WEBVTT
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00:08.117Welcome to Made in Ely, where we talk to local businesses about
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00:11.139what they're doing and how they're doing it, recorded here at Ely Work Collective.
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00:15.018Today's guest is Alex White from We3 Club. How you doing? Hi,
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00:19.107all good. You all right? Yes, very good. Thank you. Thank you for coming
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00:22.016in. Um, so yeah, let's get the ball rolling. Kind of tell us about yourself.
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00:25.115Who is Alex and, uh, what do you do? Okay,
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00:29.290well, I am Alex White and I live just
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00:32.800outside of Ely in Hadnam.
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00:35.955And for over 15 years now,
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00:40.432I have worked for myself running a business called We Three Club with
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00:44.786my husband Chris. That is still
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00:49.812a thing. Basically,
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00:53.437what we do is a design studio, and predominantly it
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00:57.222started doing stuff for bands and musicians and then
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01:00.381has organically moved into doing more branding work,
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01:02.540mainly in hospitality.
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01:08.686And now I have moved more into kind of marketing
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01:12.447and visual communications and things like that, whereas Chris
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01:15.740has actually started working for Sony full-time
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01:20.082doing merchandise for bands as one of their senior designers there.
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01:24.770So yeah, so Week 3 Club is still bubbling kind of under the surface as
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01:28.423our kind of our
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01:32.044main company that will always be there that we kind of built up,
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01:36.883lying a little bit dormant. Yeah, we kind of, we still work on
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01:40.504big projects that come along that we've kind of always worked
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01:43.645with. For instance, Record Store Day,
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01:48.419we do each year, 2000 Trees Festival and
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01:52.665bits and bobs like that. So yeah. Yeah. Cool. So going
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01:56.513back in time. Yes. 15 years. How did Well, I guess,
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02:00.479how did you and Chris kind of cross paths and then create We3Club?
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02:04.927So my background initially was
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02:08.974that I was very keen on obviously art,
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02:12.410creativity. I went— I actually went to London College
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02:15.621of Fashion and did makeup for TV and film as
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02:19.411a degree. But whilst I was there, I have always been really
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02:23.249passionate about music and going to gigs and
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02:27.547part of that, then I would put on gigs in and around Cambridge,
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02:30.268like the Portland Arms and the Labour Club,
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02:33.456CB2, all over the place in Cambridge. When you're putting on
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02:35.070gigs, gigs need posters.
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02:39.623So I got really heavily into gig poster design,
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02:44.031then realized, oh, there's a whole load of total nerds out there
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02:48.612that are really into gig poster design. One of them is Christopher White.
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02:53.325So yeah, we got talking via MySpace.
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02:58.320Um, and basically he was putting on a show,
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03:02.101like an exhibition where he lived in Kingston, um,
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03:06.251called Poster Roast, where he brought together UK
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03:09.937gig poster artists to exhibit there and they had music.
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03:12.436And I was like, that's so cool, I want to do that in Cambridge.
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03:16.282So I actually put that on a Poster Roast in Cambridge
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03:20.127at this place that was called The Shop on Jesus Lane, which was
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03:25.063actually a university-owned building that some
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03:28.622students took over and became an art space
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03:32.789for a couple of years, maybe a year and a half. It was very
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03:36.444cool and I kind of wish there was stuff still happening like that in Cambridge,
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03:40.723but obviously it's so expensive to ever find anywhere like that in Cambridge. But definitely
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03:43.833these days. Yeah, but yeah, it was awesome.
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03:47.792So I put on this exhibition of gig poster artists, invited all the gig poster
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03:50.839artists up to kind of you know, hang out.
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03:53.872Um, and Chris was one of them, and so met him.
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03:59.361The rest is history, really. We then got together, and he
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04:03.085was working for a merchandise company at the time, and I
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04:06.825was just working freelance. And then we gradually, we just merged
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04:10.677and decided to start up our own design company, and we called it We3Club.
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04:15.219Yeah. Um, and so that's the kind of the history initially.
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04:19.323Awesome. And did you know kind of early on in life, like when you finished
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04:21.856at London College of Fashion and stuff, that you wanted to go and do it
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04:25.591in a freelance or on your own kind of thing? Like you didn't want to
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04:28.652go to work for like a big house somewhere, like a big agency or something?
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04:32.451Well, I suppose I was coming from
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04:36.940quite a kind of punk DIY background where essentially
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04:40.242it was like, well, I just do this. I could just do this. It's fine.
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04:44.570And things like Photoshop and stuff were quite
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04:48.451new relatively, and it was all very much like just learning as
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04:51.885you go along. And I've always just done that. I've just
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04:55.946kind of, you know, just gone for it and worked on it and seen
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04:59.733how it goes. I've always illustrated and drawn,
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05:03.617and it was just mixing the two together and kind
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05:08.737of doing that for bands. I suppose when bands realized,
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05:12.268oh, Alex could kind of do this poster or, you know,
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05:15.638do my t-shirts for my band or whatever, it just kind of grew and like
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05:19.180spiraled and Yeah, it's quite— yeah, it was quite organic,
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05:22.110I suppose, how it kind of— yeah, it was, it was, it was cool kind
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05:25.870of back in the day, like being in the gig scene in Cambridge and seeing
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05:29.770like the— you kind of got to notice similar poster designs and t-shirts of bands
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05:32.410that we were gigging with as well. Yeah, I'm sure you did a t-shirt for
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05:36.390us at some point. Probably. I'm 99% sure there
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05:40.110is a t-shirt with one of your designs on, but I can't remember. Yeah,
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05:44.710but, uh, but yeah, even I can't remember what— but
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05:48.710yeah, I felt like it was amazing. I, I, you know, right place, right time,
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05:51.905I suppose. Like, I was really lucky to have that opportunity and to be at
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05:55.695that time going up, like, kind of growing up with loads of
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05:59.228people that were in the musical, musical industry,
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06:04.045um, that have now gone on to being, like, really successful,
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06:08.092or they're now, like, working with bands, they're managing bands, you know. So we've
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06:11.304all kind of grown up together, which has been really lovely. And I've had,
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06:15.045um, opportunities due to us all kind of knowing each other for years
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06:18.130and years and years, which is been really great. Yeah, and it felt like a
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06:22.230really good time then as well. Yeah, a good kind of time in Cambridge's like
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06:26.270music like scene. Yeah, because it doesn't seem to be what it was back
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06:29.210then, but you think like there were just gigs all the time in Cambridge.
