Mangion & Lightfoot

Mangion & Lightfoot is a design studio and digital agency that has worked from Malta since 1997. Its founders, Mark Lightfoot and Matthew Mangion, lead a growing team that describes itself as designers who apply critical thinking to image, perception and communication. For a UK business arriving in Malta, or a Maltese company that needs to look sharper at home and abroad, it is one of the longer-established names among the graphic designers in Malta.

The agency is an award-winning practice, and its philosophy is simple: reduce complexity through questions and analysis, then resolve each task with clarity, creativity and authenticity. Its own phrase for this is that it finds the simple and makes it work.

What the agency does

Its areas of expertise are branding, graphic design, print and publishing design, signage and wayfinding, web and app development, and content development. The usual starting point is a brand platform, from which logos, stationery, products, websites and sign systems follow, so that everything a customer sees feels like it comes from one organisation.

Because design and development sit in the same studio, the agency also appears among the IT companies in Malta. It builds websites, e-commerce shops and custom web applications, and it also handles traditional media such as printed books, packaging, direct mail and television commercials.

Branding, packaging and print work

The portfolio shows the range. For Federated Mills, Malta's only flour milling operation, the agency created the name Gran Farina and a clean visual identity for six flour blends sold in Eastern Mediterranean markets. The packaging was featured on The Dieline, a website that follows packaging design worldwide.

Other branding and print projects include Carla Grima Atelier, a Malta fashion studio for which it built a brand toolkit, guidelines and a WordPress and WooCommerce shop, and Momentum Pensions, where it handled brand identity and a website. Publishing work includes a hardback book for Island Hotels Group that told the story of its first 25 years through the hours of a single day, and annual reports for the same group. Anyone comparing options for hotel or hospitality branding may also want to browse the hotels across Malta to see how local properties present themselves.

Websites, apps and heritage projects

On the digital side, the agency built iCaterer for Island Caterers Limited, an online tool that lets clients choose and price their catering requirements. It cut the time needed to get an estimate from upwards of two days to under 15 minutes, and it won an eBusiness award in 2014. For Sullivan Maritime it produced FastBook, a booking system for trailers and vehicles travelling on cargo vessels into and out of Malta, replacing a paper and spreadsheet process.

It also redeveloped the brand of Villa Bologna, an eighteenth century working estate and gardens still lived in by the family descendants of its builders. The commission covered the logo, stationery, visitor print, advertising, a website, a visitor guide app for iOS, QR codes at points of interest and wayfinding signage. If you are planning days out, our guide to things to do in Malta is a good companion. Further website work includes sites for Royal Malta Golf Club, DeMicoli & Associates and Ciapella Motors.

Television and campaign work

The agency also develops moving-image campaigns. It conceived and wrote the APS Bank brand commercial in a four week development period, with production by Pineapple Media. It wrote and directed the Ciapella Motors television spot to raise awareness of changes at the garage and drive visitors to its new website. Brands working in financial services in Malta will find banking and pensions work in the portfolio, and a campaign for Solo Optical combined direct mail and print.

Finding the studio and starting a project

The studio is in The Fort at Hardrocks Business Park on Burmarrad Road, Naxxar, a purpose-built office development that houses a number of technology and communications companies. Naxxar sits in the middle of the island, within easy reach of Mdina and Rabat, and visitors travelling from the UK can check flights to Malta before planning a meeting.

Companies setting up here often need help with registration and tax before they think about branding, and our featured partner CLA Malta covers that side, while the Malta relocation guide explains the move itself. When you are ready to talk about a brand, website or print project, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to Mangion & Lightfoot.