We work with purpose-driven organisations to make brilliant things happen.

What we do

Effective content depends on a solid strategy and efficient, cohesive structures, tools and systems.

We’re a strategic content, digital and design studio. We help people make great content in amazing ways, to change the web, and to change the world.

We believe in doing digital experiences differently and doing them better.

Strategy

We build solid content strategy foundations that make you effective, agile and connected.

Content

We build engaging, multi-platform, content-centric products with purpose at their core.

Tools and systems

We design and embed an ecosystem of brilliant tools, structures and systems to turn you into a smooth content machine.

Greenpeace

Greenpeace UK needed a clear, useful guide to how to communicate through their content. We made them an online content style guide.

ActionAid International

ActionAid International needed a new website. The brand needed modernising. Their content needed to be better.

Fundraising Regulator

We needed to shape the user experience and the new website so that people can find what they’re looking for quickly and intuitively.

The Contentious superpower is the ability to connect the dots between storytelling, impact and digital innovation. They’re absolutely passionate and fun to work with, but at the same time they are very professional.

Ailín Martinez

Digital communications, ODI

Contentious bring a rare combination of digital and editorial skills and expertise to the business of communications. They get to the heart of an organisation’s relationship with its users.

Mike Wright

Director of membership and communications, Bond

“Contentious bring a rare combination of digital and editorial skills and expertise to the business of communications. They get to the heart of an organisation’s relationship with its users.”

Mike Wright

Director of membership and communications, Bond

Thoughts, tools and resources

Ideas and provocations on digital, content and changing the world. And some useful things too.
Ten website pitfalls to avoid

Ten website pitfalls to avoid

Making an organisation website is tricky. Remaking one seems as if it should be easier but often isn’t. In fact it’s usually harder. These are ten holes we often find people have fallen into.

Taking a thematic approach

Taking a thematic approach

There are many ways to organise your bookshelves: alphabetical by author, by size, by the colour of the spine, by whether you want it to appear behind your head on a video call…

The speeding up of slowing down

The speeding up of slowing down

There’s a widespread assumption that speed is always important. But there’s a whole world of content where efficient information transfer isn’t the end goal.

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Our new monthlyish emails feature content-related things we’ve found/created/thought that are useful, beautiful or interesting. Or even all three.

Useful, beautiful, interesting

We combine dazzling examples of content brilliance and invaluable content tools with innovative ideas for a better content future. And occasionally we throw in content frustrations, just to get things off our chests.

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How content mature are you?

What are you doing well? Where is there room for improvement? Measure your content maturity with our online tool, coming soon.

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Add your details for content tools, opinions and examples of brilliance we've found on our travels around the web. We send about one a month. You can easily unsubscribe at any point.

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