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06:32.270I know, 15, 20 years ago. It's just not— I mean, there was so many
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06:35.190venues and so many places to go. Like every weekend there were gigs. That was
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06:38.850just how it was. It's interesting because I was actually talking to a friend of
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06:42.530ours, James Parrish, the other day who runs a PR company in Cambridge,
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06:45.790and he's like a massive music nerd as well and was around at that time
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06:49.073and we were saying that, but then we were thinking, is it just because we
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06:53.186don't really know what's happening? I don't know. I don't know. Are we old?
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06:56.544Are we just out of touch? Yeah, out the loop. And I think that's— yeah,
06:56.577 -->
07:00.336definitely part of it. I think music happens so differently
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07:04.867now, like how bands kind of play. And, and yeah, it's a very
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07:07.727different kind of way of— when a band's great,
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07:12.177sometimes they skip quite quickly. Yeah. Playing for years.
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07:15.860So much easier, isn't it? Well, not easier, that's not the right word. But like
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07:19.320you said, with social media and the internet being what it is now, when you
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07:22.680think like when we were doing our shows back in 2000,
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07:27.060like 2002. Oh, 2000, beat that. Yeah, exactly. It was
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07:31.240demo CDs to venues, dropping off things, being like, can we please come
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07:35.340and play at yours? Yeah. Having a MySpace page and then hoping people
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07:38.940went along and that was it. You didn't have social media to like constantly
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07:42.520churn out material and stuff. Yeah. And everything had to be like really planned in
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07:45.590advance. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it was totally different.
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07:49.250Um, I mean, I can, I can imagine the ska punk scene isn't what it
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07:53.690used to be, especially not in Cambridge, but, uh, never mind.
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07:57.270And, um, with, with the kind of just kind of going a little bit off-piste
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08:01.110here. Yeah. Um, just why not? With, with the whole gig poster thing,
08:01.610 -->
08:03.830obviously that, that was again, that was a really big thing, was that kind of
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08:07.210advertising back in the day. Like you got fly— people did flyering and all those
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08:10.729kind of things. Yeah. Which again, we don't see now. Yeah. Do you think there's
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08:13.490been a massive shift in the world in that respect? Like everything now is done
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08:16.878online? Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's a shame.
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08:21.598I think there's still a lot of people keeping it cool and trying
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08:24.922to do some cool stuff. But I mean, yeah,
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08:29.578obviously with the birth of AI and all that kind of stuff, it's pretty depressing.
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08:33.544I think gig posters— we'll touch on that later.
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08:38.537Gig posters have had a massive resurgence like over the last
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08:43.73110 years, you know, it's been building and building because with the digital
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08:47.723music being so massive, it's like records. I was gonna say, do you think it's
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08:51.410come back with the whole resurgence of cassettes, CDs, and records? Like everyone, people,
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08:54.937people want something to take from a gig. Other generations, yeah,
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08:58.769like now want to have that physical thing again. We used to approach bands saying,
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09:02.776look, we really want to do a gig poster for this show, whatever, um,
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09:05.855would you be up for it, you know? And they would not understand what the
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09:09.207hell we were talking about, like screen-printed gig poster, especially in
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09:13.217the UK. America, it was massive, but it really wasn't known over
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09:17.242here when we first started doing it. So it's, yeah,
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09:21.043it's crazy to think back to those days where we were having to explain what
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09:24.829it was and that we'd do a small run and it would be limited edition
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09:28.165and it wouldn't be something that would ever be made again. There'd be 100
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09:31.725of them and then that's it. You know, it's not something you then keep churning
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09:34.805out if it does well. It's like, no, It's like limited
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09:39.314edition. That's it. It's— yeah. But then from looking through
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09:43.037your web store and then obviously your book. Yes. Like you've
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09:46.889done that for some massive bands. Yeah. And like multiples
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09:49.264for massive bands. It's not like a one-off, like, can we do this for you?
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09:52.971Yeah, here you go. Here's your one shot. Yeah. You've got like multiple designs for
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09:56.999huge international bands. Like, how does that feel? It's pretty
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10:00.641nuts, I think. Yeah. Sometimes you have to sit back and be like,
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10:04.725What the hell? Like, if I told myself,
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10:08.598you know, 25 years ago that I would have done stuff for all these bands,
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10:11.826you know, it's pretty nuts. We were— I
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10:15.726was discussing this last night with Chris and talking
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10:19.544about people we've done stuff for. So like some of the big kind of names
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10:21.911we've done, like Florence and the Machine, Metallica,
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10:27.908Royal Blood was quite an interesting one. That's quite an interesting story.
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10:33.388Because we were asked to rock and sign the
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10:36.808festival there. They had a thing where they
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10:40.469were asking gig poster artists to do— like they were going to have an exhibition
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10:45.109and create a poster for different bands that would
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10:48.850take up this exhibition. So bands that were playing the festival. Yeah.
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10:51.676And we were given a list of bands we could choose from.
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10:56.815So there was about maybe 8 artists,
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11:00.285and we got to choose a band from this list. And Royal Blood at the
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11:03.979time— this is about 2014,
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11:07.7862015— they'd released one single and
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11:10.709weren't really well known at all. And, um, Chris,
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11:15.078because he's a massive nerd, had heard it and had this kind of feeling
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11:18.836that, okay, these guys are pretty good. Um, so he was
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11:22.049like, I'd like to do one for them, even though they're really small on
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11:25.454the bill. Yeah. So we did this poster, went to
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11:28.810Rock in Sign. It was really amazing.
