Opening the Mill Doors: How EXP Built the Identity for James Cropper Creates

James Cropper has been making paper in the Lake District since 1845. When the mill decided to build a creative community platform connecting artists, makers and designers with the world of paper, they turned to EXP, the Manchester-based creative agency they have trusted for over a decade. The result is James Cropper Creates: an identity built around a portal, a heritage hallmark and a single folded corner almost no one will ever notice.

There are brand briefs, and then there are brand briefs with history behind them. EXP has worked closely with James Cropper for over a decade, which means that when the mill came to them with the idea for James Cropper Creates, the conversation started somewhere most creative relationships never reach: genuine mutual trust and a shared understanding of what the brand stands for.

The brief was both simple and ambitious. James Cropper Creates needed to be a platform that threw open the doors of one of Britain’s most storied paper mills and welcomed the creative community inside.

“The goal was always to create a club that everyone was welcomed into,” says Conner G, Senior Designer at EXP. Tom Grattan, Managing Director, puts it just as plainly: “We wanted to throw open the mill doors and connect creatives to the paper mill.”

That sense of openness, of invitation, became the foundation for everything that followed.

The portal

James Cropper’s hallmark has always featured a pigeon, an icon that carries the weight and warmth of nearly 180 years of heritage. For a platform designed to speak to a new generation of creatives, EXP made a bold and considered decision: strip the pigeon away and let the shape of the hallmark stand alone.

What remained became something entirely new. “We’ve called the stripped-back hallmark a portal,” Tom explains, “a window that opens up the mill to creatives and vice versa.” As a framing device, it is both deeply rooted in James Cropper’s visual history and completely flexible in application. The Made in the UK campaign and the What Colour Is? campaign look and feel like distinct creative worlds, but both are unmistakably connected by the portal at their centre. “The messaging can change, the look and feel can alter,” Conner says, “but as long as the portal is central, each campaign will have that reference point.”

Hidden inside that portal is a detail that rewards those who look closely. On the outline version, the bottom right bevel contains a tiny triangle: a folded paper corner, invisible at first glance. It was Tom’s idea, and it is perfect. “It grounds the portal back in paper,” Conner says. “Which is always the point.”

A brand about its audience

What makes James Cropper Creates genuinely unusual as a brand is that its success depends on not being about itself. The identity was designed to step back and let the creative community step forward. “The simplicity works because the wider brand isn’t really about James Cropper,” Conner explains. “It’s about the audience. It allows each campaign to have personality and really allows designers and the industry to own it.”

That philosophy shapes how the whole system has been built. James Cropper Creates needs to work across the entire James Cropper portfolio, from classic papers and coloured boards to technical coatings and moulded fibre innovations, so rather than anchoring the identity to any single material or finish, EXP designed it to be at home everywhere. “The beauty of James Cropper Creates is that we’re not limited to a stock, finish or range,” Tom says. “It’s everything that happens in paper and packaging.” In a small number of print applications, the portal has been die-cut to reveal the paper beneath it, making the concept literal and tactile. More of these moments will come as new James Cropper ranges are introduced.

The flexibility also means the identity is built to last. “Simplicity and adaptability,” is how both Conner and Tom describe the qualities that make a brand identity work over five or ten years. “Don’t try to be too clever,” Tom adds, “and constantly evolve what you’re doing.”

Built on a great relationship

Strong creative work comes from strong creative relationships, and the EXP and James Cropper partnership is a model of what that looks like in practice. Both teams have spent time together at exhibitions and shows, at the mill itself, and across the full span of James Cropper’s operation, from marketing to labs to production. That depth of connection means honest conversations happen naturally. “Both sides are honest enough with each other if something isn’t making sense or quite landing,” Conner says. “Time constraints are usually the biggest challenge. Trust is not.”

That trust extended to the naming process, which involved genuine debate. An earlier working title sat less comfortably, and there was a moment when removing the James Cropper name from the platform entirely felt like a possibility. In the end, the answer was clear. James Cropper Creates says exactly what it needs to say, and it keeps the mill at the heart of something it has made possible.

What comes next

Ask Conner and Tom what they are most excited to see James Cropper Creates make possible, and their answers speak to how broadly they have imagined the platform’s potential. Conner, who studied illustration and whose instincts run toward lino printing, zines and screen prints, is excited about the grassroots end of the creative spectrum. Tom is thinking even more expansively: “How can we mix paper and ceramics, or paper and glass-making? I’d love to test creativity, even if it has the most impractical applications.”

That spirit of curiosity and openness is exactly what James Cropper Creates was built to hold. A platform rooted in one of Britain’s great manufacturing legacies, designed for a creative community with no limits on where paper can go next.

James Cropper Creates is an ongoing platform connecting creatives with James Cropper, the last mill in the UK still making coloured paper. Discover more at jamescropper.com. EXP is a Manchester-based creative agency working across brand, digital and experience design.