Hobby Fortress — Turning a Lifelong Hobby Into a Shop
A brand-new independent hobby and games shop in Colchester — brand strategy, a logo from scratch, signage, business systems and a launch site. Part one of two, with the full Shopify store to come.
The brief
Some projects start with a business. This one started with a person.
Scott has lived in Colchester his whole life, never more than a stone’s throw from a game shop. A lifelong Warhammer player, a genuinely talented painter and modeller, and enough of an enthusiast to run his own YouTube channel, Lucky Lizard — which, as it happens, we built the logo for too.
Now, with backing behind him and a business partner in Joe, Scott’s doing the thing a lot of people dream about and few actually do: turning the hobby he loves into a living. Not a side project — a real shop, on a real street, built to be part of his life rather than just a job.
He’s not setting out to take on anyone — he just wants to spread his wings and build something of his own. His own stockists, his own way in, his own feel behind the counter. The brief, underneath everything, was simple: help me make this real, and help me make it mine.
What we actually did
This is where it stops being a “website job.” We started with the business itself, not the pixels:
- Brand strategy and naming — what Hobby Fortress stands for, who it’s up against, and why a local, independent shop wins on the things the big online retailers can’t touch: real advice, a place to actually play, and someone behind the counter who knows the hobby inside out.
- A logo built from scratch — sketched by hand, worked through typography, colour and the castle-tower mark, until it felt right rather than just looked right. The second logo we’ve made for Scott, after Lucky Lizard.
- External signage — designed and fitted with Christos at Signace, our trusted Colchester signage partner, so the shopfront is ready the day the doors open.
- The unglamorous business plumbing — till systems, stock processes, and how the shop actually runs day to day. We even connected Scott and Joe with the right person to handle their Office 365 setup, because a new business shouldn’t have to go and find every one of these people alone.
- A launch site — live now at hobbyfortress.co.uk, building a mailing list before opening day. The clever bit: the sign-up form doubles as market research. Every customer who says what they play feeds straight into the shop’s very first stock order.
The bit that matters most
A new business doesn’t need a web designer. It needs someone who can see the whole thing — brand, signage, systems, suppliers, launch — and make the parts fit together. That’s what this project actually is. We didn’t hand Scott a logo and wish him luck. We helped build the scaffolding a business stands on, so he could get on with the part only he can do: being the person who knows the hobby.
What’s next — part two
The launch site is the opening move. Next comes the full build: a custom Shopify theme with synchronised inventory, so the shelves and the website always agree, plus a light table-booking system so gamers can reserve a spot for club nights and events. One joined-up system, shop and site in step, run by Scott and Joe themselves without needing us on speed dial.
In short
Brand strategy, a logo from nothing, signage, business systems, supplier introductions and a launch site — for a shop that didn’t exist six months ago, built around one person’s lifelong love of the hobby. This is what “full-service” actually means when a small business starts from zero.
No sales pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about where your business is and where you want to go.