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11:31.862We had our first daughter. She was like 2 at the time, and it was
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11:34.930quite exciting because we got to leave her and run off to Paris for a
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11:38.688few days. But so we watched Royal Blood and no one
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11:42.495had really seen them, heard of them. There was such a buzz. It was crazy.
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11:45.980Like all these kind of, you know, musical people were like,
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11:48.839oh my God, they're going to be the next big thing. And it was really
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11:52.766interesting. Um, and off the back of literally that,
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11:56.627we then did a tour poster for them for the next 5
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12:00.985years or something, did so many, so much merch for them. One of the posters
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12:05.327we designed, um, we had this like logo, this tiger's head
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12:08.883on it, which is now their logo, which people have had like tattooed
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12:12.921on them. That's crazy. And you think that was just created in
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12:16.622the end of our garden in Ely and now it's like everywhere.
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12:20.610That's insane. Absolutely mental. That's definitely one of the most bizarre
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12:22.221things that are kind of blown up.
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12:27.653But yeah, like, and Gallows are another
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12:32.104massive one. That's kind of for me, that's how everything kind
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12:35.865of started because I did the Gallows artwork
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12:40.635for their first album and that was the first time
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12:43.809I kind of thought, okay, this could be something people pay me for.
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12:47.210Yeah, because initially I was like, this is fun. Yeah, cool.
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12:50.916Yeah, get your name out there. Yeah, just, it's cool seeing your stuff
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12:54.622like in print, isn't it? Yeah, I suppose. But yeah, but when Warner were like,
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12:58.616oh yeah, we're gonna, we've, you know, they've signed and we're gonna pay you money,
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13:02.017I was like, okay, cool, that's something. Um,
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13:06.060so that's been amazing because we've had such a great relationship with
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13:09.894Gallows for years now, and Chris was doing stuff for them
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13:14.161before I even knew Chris as well. So we both kind of knew them individually.
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13:17.770Yeah. And then we went on to do all Frank Carter's stuff for
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13:21.010all of everything he's ever done, really. Um,
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13:24.970and so yeah, so that's been a really lovely history of kind of doing stuff
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13:29.370with them. Um, so yeah, lots of stories of different— Yeah, it's amazing.
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13:31.710I'm just gonna be here all day talking about bands you work with and just
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13:35.870getting really, really jealous. And also like reminding myself how old some of
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13:40.110those albums are now. I know. Yeah, let's not talk about that. So moving forward,
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13:44.360like what, what made you kind of consider the changeover
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13:47.620into the more the hospitality world and start doing kind of the more branding and
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13:51.920marketing things? Because obviously, yeah, you know, obviously we have worked— not worked—
13:52.420 -->
13:54.660we did work together, didn't we, ever at North State Happen Social and a few
13:55.160 -->
13:59.000other bits. And it's— yeah, what kind of made you go from doing posters
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14:03.540for massive international bands to helping Cambridgeshire businesses do
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14:07.550their branding and marketing? Well, this is— yeah, it's quite interesting,
14:08.080 -->
14:12.155the transition. I mean, it all kind of merges into one, but One
14:12.203 -->
14:15.694of the first jobs we had, which was around 2016,
14:15.742 -->
14:19.265I think we were approached by this guy called George Craig,
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14:23.760and he's been in various bands over the years and
14:23.776 -->
14:26.838he'd seen our artwork through bands and music
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14:31.744and blah, blah, blah. He was starting up a bar called Jimmy's.
14:31.987 -->
14:36.030Yeah. So he was— so we were approached by George Craig,
14:36.046 -->
14:39.746who knew our work through different music and musicians and bands,
14:40.263 -->
14:41.746and he was starting up a bar called Jimmy's with his brother Jimmy.
14:44.408 -->
14:47.585Um, who was in the bands with him, and they
14:48.019 -->
14:51.501wanted it to be really raw rock and roll vibes,
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14:55.482this bar in Manchester. And they were— they loved
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14:59.350that it, you know, they weren't— they didn't want to approach a branding agency.
14:59.430 -->
15:02.720They were like, we want you because you do stuff for bands, and we just
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15:05.577want you to create our logo. We want you to do interiors.
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15:09.958Um, so it was amazing, like such a great opportunity.
15:10.023 -->
15:13.606We did all of the interiors. We were wheat pasting like stuff on the
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15:18.366walls. We did massive murals. We did like their glasses,
15:18.479 -->
15:22.074their uniforms, their beer branding,
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15:25.667like everything basically. And it was like great, an amazing opportunity.
15:25.732 -->
15:29.872So they started with this one bar in Manchester and
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15:34.516then they opened another one in Liverpool, which again
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15:38.499was awesome. And we had a lot of fun because we did this massive neon
15:38.935 -->
15:42.434wall, which was like insanely huge, which I basically
15:42.466 -->
15:44.871illustrated every neon. Wow.
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15:48.912And they— it was just filled the whole back of the wall and you
15:49.412 -->
15:52.888could see it had like windows all around. So you could,
15:53.273 -->
15:56.304you know, just glowed basically if you were kind of passing it. It was very
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15:59.655cool. It's not there anymore, unfortunately, which is such a shame.
15:59.783 -->
16:03.631But it was a very cool space. And so, yeah, that was our first,
16:04.834 -->
16:07.640you know, dive into that kind of world.
