The Genius Division Museum
Sixteen years of websites, one exhibit at a time. Admission free. Please do not touch the exhibits.
Exhibit 1 · Before 2010
The name “Consumer”
Two freelancers, one terrible name
Craig Burgess and James Sheriff freelanced together as Consumer. We thought it was a stupid name. We were right.
🎧 Audio guide No. 01Exhibit 2 · August 2010
The £2,000
Banknotes, optimism
Everything Genius Division started with. Going Limited in Barnsley with the price of a second-hand car.
🎧 Audio guide No. 02Exhibit 3 · 2010
The domain
A domain James had been sitting on
James dusted it off, and that was the name sorted. There’s still no other company called anything like it.
🎧 Audio guide No. 03Exhibit 4 · 2010
The first office
James’s bedroom, homemade pork pies
Genius Division’s first office was James’s bedroom. His mum often brought up homemade pork pies at lunchtime. We are not making this up.
🎧 Audio guide No. 04Exhibit 5 · 2010
The first client
A brand new website
Nexus Vehicle Rental, where Craig had his first job as a designer. They asked us for a brand new website, and we’ve been making them ever since.
🎧 Audio guide No. 05Exhibit 6 · 2011
Barnsley’s first local news website
News, a very local internet
We helped launch We Are Barnsley, the town’s first local news website. They’re ten a penny now. In 2011, nobody had thought of it.
🎧 Audio guide No. 06Exhibit 7 · Early 2010s
The first responsive website
Squishy layouts
One of the first agencies in the country to build responsive design into everything. People thought phones were a fad. Even Apple were pushing “the full web” on the iPhone. Everybody thought we were a bit mad to go all in on responsive web design. It’s now so normal it isn’t even a term any more.
🎧 Audio guide No. 07Exhibit 8 · Around 2012
The third director
Pepsi (about 10,900 cans), one spoon
Rich Keys joined us as technical director. It’s been the three of us arguing ever since. He drinks at least three Pepsis a day and always has a spoon on his desk. About 20 of the office spoons are missing.
🎧 Audio guide No. 08Exhibit 9 · Around 2012
The first real office
The old art college, Barnsley
Our first proper office was in the old art college, opposite the police station. Purely for security. Since then: the Digital Media Centre, the Business Village, the Digital Media Centre again, and back to the Business Village.
🎧 Audio guide No. 09Exhibit 10 · Around 2016
The longest client
Code, sheep
Cannon Hall Farm, our longest-running client, coming up on ten years. The ticketing system we built them in 2021 has sold more than £10 million in tickets.
🎧 Audio guide No. 10Exhibit 11 · Around 2019
Better
Servers, a monthly report
Hosting spun out into its own company so we could, erm, do a better job of it. Sue looks after the clients, and every one gets a monthly MOT for their website.
🎧 Audio guide No. 11Exhibit 12 · 2021
Real Fake Turnips
Pixel art, crypto, a lot of money
A collection of pixel art turnip NFTs. Our worst business decision: it cost us a fortune and didn’t sell out. The turnips are still very good.
🎧 Audio guide No. 12Exhibit 13 · [Redacted]
The database
One whole database, one pair of underpants
Rich once deleted the entire database of one of our biggest clients’ online shops. We won’t say which. He got it back pretty quickly, then went and changed his underpants.
🎧 Audio guide No. 13Exhibit 14 · Around 2024
The YouTube channel
One camera, one opinion, said many times
Craig started making honest, straight-talking website advice, because there are very few normal, English marketing voices on YouTube. Go and look.
🎧 Audio guide No. 14Exhibit 15 · Now
The AI bit
Robots, common sense
Our best decision was going all in on digital. Now it’s AI: projects for clients, and our own business rebuilt around it. You’re looking at some of it.
🎧 Audio guide No. 15Exhibit 16 · Since 2010
The tea
Ten cups a day, five days a week, sixteen years
Roughly 41,600 cups of tea. It’s the main thing websites are made of.
🎧 Audio guide No. 16Exhibit 17 · Every year
The awards cabinet
Nothing
Empty on purpose. We don’t enter awards. Every “award-winning” agency paid to be in the competition. We’d rather spend it on your project.
🎧 Audio guide No. 17Exhibit 18 · Never
Things you won’t find here
Foosball tables, turtlenecks, ninjas, an office dog
No free-pizza Fridays either. Rob has about ten old Game Boys, though (Craig has four). We come in, do an excellent job and leave you to get on with yours.
🎧 Audio guide No. 18Exhibit 19 · 400 and counting
Website number 400
Sixteen years, about 500 clients, Barnsley
Over 400 websites since 2010, for about 500 clients. We still look after about 70 of them.
🎧 Audio guide No. 19Exhibit 20 · Now
The team
Eight people, one arcade machine
All eight of us are on the arcade machine on our homepage. Pick someone to find out what they do. Pick two and make them fight.
🎧 Audio guide No. 20Exhibit 401 · Coming soon
Your website?
There’s room for one more exhibit. We’ve kept the plinth warm.
Start your project🎧 Audio guide No. 21
The visitors’ book
Sign it on your way out. Be nice, it’s a museum.
Next door to the museum
The Genius Division Pub Quiz
How well do you know us, now you’ve been round the museum? Ten questions. No phones. No asking James, he’s in Manchester.