Creative people. Proper experience. No agency nonsense.
Poppy Design Studio is an experienced WordPress and creative studio helping businesses look better, work smarter and feel confident about the digital side of their business.
WORDPRESS
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BRANDING
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GRAPHIC DESIGN
A creative studio built around relationships, not transactions.
Poppy Design Studio was founded in 2015, but our experience with WordPress goes back much further.
Marie has been working with WordPress since its early days in 2003, and over the years Poppy has grown from a small creative studio into a team supporting businesses and organisations across the UK.
We design websites, brands and marketing materials, but the work itself is only part of what matters to us. We believe clients should understand what they’re paying for, know who is looking after their website, be able to ask questions without feeling silly and they shouldn’t need a dictionary to understand what their web company is talking about.
That approach has shaped Poppy from the beginning.
Good work matters. How you treat people matters just as much.
Chat to the Poppy team
What matters to us:
Honesty
We’ll tell you what we genuinely think
Transparency
Clear pricing, clear scope, clear communication
Security
Protecting websites and digital assets properly
Experience
Over 20 years working with WordPress
Personal service
Real people you can actually talk to
No jargon
Plain English, even when the tech gets complicated
Named with love. Built with belief.
Why Poppy?
Poppy Design Studio wasn’t named after a marketing brainstorm or because we thought the name sounded pretty.
It was named after Maries gran.
“Growing up, I spent so much time in her garden, surrounded by wildflowers and poppies. They’re wrapped up in some of my happiest memories of her.
Gran loved poppies. So much so that she even managed to persuade my grandad to have poppy tiles in their downstairs bathroom and my mum made her a dried flower basket that sat in the window, which I can still picture now.
But the name means far more to me than the flowers.
My gran was like a second mum, and she had an incredible belief in me. She saw something in me long before I had the confidence to see it properly for myself. She encouraged me to believe that I was just as capable as anyone else and that I had every right to follow the things I was good at.
That belief stayed with me.
When I started Poppy Design Studio in 2015, she was no longer here for me to show her what I was building. Naming the business Poppy felt like a way of taking a little piece of her with me.
And, in many ways, the business has grown from the same things she gave me: encouragement, determination, kindness and the belief that ordinary people are capable of doing something brilliant when somebody believes in them.
So Poppy is more than our name. It’s a reminder of where I came from, who believed in me, and why I kept going.”
Meet Marie
Director & Head of Design
Marie is the driving force behind Poppy Design Studio and has been working with WordPress since 2003.
A self confessed tech geek with a creative brain, she sits somewhere between designer, strategist and translator of complicated digital things into normal human language.
Marie founded Poppy Design Studio with Nigel in 2015 with a clear idea of how she wanted clients to be treated: honestly, transparently and without the smoke and mirrors that can sometimes surround websites and digital services.
Today, she leads the creative direction of the studio across WordPress web design, branding and graphic design.
She’s often the person helping a client work out what they actually need before the design work even starts.
Because sometimes the most useful thing a designer can say is:
“You don’t need that.”
And sometimes it’s:
“We can make this so much better.”
Either way, you’ll get a straight answer.
Meet Nigel
Head of Operations
While Marie leads the creative side of Poppy, Nigel keeps much of the technical machinery behind the studio running. He oversees the operational side of the business, including IT, domains, website hosting and ongoing aftercare.
That means when a website goes live, there is still someone thinking about what happens next.
Nigel helps make sure the technical pieces that clients rarely want to think about are properly looked after from email setup to the ongoing support that keeps websites running smoothly.
He’s also one of the people clients speak to when something needs sorting behind the scenes.
Between Marie’s creative direction and Nigel’s operational oversight, Poppy combines the two things a good digital studio needs:
Creative thinking at the front and solid technical support behind it.
Bigger than two people. Small enough to still know your name.
Behind Marie and Nigel is the wider Poppy team.