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16:12.690And then randomly I got approached,
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16:16.265um, by Lauren Hodge, um,
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16:21.010who lives in Ely. She was working for the Waterman Pub
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16:24.905in Cambridge and they wanted posters for the walls in there
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16:29.202because they were opening up the pub. Anyway, it was City Pub Company were
16:29.827 -->
16:33.418opening up this pub, and off the back of them having our posters,
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16:36.816they were like Oh, would you do some more branding for some other
16:36.896 -->
16:40.632bars and things like that? Like, we'd love to work with you. Yeah. And then
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16:44.287that rolled into me ending up doing some marketing for
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16:48.086City Pub Company. Okay. Um, because I was
16:48.118 -->
16:52.574like, it kind of all ties together. I think all
16:52.591 -->
16:54.835the things I've done, like putting on events,
16:55.171 -->
16:58.185promoting, uh, creating posters,
16:58.378 -->
17:02.244then branding, it's all marketing in some
17:02.292 -->
17:06.002kind of way. Yeah, exactly. And so actually, it— that's
17:06.502 -->
17:09.841what I just love kind of doing. Yeah. Um, and so it's
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17:13.888now really nice to have moved into that kind of next phase. Yeah,
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17:17.726basically. And how are you finding— cannot— not necessarily
17:18.226 -->
17:21.436competing, but we're kind of working against bigger, more established kind
17:21.936 -->
17:25.451of branding companies. Like, what do you think makes your kind of approach to things
17:25.951 -->
17:29.929a bit unique and a bit different compared to them? Oh gosh, that is quite
17:30.429 -->
17:34.341a hard one. Trying you with a hard one. I think what—
17:34.841 -->
17:39.700because now I'm working on my own really and
17:40.200 -->
17:43.743running this company, which is like a kind of the visual communications
17:44.243 -->
17:48.187and everything like that. It's more that I suppose I
17:48.219 -->
17:52.342have an understanding of a lot of different aspects that go into
17:52.631 -->
17:55.888a brand and selling yourself as a company.
17:57.026 -->
18:00.376And what you might need. So I can
18:00.472 -->
18:03.982do all the design work, I can do websites, I can kind of
18:04.095 -->
18:06.515do content creation, social media,
18:07.460 -->
18:11.227like basically anything to help support that brand I'm
18:11.727 -->
18:15.362kind of able to do. Yeah. I've also built up a massive wealth
18:15.490 -->
18:19.161of contacts, I suppose, over the years locally and further
18:19.661 -->
18:22.735afield that is quite handy to kind of tap into and stuff like that.
18:22.783 -->
18:26.560So yeah, I suppose experience and Um,
18:27.060 -->
18:30.320maybe, I don't know, I think, I don't know,
18:30.820 -->
18:34.380everything I keep thinking is really cheesy to say. I guess
18:34.880 -->
18:37.620it's coming from a different industry, I suppose. Yeah, it gives a kind of a
18:38.120 -->
18:41.400fresh set of eyes on things too. Yeah. When you, when you've got particular
18:41.900 -->
18:44.520types of agencies that do a particular kind of work, it starts to get a
18:45.020 -->
18:48.320bit samey. Yeah. And you can kind of tell who's done
18:48.820 -->
18:51.520what work for who and then who's using the same company because it starts to
18:52.020 -->
18:54.660look the same. Yeah. I guess from coming from a completely different, well, not completely,
18:55.160 -->
18:59.251but yeah, a relatively different industry Yeah, you've given it like a different edge that
18:59.784 -->
19:03.061wasn't really around before then. Yeah, it's a bit kind of more raw, I guess.
19:04.097 -->
19:06.807Yeah, and yeah, yeah, creative. Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah, yeah.
19:07.598 -->
19:10.663So I love it. With regards to kind of for other
19:10.728 -->
19:14.004businesses, what, what does good
19:14.101 -->
19:17.225branding actually mean like to you when you're— when you've given a
19:17.274 -->
19:20.316brief or someone said, you know, we need help with our branding?
19:20.413 -->
19:22.275What, what would you consider is a good branding?
19:24.217 -->
19:28.073Approach? Yeah, I mean, it's looking at everything as,
19:28.493 -->
19:32.220you know, as a whole. I think it's really important
19:32.720 -->
19:36.732that from the outset you're understanding your brand, who you're
19:36.748 -->
19:39.661wanting to talk to, your tone of voice and, and what you're trying to get
19:40.161 -->
19:43.707out there. It's— yeah, it's quite hard
19:43.755 -->
19:47.161to kind of do that. I mean,
19:47.209 -->
19:50.487some people do it really well, like off their own back,
19:50.551 -->
19:52.480you know, and that's fine. But I think it is really great to bounce stuff
19:52.980 -->
19:56.598around off of somebody that might
19:57.098 -->
20:01.389have more of an understanding of that kind of creative edge that could
20:01.581 -->
20:05.827elevate your brand, you know, and really make
20:06.327 -->
20:09.848it shine amongst— because it is really hard to kind of stand out. Like,
20:09.976 -->
20:13.165there's a lot of people out there doing a lot of amazing things,
20:14.142 -->
20:17.683and sometimes those people are doing amazing things and their brand just
20:17.763 -->
20:21.304isn't right. And then they're not
20:21.804 -->
20:25.215from that background. Yeah, they're good at what they do. But then they fall short
20:25.715 -->
20:28.889because they haven't got the— and it's such a shame. Yeah, it's like,
20:29.049 -->
20:31.874oh God, it kills me. I can't handle it. I'm like, oh no.
20:32.740 -->
20:35.901Um, so yeah, I, I want
20:35.965 -->
20:39.463to just save all those people. And with,
20:39.479 -->
20:42.672with that in mind, what do you think the biggest mistake that businesses make when
20:42.704 -->
20:45.480they're— when they're like, they'd say they're trying to do it on their own?
20:45.737 -->
20:48.641Yeah. And they're doing their branding. What are kind of the common mistakes you see
20:49.141 -->
20:51.770that you often either get called in to fix or that you just notice and
20:52.270 -->
20:55.940think God, if I had 10 minutes, I'd go and help them. Yeah, I just
20:56.440 -->
20:59.802saw that out. I'm obsessed with everything kind of flowing really
21:00.302 -->
21:03.944neatly together. I think if you want your
21:04.057 -->
21:07.527company to be seen as like
21:07.607 -->
21:12.786a, you know, a kind of well-put-together
21:13.286 -->
21:16.752kind of brand, you know, it's really great. It's really easy to
21:16.800 -->
21:20.875get an email, a website, and socials and
21:21.375 -->
21:24.110things like that all really locked in and tight kind of from the outset.
