A team of design consultants who refuse to work for controversial companies is celebrating a successful first year.

Brighton-based Neo:creative was started by communication and design experts Toby Cotton, Simon Bottrell and Nick Christoforou a year ago to help arts organisations and other ethically-minded businesses get their message out to a wider audience.

They have already dreamt up imaginative PR campaigns for clients including Brighton and Hove City Council, for which they produced a photo-collage and animated simulation of the proposed Brighton Bullet monorail.

They also worked with children's charity Carousel, the Arts Council and the South East of England Development Agency.

Neo:creative says its approach is a new way of doing business, which sees companies with a shared understanding of values, ethics and goals build strong and sustained relationships.

Mr Cotton had the idea to become ethically-driven after he began to get disillusioned working for multi-national corporations and other big, faceless companies.

He said: "I had been working with lots of big corporations and was just getting fed up. The end product never really bettered anyone's lives and it was quite soulless in some respects.

"The three of us were working in the same studio and I suggested we set something up ourselves and it all went from there."

Mr Cotton, 34, Mr Bottrell, 36, and Mr Christoforou, 31, have more than 30 years of experience in the design and communications industry between them and were able to finance the company's launch from their base at Beaconsfield Studios, Ditchling Rise.

Neo:creative has not been slow to reject work from companies they don't believe in, despite the effect on the bottom line.

"We have probably turned down about £10,000 to £12,000 worth of business in total, which is quite a lot of money for a small start-up business like ours."

Insisting they are not a bunch of "sandal-wearers" trying to change the world, he feels there will be a natural growth in the number of ethically-minded companies in the future.