Our web designers, developers and creatives work across Poppy Design Studio and our sister company, Poppy Eco Hub, giving us a broad mix of WordPress, design, development, accessibility and digital experience within one team.
The wider group currently includes five in house web developers and designers.
We work collaboratively rather than passing projects through a chain of anonymous departments.
So although different specialists may contribute to your project, you’re still dealing with Marie or Nigel.
Not a ticket number.
Not an unknown freelancer you’ve never spoken to.
Not somebody disappearing halfway through the job.
Just a team that knows the project and understands what you’re trying to achieve.
Words from our clients
“A great agency to work with, where honesty & integrity
remain at the forefront of their principles.”
- A Happy Client
Honesty. Transparency. Security.
These aren’t words we added to a brand document because they sounded good.
They’re how we make decisions.
Honesty
If we think something is a good idea, we’ll tell you.
If we think you’re about to spend money on something you don’t need, we’ll tell you that too.
We’d rather build a long-term relationship than make a quick sale.
Transparency
You should understand what you’re buying.
That means clear pricing, clear scope and straightforward communication throughout your project.
You’ll know what’s happening, what happens next and who to speak to if you have a question.
Security
Websites are business assets.
They hold data, connect to other services and often play a critical part in how a business operates.
Security isn’t only about how secure our servers and firewalls are, although we take that seriously, and we are Cyber Essentials certified.
For us, security is also about how secure you feel when we’re looking after things for you. You should always understand where your website, domain and other digital assets sit, be able to access what you need when you need it, and never feel locked in.
If you ever choose to move to another provider, we’ll help make that process straightforward. Your website and digital assets should never be used as leverage to keep you with us.
Security means protecting your website and protecting your control over it too.
We’re not interested in disappearing after launch.
Some clients come to Poppy for one job and many stay with us for years.
They might begin with a new website, then ask us to handle hosting and maintenance.
Later we might redesign their brochure, create something for an event. Help with another business or simply be the people they contact when they have a question like:
“Can I just ask you something?”
That long term relationship matters to us.
Because the best work usually happens when we already understand your business, know your brand and have earned your trust.
See our work
About Us FAQs
How long has Poppy Design Studio been around?
Poppy Design Studio was established in 2015, although Marie has been working with WordPress since 2003.
Where are you based?
Poppy Design Studio is based in Northamptonshire and works with businesses and organisations throughout the UK.
Is Poppy just a website company?
No. WordPress is a major part of what we do, but the studio also provides branding, graphic design, website hosting, maintenance, domains, business email and other creative support.
Who will I actually deal with?
That depends on your project.
Marie leads the creative and design side of Poppy, while Nigel oversees operations, IT, domains, hosting and aftercare.
Other members of the Poppy team may also work on your project depending on the skills required.
Do you outsource your website work?
Projects are handled by the Poppy team rather than being passed off to an anonymous third party.
Our wider team includes five in house web developers and designers working across Poppy Design Studio and Poppy Eco Hub, so there is 7 of us in total.
Do you only build WordPress websites?
WordPress is our specialist platform. We prefer to focus on what we know well rather than pretending to be experts in every system.
Can you work with an existing website or brand?
Absolutely. Not every project needs to begin from scratch.
We can look at what you already have and help decide what is worth keeping, improving or replacing.
Do you work with startups as well as established businesses?
Yes. We work with businesses at very different stages, from brand new startups to established organisations needing more substantial website, branding or design support.
What makes Poppy different?
For us, it comes back to the same three things:
Honesty. Transparency. Security.
We want clients to understand what’s happening, feel comfortable asking questions and know that we’ll recommend what makes sense for their business rather than what makes the biggest invoice.
Poppy Numbers
Working with
WordPress
Poppy Design Studio
established
Clients
supported
Web developers, designers
& aftercare
Come and say hello.
Whether you already know exactly what you need or you’re still figuring it out, we’re always happy to have a conversation.
Real people. Straight answers. Creative thinking.