21:24.432 -->
21:28.345Yeah, it's just quite important to kind of have those things
21:28.361 -->
21:31.391now as much as it's like, you know, a shame that you have to kind
21:31.891 -->
21:35.511of rely on all of that. But I just think
21:36.011 -->
21:40.781that, yeah, I think it's really important to consider all
21:40.830 -->
21:44.361of those elements and how your logo and brand will sit
21:44.378 -->
21:47.368amongst it. It doesn't have to be crazy,
21:48.050 -->
21:50.822complex in any way. It just needs to be,
21:51.451 -->
21:54.755yeah, like considered. I think I'm just
21:55.255 -->
21:58.786trying to think as I go along. But one thing that I cannot handle
21:58.866 -->
22:02.238is people thinking of a logo.
22:02.593 -->
22:06.562If you have a logo that's too detailed, then it's
22:07.062 -->
22:10.348going to be really hard to like resize that or have that really small if
22:10.848 -->
22:14.084you're thinking about social media or things like that. Obviously, yeah, there's things like that.
22:14.600 -->
22:18.331You need to make sure it can be like really bold and simple for these
22:18.831 -->
22:21.525different places, that it can look good in black and white just as well as
22:21.557 -->
22:24.815it does in color, that you've got a horizontal and
22:24.992 -->
22:28.475a vertical kind of version of that logo so it can adapt
22:28.975 -->
22:32.134to different things, things like that that maybe people just don't— they're like, sweet,
22:32.150 -->
22:35.537we've got a logo. Yeah, but actually, I think, yeah, you see
22:35.585 -->
22:38.843kind of overcomplicate things. They kind of, they think too much into
22:38.891 -->
22:42.069it. And then like you said, it doesn't— it looks great in one design.
22:42.342 -->
22:45.490Yeah, but then it doesn't look good in others and they kind of shot themselves
22:45.990 -->
22:48.445in the foot because once you've got a logo, that's quite a commitment. Yeah.
22:48.670 -->
22:52.347For quite a long time. Like you can't really rebrand every 6 months.
22:52.604 -->
22:56.876Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it can be something that's flexible and bold
22:57.021 -->
22:59.735and simple. Yeah. It's kind of all that's needed. And, you know,
23:00.072 -->
23:03.846it's, it can be really simple, but it's just little
23:04.346 -->
23:07.990things that sometimes it's useful to kind of get it. You might
23:08.022 -->
23:11.149not have thought about it. And a lot of the time, you know, I'm working
23:11.649 -->
23:15.219with people that they're amazing chefs, they're amazing, they're producing
23:15.235 -->
23:18.584incredible things and they don't care really
23:18.841 -->
23:22.222about— That's not their priority, is it? They appreciate it,
23:22.286 -->
23:26.950but they're like, please just do this thing. And I'm
23:27.450 -->
23:30.235like, yeah, because they've created this amazing product.
23:30.860 -->
23:33.808It's a shame for it not to have,
23:34.081 -->
23:36.938you know, that great brand around it.
23:36.986 -->
23:40.743So, um, I think it's really important, yeah, to do. And just
23:40.823 -->
23:44.773kind of digging further into a quite
23:45.273 -->
23:48.017a— what some might consider a big issue at the moment, yeah, are those people
23:48.033 -->
23:51.100that don't necessarily see the need
23:51.421 -->
23:55.034to have those kind of branding exercises done. They don't really see the need
23:55.534 -->
23:58.213to use the service of someone like yourself or another agency and things, and they
23:58.245 -->
24:02.752go down the So what's the word for it? But they
24:03.252 -->
24:06.631go down the AI route. Yeah. And how, how have you found both
24:06.727 -->
24:09.436personally and I think industry-wide, um,
24:10.093 -->
24:12.898this is going, like, with people that are kind of now thinking, well, I can
24:12.914 -->
24:17.018do it myself? Why? Why? Because it's so easy to produce stuff on through
24:17.082 -->
24:20.448AI now. Like, more you're finding more people like, well, we can save the
24:20.948 -->
24:23.397money, we don't need to spend it, we can— this looks— this is great.
24:24.135 -->
24:27.597I think there is a place for AI
24:28.223 -->
24:32.077Like, but I think that you—
24:33.201 -->
24:37.650it's very obvious when people do it and it's a real shame and
24:38.325 -->
24:41.858it just shows that you haven't
24:42.358 -->
24:45.456really considered it fully. I kind of feel
24:45.568 -->
24:50.563like it's, it's more noticeable than people realize and
24:50.852 -->
24:54.948hopefully it will— people will go back to kind of actually using graphic
24:55.448 -->
24:59.485designers and illustrators and things like that again.
24:59.936 -->
25:03.650It's hard because I understand when you're a small business, you might
25:03.699 -->
25:07.411not have the money to spend on getting people to spend,
25:07.589 -->
25:10.717you know, time on your logo and things like that. I do. I do get
25:10.847 -->
25:14.162that. So there's— it's a big
25:14.210 -->
25:18.116complex web. Yeah, I think illustration would
25:18.181 -->
25:22.042be my biggest bugbear in terms of things that
25:22.366 -->
25:26.535AI Yeah, because I think that is— that's
25:26.792 -->
25:30.070really, really sad. And yeah, I just feel that's painful.
