in their twenties, decided Brighton needed a new agency.

Like many successful companies - Designate, and sister new media agency Internate, now employs more than 35 people - the new agency had humble beginnings.

He says: "We started out in Terry's lounge after buying a second-hand Apple Mac.

"The bank told us not to do it because there was a recession on, which had hit advertising very badly. They said we would be mad to give up good jobs to go it alone and wouldn't support us. That's why the computer had to be secondhand."

It took eight months to win the first contract and they had to survive on "enthusiasm" and not much else. But he says they always knew they were doing the right thing.

Early contracts with City Flier Express and what was then Brighton Borough Council helped get things moving, even though office accommodation was still a problem.

He says: "We moved into this office which had a leak and we had to put bin liners over the Macs to keep them dry before we went home at night.

"When we got involved with City Flier we said 'we can't bring them down here' but they came and liked our attitude and gave us the work. I've got really happy memories of those days."

The company has obviously made a success of things. It has just celebrated its tenth anniversary in what has often been a difficult market.

Behind Adam's desk are the presents he was given to mark the occasion - a Raleigh Grifter and one of those brick-like mobile phones from the dim and distant past.

He points out the brainstorming room (complete with bar) that is being built.

He says: "People need the freedom to be creative. I deliberately block off Fridays because if you spend your life in meetings you never get anything done."

He says Brighton is still a good place to start a business and that, despite the red tape, "if you want to do it, you do it".

"There are some brilliant people down here and a real creative buzz. I mean creative in the broadest sense of the word - like the fact everyone seems to be a DJ.

"A lot of the entrepreneurs are very creative and extremely self-sufficient."

I ask him how business is going in the current climate.

"We do a lot of tourism-related work and there's a war going on and war affects tourism but what can you say - there are a lot of redundancies in London and around Brighton but we've just taken six people on."

He says he can never imagine working for anybody else again but reels off a long list of other things he wants to try.

"I want to have a go at painting. That and photography. Oh and being a DJ."

I'm surprised he will have time. When I pass the offices in St George's Place at 7pm that night a number of staff are still working away at their desks.

That's probably the best advert Designate will ever do.

Monday April 7 2003