Browsing Tag

Design

Big stories, big dreams

Every brand has a story, and ours started in Summer 2024. Madge and I have a passion for great design, creativity, and living a balanced life. After spending our entire careers in the creative and digital industries, we decided to take some time out and embark on a new adventure – creating a brand that reflects our personalities and the life we love. And so, Big Stories was born.

Graphic showing the peaks of the Penine Way

From the very beginning, we’ve been inspired by those laid-back souls who love a good sunrise, a sunset beer, time at the beach or a weekend hike. Big Stories is for people who cherish a spontaneous road trip as much as meticulously planned moments and our t-shirts are designed to be the perfect companion for all of your adventures – made for comfort, style, and sharing a bit of who you are with the world.

Sustainability is more than just a buzzword

In the fashion economy today, resources are extracted and turned into products that are designed to be thrown away. As a result of this linear economy, a dump truck per second of textile waste ends up in landfill or incinerators. This is unsustainable. And it’s why our products are made from natural biodegradable materials including post-consumer recycled organic cotton. And when items wear out, you can send them back to us. All Big Stories products are designed to be remade. These products are printed on demand and sent back again, ensuring materials stay in the loop.

It was really important to us that we could do this in a sustainable way. We’re committed to creating clothing that you can feel good about wearing – not just because it looks great, but because it’s made in a way that’s respectful to the environment and kind to the planet.

It’s all part of our mission to make sure that when you wear a Big Stories tee, you’re not just making a style statement – you’re making a positive impact on the planet, too.

“We believe what we wear tells our stories. Our t-shirts are a canvas for the bold, the unique, and the unforgettable moments of life. Celebrating balance, we create sustainable clothing that connects with the mind, body, and soul. Our designs are inspired by the passions that fuel us.”

Designing for the moments that matter

Design is our passion, and it shows in every t-shirt we create. Inspired by life’s pleasures and unforgettable moments, each design is handcrafted. We believe in the power of great design to inspire, uplift, and tell your story, and our designs are inspired by the things that fuel us. We want our tees to feel like they belong with you, whether you’re out hiking, chilling at the beach, or kicking back with a good book.

We want you to take our t-shirts on every adventure, to wear them again and again. So that’s the story behind Big Stories.

T-shirt showing graphic image of Pennine Way climb

3rd November 2024

Design, Travel

SFMOMA

A flying visit to San Francisco on my way to Monterey on business – and SFMOMA was top of my list of places to visit. It didn’t disappoint.

I took myself off on Saturday morning, while it was still relatively quiet – and on the advice of a friend, covered the whole gallery from top to bottom. It’s almost impossible to pull out everything I loved, but here are some highlights.

Jenny Holzer, 1983: Truisms

Artwork showing yellow triangle and black block

Ellsworth Kelly, 1993: Yellow Relief with Black

Ellsworth Kelly, 1953: Spectrum 1

Artwork of four squares with squares nested inside

Josef Albers, 1954: Homage to the Square

Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love

Installation of yellow and black abstract pumpkins

Yayoi Kusama: Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart

For Yayoi Kusama, pumpkins have been a lifelong source of fascination. She was first drawn to them in childhood, citing their “generous unpretentiousness” and “spiritual balance,” and has explored them continually in her painting, sculpture, installation art, and poetry.

Artwork called 256 Colours by Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter, 1974: 256 Farben.

And lastly, this amazing immersive glass tunnel…I didn’t note the artist, but I loved it!

There were so many, many more pieces I loved. This is just a selection of the great work on display.

10th October 2024

Live

The future is not a destination, it’s a direction

Sunrise on the beach in Marbella, Spain.

Hey there, wanderers, adventurers and daydreamers! Happy New Year.

First up, I can’t claim that headline, it belongs to the very brilliant Ed Catmull. But it sums up perfectly where I am right now, with my life in a radically different place to this time last year (or ever before, really), and as I focus back in on capturing my thoughts here. This tiny blog isn’t brand spanking new – it’s been here, seen things, but it is ready for a fresh start.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – Blogging? In 2024? But bear with me just a sec; this isn’t a nostalgia trip. 2023 shook my world up in various ways, and I’m entering the new year job-free. A conscious and deliberate choice to see what what it feels like to think about – and travel in – a different direction and swim in different waters. So I think of this more as a scrapbook-style journal; bits and pieces collected as I go along – a personalised compilation of memories, experiences and mementos captured in a corner of the internet where I spill the beans on all things travel, design, work, life, and everything in between. An attempt at embracing the timeless art of storytelling – or at minimum, somewhere to look back on in the future to see how far I’ve come. And I’m rubbish at keeping a paper journal, so.

In my work life I’ve been running projects, leading teams and advising clients for three decades. I’ve had a fabulous career (so far) that has seen me dance through the home entertainment industry, create, market and transform global brands and drive digital transformation, customer experience and human-centred design across a range of sectors. In 2002 I founded and ran my own design agency and most recently I led Customer Experience for banking clients in a consulting practice. From the record industry to the Bank of England – talk about a varied journey!

In recent years I’ve been lucky to do what I love the most – combine my multi-industry knowledge with insight and expertise in digital, design and technology to enable organisations to reimagine services and experiences, develop and manage their digital products, and create capabilities that help them grow, profitability.

But enough of that. This blog has some work stuff on it, but is more about the personal than the professional. You can head over to LinkedIn if it’s the work-me you want to find out more about. Here, each post is a page in my digital diary, filled with the highs and lows, the places that stole my heart, the designs that made sit up and look, random musings, plenty of cocktails and the personal and work experiences that taught me the most. I like talented people, beautifully useful things and stuff that makes the world a better place, so expect a fair bit of that.