25:30.343 -->
25:33.958Well, it's taking away the kind of the wonderfulness and uniqueness of
25:34.458 -->
25:36.899illustration in the first place. Everyone has a different style. The whole point is you
25:36.915 -->
25:40.386have different illustrators do different things. Yeah. And everyone's going, well, yeah, but the internet
25:40.886 -->
25:44.901could do it. Yeah. 30 seconds for free. Yeah. And I think like
25:45.110 -->
25:49.240obviously Canva has been really handy And
25:49.850 -->
25:54.010there's definitely a place for that. I find that useful as
25:54.043 -->
25:57.464a tool for when I pass over my brand
25:57.721 -->
26:02.813stuff to companies who can't use Photoshop or Adobe Suite
26:03.263 -->
26:06.411to set everything up in templates and things for them. That can be really useful.
26:06.636 -->
26:09.046But I think on the flip side,
26:09.624 -->
26:13.720sometimes you will be like, oh God, you know, there's the
26:14.220 -->
26:16.451same thing that somebody has used on a Canva poster.
26:17.350 -->
26:20.225Numerous times. Yeah, it all changes the same. Like,
26:20.241 -->
26:23.502so one company might have done something, you know, and you're like,
26:23.582 -->
26:25.975oh, it's the same thing. Um,
26:26.810 -->
26:30.986so yeah, it's, it's pretty tricky. Yeah, we touched
26:31.486 -->
26:34.856on it briefly with, um, the previous recording with, with Matty Makes Munch about the,
26:35.001 -->
26:38.020the AI menu, like, issue. Okay. And posters
26:38.117 -->
26:42.067for, like, a lot of kind of food places. Yeah. And I think it's— yeah,
26:42.228 -->
26:46.078you're right when you say small businesses don't have budget for expensive
26:46.578 -->
26:49.830graphic designers. That's, that's a fact. And that's— and I totally get that,
26:49.847 -->
26:53.070like, because also the, the people running those businesses don't have time. Now we have
26:53.118 -->
26:55.395it here, and I'm sure you do as well. Like, you're not an accountant.
26:55.684 -->
26:58.554Yeah, you're not HR, but you have to do all those things as well as
26:58.570 -->
27:01.553the one thing you actually really want to just do, and that's why you started
27:02.053 -->
27:05.161your business. So anything you can do to streamline those other things. Yeah. So you
27:05.661 -->
27:08.208can then focus all your energy on the bit that made you want to do
27:08.708 -->
27:11.580this in the first place is great. And I don't have a problem with that.
27:12.080 -->
27:15.100I think that's, that's understandable. But it's when you get— and we— I've seen this
27:15.600 -->
27:18.840a few times where people have actually paid for someone else's services to
27:19.340 -->
27:22.610create them something, whether it's a website or some, or some marketing,
27:23.120 -->
27:26.780and they've used it. And the things they've given
27:27.280 -->
27:30.400them have clearly been— they've taken them, you know, 15 minutes to make, but they
27:30.900 -->
27:33.280probably billed them for a day's work or something. Yeah. And that's what I think
27:33.780 -->
27:35.820is really worrying, is a lot of people kind of jumping on the bandwagon being
27:36.320 -->
27:38.020like, oh yeah, I can just do it on Canva, I can just do it
27:38.520 -->
27:39.980on ChatGPT, and then just send them an invoice, and as long as they're happy,
27:40.480 -->
27:43.845they'll pay it. Yeah. And it's, it's really devaluing
27:44.359 -->
27:47.456the world that you're in because people who've spent years,
27:47.632 -->
27:51.307you know, training, qualifying, everything else to get to where you are. Yeah.
27:51.579 -->
27:53.729And then someone's coming and going, I'll do it for half the price. Yeah,
27:53.842 -->
27:57.564it's absolutely bonkers. Yeah, I do. I feel positive though.
27:57.917 -->
28:01.255I feel like, you know, with so many of these
28:01.287 -->
28:03.934things, people do want, you know,
28:05.202 -->
28:08.588like true people that are creating these things that they can talk
28:09.088 -->
28:11.845to, that they can liaise with, and that they can kind of hold their hand
28:11.957 -->
28:15.770throughout the whole process. I think That's— I feel that's always going
28:16.270 -->
28:20.410to be there. Like, you know, whatever's happening with AI music,
28:20.490 -->
28:23.910graphics, whatever. I just— I feel like there's always going to
28:24.410 -->
28:27.570be— it will never really totally screw everything
28:28.070 -->
28:31.410up. There'll always be humans. Never. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. The thought of AI
28:31.910 -->
28:34.680music taking over the world just fills me with absolute dread.
28:35.850 -->
28:39.970Never mind. Yeah. Because I mean, I, I, I'm so passionate
28:40.470 -->
28:44.381about people's brand and like companies.
28:44.638 -->
28:48.571I just love it so much that when I kind of work
28:49.071 -->
28:51.685with someone, I literally, you know,
28:52.103 -->
28:55.538feel like that's my company too. And I, you know,
28:55.651 -->
28:59.199will do everything for that company kind of thing. And I just feel like,
28:59.729 -->
29:02.779you know, you don't get that with AI, do you? No, it doesn't. It doesn't
29:03.279 -->
29:07.033have— it's a system. It's not a person. It can't exactly emote in that way.
29:07.129 -->
29:10.874Yeah. But just Just kind of going across that, obviously you, you, you're currently working
29:10.890 -->
29:14.747across kind of a few different businesses and things. Yeah. How do
29:15.247 -->
29:19.196you kind of stay creative when you're kind of applying different bits
29:19.228 -->
29:22.393to different companies? How do you, how do you kind of compartmentalize each one?
29:22.749 -->
29:26.205And you're asking some tricky questions, James. That's why they pay me the big bucks.
29:27.952 -->
29:32.029I mean, it's hard. I think I've got 2 daughters,
29:32.690 -->
29:36.300um, 10 and 14, and when I had them
29:36.679 -->
29:40.338I really struggled with my creativity because I didn't
29:40.838 -->
29:43.576have the headspace like I had before to kind of, oh, I'm just going to
29:44.076 -->
29:46.912sit down and draw, I'm going to do whatever. It is really hard because the
29:47.412 -->
29:50.872juggle of being a parent and having a full-time job is completely
29:50.888 -->
29:55.071bonkers. So yeah, I mean,
29:55.488 -->
29:58.236I am inspired by so many people around me.
