Atomhawk, based in Gateshead, works with Warner Bros, Sega and Harry Potter

In fact, Atomhawk Design does not just operate in different worlds; it creates new ones, populating them with exotic characters, supercharged vehicles, salivating horrors and futuristic weaponry.

The Gateshead-based creative design agency has only just entered its fifth year in business but has quickly established itself as a global player in the design sector, securing a string of contracts with industry leaders such as Warner Bros, Ubisoft, Sega and JK Rowling’s online Harry Potter experience, Pottermore.

Straddling the video game, blockbuster movie and consumer product arenas, Atomhawk has been responsible for some of entertainment’s most memorable moments in recent years.

Its character, backdrop and user interface design has helped game titles like Mortal Kombat 9, Dead Island, and Driver: San Francisco, shoot to the top bestseller charts.

The firm’s work will be showcased across the world again when Thor II: The Dark World is released.

Atomhawk has also created The Realm, a visually stunning game IP designed for PC and touch screen devices.

Set in the distant future, the game features breathtaking North-East vistas, including the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides, reclaimed by nature and giant creatures roam beneath the fallen metal of the Tyne Bridge.

Coupled with an exciting link up with world-renown Italian car designers Pininfarina, famed for their work with Ferrari, for a Costa Coffee project, Atomhawk Design has come a long way in a short time.

Since its inception in July 2009, the company has grown from four employees to 18, with an increase in turnover of 300 per cent in three years.

The driving force behind the business is founder and Director, Cumron, known as Ron, Ashtiani.

A games design veteran, he speaks passionately about the work, his talented staff and the business’ future direction.

The future is looking incredibly rosy, but their ultra-modern offices at the Northern Design Centre are a far cry from its origins, which were formulated with colleagues around a table in the Gold Medal pub, in Gateshead.

It was 2009; Ron and colleagues Steve Pick, Corlen Kruger and Pete Thompson were told by their employers, gaming firm Midway, that it was closing its operation in the Team Valley and that they would soon all be out of a job.

I put it to Ron that Atomhawk was a company born out of desperation.

He said: "Absolutely, even though the UK company had money in the bank, Midway had to close us down to use our assets to pay off debts in the US.

"It was a tough time for everyone at the company.

"When we finally knew what was happening, I rounded up a few of the best creative people in the business and we decamped to the Gold Medal where I laid out my plans for a creative service focusing on what we all did really well as artists.

"Everyone was enthusiastic, the beer helped with that, but most importantly everyone I had approached was in."

A few weeks later, Atomhawk Design secured its first premises from Gateshead Council and the enthusiasm of the initial meeting was soon translated into ideas and hard work.

He said: "We were all excited, but also nervous.

"We moved into our first council-funded offices at the Greenfield Business Centre in Gateshead.

"It had bars across the windows, a massive Victorian radiator that could not be switched off and continued to blast out heat through the summer and no air conditioning, but it did the job for us.

"Within the first week we landed a big project with Ubisoft and then another with Warner Bros and we were kept busy for the next three months.

"A colleague described us as digital gypsies and that is what we were as we moved again, but this time into the International Business Centre and started recruiting staff and buying equipment.

"Basically everything we made was re-invested into the business."

The company’s ability to deliver on every element of design contracts helped establish a solid corporate reputation.

He said: "We do everything, whether it's character design, user interface design or animation sequences, we are a full service creative business.

"Securing work on Mortal Kombat in year one and then following that up with Dead Island and Driver: San Francisco created our reputation for good work and we have driven that forward with a fantastic website.

"In our second year we developed a relationship with the team behind Pottermore, which is JK Rowling’s online world. We did all the illustrations for that and it worked really well.

"I think they’re up to book four or five in the series so there is still a considerable amount of work to do on Pottermore.

"We were content to work on that and continue with our games work, but by the end of year two we started to get involved in movies. We have worked, or are working on three, but Thor II: The Dark World was the first."

The casual way the film is referenced by Ron makes it easy to forget that he’s talking about the latest instalment of a multi-billion dollar Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, and the God of Thunder’s first movie outing since last summer’s Avengers: Assemble, which went on to become the third highest grossing film of all time.

He said: "We were approached for the work, which is much darker than the original Thor film, as a result of the work we had done in the visual arts world.

"The internet is a valuable tool for designers and showing your work to other people on the internet provides a showcase for other potential clients.

"We were found online by the production designer for Thor II who liked what we were doing and he picked us up", says Ron, who is originally from Sheffield and spent ten years working in London before moving to the North-East, where he spent two years working as an art director.

But Atomhawk isn’t about to go Hollywood and has continued to produce pioneering work on ground-breaking, well received games such as Dead Island: Riptide, Killzone and Injustice: Gods Among Us.

It has also embarked on an exciting project with Pininfarina to design a state of the art Costa Coffee vending machine, which will produce fresh, shop-standard vended coffee.

He said: "Costa Coffee want this machine, which has been designed by the guys who design Ferraris, to stand out in the market place and are installing a massive 27in touchscreen and they have asked us to take our video game knowledge and apply it to this machine.

"More and more companies are becoming aware of the potential offered by touchscreens.

"Supermarkets currently have the most basic functionality in their checkouts, but they too will change.

"Keyboards will be obsolete in five or six years and the potential for touchscreen development is phenomenal.”

The workforce at Atomhawk Design is as diverse as the projects it spearheads.

Glancing around the office at his 18 employees, Ron lists of a string of nationalities, all brought to the North-East to add a different dimension to Atomhawk’s output.

He said: "We’ve got five people from the North-East, but we’ve got someone from Surrey, Sweden, a couple of Danes, two South Africans and a Pole.

"We have a good mix.

"All of our artists must be good enough to do everything themselves.

"They may have a strong specialism in one particular area, such as character design, which we value enormously, but they must be skilled in all other aspects of our work.

"The other rule is no egos.

"We have knocked back amazing artists for jobs as they have had egos, and when you have big egos in play then it causes problems with other staff and disrupts the creative process and we just don’t want that happening."

Atomhawk Design, is one of six regional business champions who will be representing the North-East at the national British Chambers of Commerce Awards.

The business will be joined by Derwentside Homes, Elddis Transport, Nortech Solutions, Guardian Marine Technology and Andrew Moffatt of Port of Tyne in the NECC delegation.

James Ramsbotham, NECC chief executive, said: "We are taking an incredibly strong showcase of North-East talent to the awards this year and all are fantastic champions for regional business.

"The region has produced and nurtured some of history’s great innovators and it is fantastic to see Atomhawk Design carrying on that proud tradition.

"They are blazing a trail across their industry and playing its part in putting North-East innovation on the worldwide map with a portfolio of truly stunning work."