Popping-in?

Our studio is filled with light and music.
There are multiple meeting rooms, a well stocked kitchen, and an indoor garden (with fishpond). Talk to us about access needs, environmental factors and any accommodations we might make to enhance your visit. Pop-in for tea and stay to use a spare desk for as long as you need.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

Public transport

We’re next to Greenwich train and DLR station. We have a door right on the concourse but it’s different to our postal address. Find us via: what3words.com/hungry.means.author

From Greenwich rail platform

This video shows the route to take from the train that will arrive at Greenwich rail station from London Bridge. There's a gentle slope next to the staircase.

From Greenwich DLR station

This video shows the route to take from the DLR that will arrive at Greenwich DLR station from Bank. There's a lift at the platform level if that's useful.

By car

If you have to come by car, we have a couple of parking spaces. We have a charging point that you are welcome to use if you have an electric car. Call ahead and we'll make sure the spaces are free. Use our postcode (SE10 9QF) to guide you in.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you. Use whichever medium works best for you.

11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

New project enquiry

It's exciting to chat about potential new projects. We don't have a ‘sales’ team or a form to fill in. Call us or give us a little detail via email and we'll get straight back to you.

enquiry@cogdesign.com

Website support

If you're a client then you'll be best served by calling us or contacting us via ClickUp, otherwise you can use this dedicated email that reaches all of the digital team.

digital@cogdesign.com

Finance questions

This email hits the inboxes of the people who deal with our bookkeeping and finances.

accounts@cogdesign.com

Just want a chat?

Sometimes enquiries don't fall neatly under a heading, do they?

hello@cogdesign.com

Cultural Calendar

A round-up of recommendations and reviews, sent on the first Friday of each month, topped-off with a commissioned image from a talented new illustrator. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cultural Calendar

Cog News

An irregular update of activity from our studio. Showing off about great new projects, announcements, job opportunities, that sort of thing. Sign-up and tell your friends.

Sign me up Cog News

What’s So Great About SE8? – 2005

What’s So Great About SE8?  – 2005

In 2005, for the London Design Festival, we designed this hard-back book of responses to the question: What’s So Great About SE8? Our contribution was a spectrum of people and places, drawn from a three day walk through the local streets.

2005 was the third year for Deptford Design, a collective of designers, illustrators and architects who came together to do something special during the London Design Festival (LDF). We’d always played an active part in this annual celebration of local creativity. There weren’t (and still aren’t) many LDF events south of the river, that might be why we were lucky enough to generate quite a lot of interest from the festival’s founder, Sir John Sorrell.

Whats_So_Logo-rainbow

Deptford is deservedly building a reputation as the next big thing. Open up this book and you will see what it’s like to live and work inside that bubble.
Sir John Sorrell

In 2005, 20 of us each contributed money to a publication that put the spotlight on this unique geographic pocket of the capital (back then we were based in a converted warehouse, just off Deptford High Street). We designed the book and managed the production, with each of the 20 contributors designing their own response to the question: What’s So Great About SE8? Sir John Sorrell wrote the three page introduction. Whats_So_cover_For our submission, we chose to focus on the incredible diversity of people and places in our postcode. In late June, I spent three days wandering around the streets of Deptford. With a pocket-sized Canon Ixus, I took photos of the people I met and the places I went. Taking a sample from each of the photos (the predominant colour of the places and the skin-tones of the people) I created a spectrum of diversity. Whats_So_open_pages_

We produced an online version with each bar of colour corresponding to a pop up photo. A decade later and sadly those digital files don’t work anymore, so we’ve transfered all 100+ people and 100+ places onto a separate Tumblr site – deptford05.tumblr.com.

09_Mural_

Mural on Hales Street

It was a fascinating three days, wandering down back alleys, uncovering hidden treasures and throwing a spotlight on places that had receded into the shadows.

Sefa and Fatma Cicek

Sefa and Fatma Cicek

But what I found most interesting was the people. At first I was very nervous, approaching people on the street or in their shops. I had a few uncomfortable moments but mostly people were hugely generous of their time, interested in what we were doing, and fiercely proud of their SE8 postcode.

37_Cafe

Cafe on Deptford High Street. Notice reads: ‘this shop is no longer trading’.

I’d always intended this project to be a snapshot in time so it’s fascinating to look back now, a decade later, to see how much has changed and how much has remained untouched by the hands of property developers.

Harpreet Singh

Harpreet Singh

Back then, we were looking to buy a studio space in Deptford, but we couldn’t find anywhere suitable. It seemed that all of the property was owned by developers, poised for the area’s gentrification. We eventually bought our current studio space in Greenwich. It might only be a hundred yards across Deptford Creek but SE10 is a world away from that SE8 neighbourhood.

Pie_&_Mash_shop

I miss that vibrancy of the shop-front, the exuberance of the people, the maelstrom of cultural influence that makes Deptford such an interesting place. I still take every opportunity to wander through the streets. The property developers may now have enveloped the area in flats but the core spirit of the high street lives on. You can still see many of these faces in many of these places. They are ‘What’s So Great About SE8?’.

Whats_So_in_ICA_

What’s So Great About SE8? on sale in the ICA bookshop.

It felt very special to be so involved in the creation of such an interesting, tangible publication. I was pleased to see a copy in the hands of Gordon Brown but my proudest moment was when I saw it on the shelves of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) bookshop.  The book is still available in some online outlets. The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) still has copies if you’re interested.

You can see all of the SE8 places and people on our Tumblr site: http://deptford05.tumblr.com