29:58.878 -->
30:02.551I know so many talented people that just— I get excited about seeing
30:02.649 -->
30:05.712all the things they're doing, whether that's art or music or
30:06.212 -->
30:09.998cooking or whatever. Like I feel really fortunate that
30:10.030 -->
30:14.128I've got that and I'm kind of continually searching for that
30:14.369 -->
30:18.600and more things like that. Yeah, I suppose that's my passion
30:18.649 -->
30:20.716and my kind of inspiration.
30:23.172 -->
30:24.994And I'm inspired by the people that I work for.
30:26.781 -->
30:30.529So I always get a buzz off of, off of that as
30:31.029 -->
30:34.326well, really. And it is, it's definitely a community thing, isn't it? Kind of.
30:34.503 -->
30:37.756Yeah. You, you all kind of muck in together and it, it gives you that
30:37.788 -->
30:41.050motivation where like you're having a kind of a maybe a, a bit of a,
30:41.195 -->
30:45.163I don't know, the word, you know, when you,
30:45.983 -->
30:50.000you got a creative block. That's the word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I know I've,
30:50.080 -->
30:53.197I've found that when obviously not quite nowhere near the same scale when I was
30:53.230 -->
30:56.491doing freelance writing. Yeah. When I was in the zone, I was in
30:56.588 -->
30:59.078the zone smashing it and I could do like 4 or 5 articles in a
30:59.578 -->
31:02.790day, send them all out, happy days. But then when your brain's, you know,
31:03.290 -->
31:06.550your heart's not in it and your brain can't make the words just magically appear.
31:07.050 -->
31:10.330Yeah, it gets really like almost soul destroying because then you get to
31:10.830 -->
31:12.910that point where it's that vicious cycle. Like, well, I can't write, I need to
31:13.410 -->
31:15.790force something out. Yeah. And then what you do, you're not happy with. So you
31:16.290 -->
31:19.410keep then, you know, scrubbing out and starting again. Yeah. And the next thing you
31:19.910 -->
31:22.950know, you're like, you know, in a ball in the shower. Yeah. What have I
31:23.450 -->
31:26.670done? Yeah, something like that. I need a new job.
31:26.990 -->
31:30.640Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how
31:31.140 -->
31:34.798have you found like working in and around Ely and Cambridge? Like the community
31:34.831 -->
31:38.908has supported you through everything really? Yeah, it's interesting.
31:39.070 -->
31:42.471I mean, everyone always thought we were in London really with We3
31:42.971 -->
31:45.922Club. They kind of would be like, well, can we come and have a meeting?
31:46.034 -->
31:49.304Like we can do next week or whatever. We're like, we're in Ely.
31:49.803 -->
31:53.344They're like, where? So I
31:53.844 -->
31:57.328love that. I love that we weren't in London and that we were just
31:57.396 -->
32:00.813out here doing our own thing. Like, you know, I think that's
32:01.227 -->
32:04.716great. And I think from that, you then create
32:05.216 -->
32:07.931your own little hub of different people doing awesome stuff.
32:09.670 -->
32:12.400You know, we've met along the way. I mean, Steak and Honour,
32:14.242 -->
32:17.623like, we've known them for years. We stalked them
32:18.123 -->
32:20.183for their burgers a long time ago.
32:22.130 -->
32:26.750But, you know, people like that, and with the bake shop, we were working
32:27.633 -->
32:30.968with, um, in Luca's bakery at one point near
32:31.468 -->
32:34.335Witchford. Um, so we literally had our office in his bakery.
32:35.153 -->
32:38.440Um, so it's a dangerous place to work. It was dangerous as well.
32:38.680 -->
32:42.063It's bad enough that they have a shop in Ely that's close enough to walk
32:42.563 -->
32:46.521to. So yeah, I can't imagine being 6 feet away. Yeah. But yeah,
32:46.713 -->
32:50.160so I just, I love that there's just pods of random
32:50.660 -->
32:53.752people all over the place just doing these little things and you kind of meet
32:54.252 -->
32:58.034them along the way and it's, um, It's just really cool. And like, there's just
32:58.534 -->
33:02.011a really lovely community and people that we've known here for years. And obviously
33:02.511 -->
33:06.165I brought Chris here to the dark side and
33:06.197 -->
33:09.997he loves it. I was going to say, he doesn't seem that bothered by leaving
33:10.126 -->
33:14.135the big city. The big city and moving out to where
33:14.635 -->
33:18.273we are. The dark fence. Yeah, he's loving it. And now we're in
33:18.289 -->
33:21.095Hadnam. So yeah, yeah, it's great.
33:21.657 -->
33:24.838Awesome. So quickfire round,
33:25.528 -->
33:28.580which is never quick, but we'll try it.
33:28.998 -->
33:32.483Something. And probably some quite tricky ones, I think, here. Oh God. Um,
33:33.077 -->
33:36.482what is your favorite local independent business? Well,
33:36.803 -->
33:39.293minus the place you're in right now,
33:40.128 -->
33:43.469obviously. Obviously. Um, well,
33:43.742 -->
33:47.260I, I've just mentioned them, but I would have to say Steak and Honour and
33:48.846 -->
33:52.352Burn. I just obviously, as I said, we met them.
33:53.079 -->
33:56.892I'm just trying to think when we met them, but they
33:57.005 -->
34:01.700had just had their first son. We'd just had our first daughter and
34:02.200 -->
34:04.852we were like, you make really good burgers. That's cool.