So, come wander with me and join me on this journey.

12th January 2024

Design

Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics

You’ve only got a few weeks left to see one of the best exhibitions in London this year.

Hope to Nope at the Design Museum is stunning. It explores the intersections between design, technology, politics and protest over the last 10 years, and traces how graphic design and technology have become such powerful forms of protest.

The range of materials, formats and subject matter is vast – with work from established designers such as Shepherd Fairey to grass roots messages and campaigns about Grenfell, the events in Catalonia and feminism in China.

There’s a quote in a recent review in The Guardian that I thought particularly apt: “As you drift through the space, one of the overriding themes is quite how powerless the traditional tools of professionalised design and marketing now appear to be in contrast to the DIY alternatives, whether they be pasted on the wall or shared on Facebook.”

Go see it. Seriously. Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics is on until 12 August.

And if you fancy making an afternoon of it, pick up the Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier show on the ground floor. The Museum has a joint ticket price and it’s well worth seeing while you are there.

15th July 2018

Design

Design hero: Frank Pick

On my recent visit to the London Transport Museum, I was fascinated to see the design system and assets in one place, but also reminded how brilliant some of the graphic design – in particular the posters – has been over the years.

According to the Museum website, the modern graphic poster came into use in the 1890 and when Frank Pick was given responsibility for London Underground’s publicity in 1908, he recognised the potential of this powerful medium. Pick commissioned established artists such as John Hassall to design posters, and of course he went on to commission Edward Johnston to create the iconic typeface.

Pick’s vision was that rather than focussing on the tube journey or transport, that people could be enticed to use the Underground by the attraction of the destination. This approach was soon adopted by bus and tram companies, featuring pictures of countryside scenes to encourage people to leave London for visits. Pick had a ‘passionate commitment to good design and an enlightened approach to the commercial application of art’, according to the London Transport Museum, and he commissioned artists and illustrators to fulfil his vision. Many younger and lesser-known artists went on to become famous.

It is amazing that Pick trained and qualified as a solicitor, and as far as I can tell didn’t have any formal design qualifications. Yet his influence in steering the London Underground corporate identity, his vision in commissioning artists, illustrators and graphic designers and the establishment of an iconic brand language – the typography, the roundel and the visual style is still evident in London today, over 100 years since he first took on responsibility for the marketing of London’s Underground. Pick’s influence does not only extend over the graphic but also the architectural history of London.

“The test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will make it any better; it will only make it more expensive, more foolish.” Frank Pick.

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8th February 2017

Design

Designology late debate, London Transport Museum

‘Designology’ at the London Transport Museum is a year-long programme of events, focussed around design and London’s transport – exploring how design makes London better. Subject matters include wayfinding, mapping, data, social behaviour, service design, street furniture design as well as branding and principles of one of the leading design systems in the world.

It’s been ages since I visited the London Transport Museum, so I was really pleased to go again, and booked specifically for the Late Debate, which also gets you entry to the Designology studios.

Until you see all of the design system and principles together, you don’t fully realise how the persuasive identity of London’s transport system is actually, in large part, the visual identity and language of London.

All Londoners and visitors know the iconic typeface and brand assets, but seeing it there together, on signage, bus stops, and literature – in it’s earliest form and in modern digital – you get a true sense of how well this important London artefact has been cared for and protected, and how it is still as vital and relevent today as it ever was.

It was fascinating to see original handrawn/marked up fonts.

And seeing individual pieces of film brought back memories from my print design and production days.

I don’t know if there is any urban design language that is as influential as the London one, or as recognisable. What struck me was also not just the very recognisable brand assets, but also the wealth of graphic design generated by or for London Underground/Transport for London over the years. That’s a whole separate post!

But to the debates. So, the talks started at 8pm for an hour, and there were 4 to choose from:

Off the rails: Expert historians, authors and contemporary designers explore designing for the railways, sharing from the past and debating recommendations for the future.
Secrets behind the Tube map: Tube obsessed Londonist Video Journalist Geoff Marshall to explores the history, anomalies and oddities of our much loved London Underground Map.
Delight and surprise: Explore how our journeys can be impacted through moments of delight and surprise, and how such moments make London a world class leader in design.
Connect or forget: New London Architecture and a panel of expert speakers consider how the Tube and wider transport network has the ability to connect or forget regions and communities.

We chose the ‘Delight and surprise’ stream and heard interesting presentations from the team who curate the Art on the Underground programme, a new innovative scheme to use plants and bio installations in tube stations, how advertising has changed over the years and about how events are an important element in community programmes. The presenters were very interesting, especially the Art on the Underground one, but it never really felt like a properly curated debate. There wasn’t really enough in the subject matter to debate and with an hour to cover 4 topics it didn’t feel like any went into enough depth to get a robust discussion going.

That said, I really enjoyed the evening. I got to spend time with my friend Paul, immerse myself in lovely design things and drink wine in a superb venue. What’s not to like 🙂

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6th February 2017

Design

British Airways typography

Loved these messages on the little shuttle train at Terminal 5.

I really like this type style, with illustrations and a mix of fonts or handrawn elements.

And using just a 3-colour palette really means they stand out, without looking too busy.

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9th January 2017

Design

Paper bags, sweets and cigarettes

You can spot some amazing signage and typography around London if you look carefully enough. This company has been around for over 75 years, I don’t know if this signage dates back that far.

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13th November 2016

Design

Roman type

Love these typefaces I spotted on our recent trip to Rome. There is something stunning to see every time you turn a corner in Rome, and the typography on some of the shop fronts is no exception. It’s not all old buildings 🙂

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2nd November 2016

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