Accessibility. Reverse engineering it into existing materials is a challenge. But in a project modifying PDF publications designed for long-term client Bowen Craggs, it’s also changed how I think about layout. As someone who loves words and visual communication equally, I’ve found it fascinating to have to consider for the … Read More
It’s called a linen tester… They were made for the textile industry and repurposed by designers and printers for checking proofs and print. I have a newer one but I reach for this, my late Dad’s, because it’s good, and true, and it has the heft of a proper piece of engineering. What … Read More
Pretzels… In this month’s Studio Snack podcast, creative collaborator Narcis Sauleda and I bring you some fast facts about a slowly-made snack. But for all their twisty history, what this was really about was comparing the knotty processes of pretzel-making and design. Attempting to bake pretzels, I found out what … Read More
A side project of a side project… My Teemill store has line illustrations on organic cotton garments and tote bags. It sprang from Dispatches from a Small World, my three-year project reporting from my urban garden in sketches. I’ve learned a lot from this foray into retail, at the design … Read More
I was looking for a milliners’ head, a prop for a brainstorm. The only ones I could find were proper grown-up milliners’ equipment, which is, quite rightly, expensive because it’s beautifully made, or plastic. So I invented a flatpack one that could slot together and made some out of waste … Read More
Before software did the hard work of visualising typography, we had Letraset – sheets of dry transfer lettering. We’d run out of the most-used letters so we would cobble together characters from what we had. And when I did my first Nerd Nite London talk, on ampersands, I asked letter cutter … Read More
Biscuit Kintsugi… that seems in no way relevant to my work. But in the making of Broken Biscuits, the latest episode of Studio Snack, a monthly podcast with fellow designer Narcis Sauleda, there’s been more common ground than you’d think. There’s the usual delving into the subject – where we’ve found … Read More
For arts and crafts volunteering over the festive season, I had designed an activity that involved both – decorating a sketchbook and drawing in it. The paper and board were waste, from the Yodomo Circular Hub in Hackney. I like waste for workshops – it’s a good thing environmentally and it takes away … Read More
For Bowen Craggs & Co, a pair of video backdrops. A surprising amount of work goes in to making something simple, for seated and standing use (Enthusiastic arm-waving in a test video, anyone?) that also works when the room is in use as an office and meets a range of … Read More
The point of playtime… Away from my desk, I grow things, I draw things growing – and sometimes I join it up, turning growing things into things to draw with. I’ve saved petals from French marigold dead-headings. For a while, I’ve been using the basic method of hot water and salt … Read More