Duo building bright business

Study at Whanganui UCOL's Wanganui School of Design has paid off for Caleb and Abby Kingi, whose design business has doubled in size for the last few years.

The two graduated in 2009, both with distinctions and their business started in a low-key way while they were still studying. At first, it was work for their Faith City Church, and then there were websites.

"From there it just continued to build. Every year since then the business has doubled," Mr Kingi said.

He used to work for Wanganui Online, but has had to leave there to be a full-time designer at Lamp Studios. Its office is in their central Wanganui house. One of the sources of growth has been Mrs Kingi's role as president of a branch of Business Networking International (BNI), an organisation for networking and making referrals. It is especially useful for new businesses, she said.

Lamp Studios' work is providing marketing and publicity for clients on the web, in video and in print. Mrs Kingi is the videographer and has made several marketing videos.

Mr Kingi is especially pleased with the website he made for BA Productions, a Whanganui business that provides Maori curriculum help in schools.

"It's cool to do something like that that shows a positive light on the culture," he said.

The name Lamp Studios comes from the bible's imperative to "let your lamp shine".

"We wanted the design to impress and please people aesthetically."

The two are just 25 and 26 years old and have known each other since primary school. Mr Kingi's other passion is music and at weekends they have a completely different set of priorities.

"We are actually the youth directors at Faith City Church. That's what our weekends are taken up with. We've got about 80 kids at youth group now. It's so much fun. We love it," Mrs Kingi said.