Vortex Creates

Vortex Creates is a little different from most of HB&O's clients. After all, it's not every company whose CV includes wrapping Birmingham's famous "Floozie in the Jacuzzi" statute in gold and surrounding it with blue furniture or assisting The World Famous in creating a bonfire featuring a fairy castle for the 2010 Bestival music festival.

The Offchurch-based company, the brainchild of artists Nicola Richardson and Marianne Taviner, specialises in large scale costumes and installations. The two first met in 2003 and teamed up after collaborating on projects and then achieving success together in the 2008 MAD UK awards, which celebrate the work of costume designers and makers.

Vortex Creates projects have since included commissions for the 2009 and 2010 Coventry Godiva Carnival and the 2010 Utopia International Dance Festival, for which they decorated the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. The company also received acclaim for its entry in the Montana World of Wearable Art Awards 2009, held in New Zealand.

Their latest commission, from Stoke City Council, is for a costume to celebrate the six Pottery Towns on the theme of Light, Transformation and Unity

The pair built reputations for quality work while each running their own businesses for a decade, something Nicola says is helping Vortex Creates in a challenging economic climate because clients know they can rely on the company to deliver a much-needed "feelgood factor".

When she and Marianne set up Vortex Creates, they took time to find advisers they could work with. Nicola says: "We wanted to find the right accountant to offer the best support and investigated several different options.

"We decided to go with HB&O because their friendly, no-nonsense approach appealed to us the most. We are an unusual business and it has been a learning curve for all of us. When Mark Ashfield looks at our accounts, they aren't like other people's!

"If we have any business-related queries, we can talk to HB&O. There is support there, and interest - and it is good to have an accountant who is interested in what we do."

Mark, a director at HB&O, said: "It is always nice to be involved with a company that is a little bit different. Some of the pieces Nicola and Marianne have produced are truly remarkable."

To find out more about how our accountants and Independent Financial Advisers in Leamington Spa, Coventry and Warwickshire can help you, please contact us on 01926 422 292 (Leamington) or 024 7663 1303 (Coventry) or at info@hboltd.co.uk