About us

This is the bit where we tell you about how we see ourselves and how we see our future

The story so far

Illumina was established in 1998 as a convergent media company with a broad client base across linear and interactive media. We built the company on our existing strengths in Education, Technology and the Arts. Founders Andrew Chitty and Joanne Evans had previously built the BBC's first web site and created its first virtual community alongside their Television series The Net. They were joined in 2000 by Director of Education and Broadband, Mike Flood Page formerly the BBC's Senior Commissioning Executive for Adult Education.

Illumina Digital was created in 2002 by the acquisition of the award- winning interactive design team from Diverse Interactive led by Creative Director David McGirr.

Illumina Digital is about developing concepts, content and experiences across the whole range of digital distribution platforms. We make documentaries and lifestyle programming for digital and terrestrial TV, websites for commercial and public sector clients and services and applications for interactive TV and broadband technologies. Over the last three years we have established ourselves as one of the most creative and profitable companies in this sector.

The ID management team bring together a decade of experience delivering ground breaking projects for, with, and about interactive technology: award- winning CD-ROMs, TV series, educational services, online communities - even the BBC's first website. Our aim is to apply this long experience and insight to the developing markets for convergent media in the areas of education, information and entertainment.

We are a diverse company, with a focus on the end user, the viewer, the aesthetic and the interactive experience. These skills have allowed us to work on a wide variety of projects in different market sectors. We are, in New Media parlance, a content company. But one who knows that content alone is not enough.

The future

We still believe in convergence - not in terms of the various boxes but in terms of users' expectations. Audiences expect a deeper engagement with content and expect their own desires to be taken into account. This is true of traditional media but even truer of the wide range of learning experiences we are developing for the future. Learning through interactive media will be a huge growth area but whether it is the BBC Digital Curriculum/DFES Curriculum Online, UK e-universities or private sector provisioning only those projects which understand the user experience and the importance of user generated content will succeed. Illumina Digital is already recognised as a leader in this growing field - our growth for the future will be putting learning tools in the hands of users.