34:05.536 -->
34:08.519And we've just had kids at the same time. So we ended up just hanging
34:08.536 -->
34:11.732out and managed to eat a lot of burgers
34:11.927 -->
34:15.701in that time. Yeah, you make good burgers. Let's be friends. Yeah, essentially. Yeah,
34:15.717 -->
34:17.159I think that's a good way to search out pals.
34:19.467 -->
34:23.218And then we kind of ended up creating their logo
34:23.330 -->
34:27.016kind of accidentally. We did a t-shirt design and then I think Leah was like,
34:27.353 -->
34:31.152sweet, let's use this as a logo. We're like, okay, cool.
34:32.562 -->
34:36.441So yeah, it's been great to know those guys and see how well
34:36.473 -->
34:40.176they've done over the years. And I love Byron so much. It's like
34:40.320 -->
34:43.734if anyone hasn't been there, they need to check it out because it's absolute dreams.
34:44.872 -->
34:48.691And Chelsea and Jamie, who work there and manage
34:48.756 -->
34:52.482there, they're amazing. And I kind of introduced
34:52.982 -->
34:56.158them because I knew them through city pubs and stuff. So they're total
34:56.658 -->
34:59.791babes. Yeah, I miss those guys. Yeah, they're always fun to work with. Just you
35:00.291 -->
35:02.875go there and you just feel like you're in someone's house, like having amazing food.
35:02.939 -->
35:04.959And I just love that. I'm like, yeah, feed me.
35:05.995 -->
35:09.184Awesome. So I think I know the answer to this because we've kind
35:09.684 -->
35:13.784of touched on it a bit. Biggest design trend you'd love to disappear?
35:14.109 -->
35:16.678Well, yeah, gig posters. I mean, no, sorry.
35:19.190 -->
35:22.885Yeah. So I suppose AI really. Yeah. And kind
35:23.385 -->
35:26.697of bad Canva. Bad Canva. Just bad
35:27.197 -->
35:30.129Canva. Yeah, I guess that's the name of a great book. Or a band.
35:30.564 -->
35:34.335Yeah, that's good. Yeah. We can make a whole thing of really crap designs.
35:34.416 -->
35:38.613Yeah. And then be like— the merch could just be really shit Canva.
35:39.470 -->
35:43.075That's one good story. Sneak. There you go. I'm done. I'm going to dust off
35:43.107 -->
35:46.300my guitar. One business everyone should
35:46.348 -->
35:50.058keep an eye on? Well, I was thinking
35:50.558 -->
35:54.362about this, and I'm gonna say Willow Grange
35:54.442 -->
35:57.911Farm, who I'm working with at the moment, because I have
35:58.411 -->
36:02.376recently started working with them, and they're all lovely
36:02.568 -->
36:06.069peeps, and Clara is a total babe, and there's lots of exciting
36:06.102 -->
36:09.426things happening there, and I'm really pumped for
36:09.779 -->
36:14.175what the future holds and the fact that is close to Ely is
36:14.207 -->
36:17.429again really great. So I definitely would do
36:17.929 -->
36:21.388a shout out. Yeah, it's, it's something Ely's needed, I think, for a very long
36:21.501 -->
36:24.755time. And there's been other attempts at similar businesses,
36:24.867 -->
36:27.801but they just haven't quite got it right. Yeah. And I think they're doing,
36:28.378 -->
36:32.401yeah, really cool stuff. Such a nice space. Yeah. And yeah,
36:32.882 -->
36:36.168lots of exciting things to come. So yeah, when I lived in
36:36.668 -->
36:40.260Wilburton and they were just getting set up we were there. Basically, this whole business
36:40.760 -->
36:43.800was planned in, in that cafe. We were there like 3 times a
36:44.300 -->
36:46.900week, laptops out, let's get the numbers done, all this kind of stuff. And we
36:47.400 -->
36:49.800still, well, you know, you saw me at the weekend, we still go back.
36:50.300 -->
36:53.870And that's why obviously we're hosting our small business summer party there in September.
36:54.340 -->
36:57.060Um, but yeah, I think, I think, uh,
36:58.840 -->
37:01.960where's— we had to get that in. We did. Yeah, it's essential.
37:02.460 -->
37:03.880I might have to make it a thing moving forward. It has to be in
37:04.380 -->
37:07.620every single future episode. Um, but yeah, no, I mean, Clara's great,
37:08.120 -->
37:10.213the team there is great, and like, we're really excited wanted to do some stuff
37:10.713 -->
37:13.885with it. We always wanted to do something. Yeah, yeah. So that's,
37:13.966 -->
37:18.087that's gonna be really fun too. I love it. I just, I love working with
37:18.151 -->
37:22.128like a really lovely community kind of feeling company,
37:22.160 -->
37:25.400kind of. Um, when I set up Norsto Tap and Social,
37:26.074 -->
37:29.634it was all about the community aspect for me. I just, I love that so
37:30.134 -->
37:34.317much. That's a massive core to everything that I do and
37:35.231 -->
37:38.195work Um, with. I just— it's really important. Yeah.
37:38.275 -->
37:41.015So I know we haven't really touched on that, but I mean, that was a
37:41.079 -->
37:44.123huge project for, for the area as well. And like,
37:44.524 -->
37:47.713it's still doing really well and it's still doing what it said it would do,
37:47.729 -->
37:50.196and the community still actually love that place. So that's, that's great as well.
37:50.420 -->
37:53.897Yeah, that was, that was really fun for me to kind of get my
37:54.397 -->
37:57.727teeth stuck into. And, you know, you know, to choosing the
37:58.227 -->
38:01.460toilet tiles and the grout color, I, I love all of that.
38:01.732 -->
38:04.891So it was really exciting to kind of do that. Awesome. Yeah.
38:05.942 -->
38:09.206So one book, podcast, or creator that's inspired
38:09.238 -->
38:12.389you recently? Oh God, did I write anything in my notes?
38:13.280 -->
38:15.000Oh God, I can't remember what I said.
38:16.715 -->
38:18.024Oh, did I say anything?
38:20.019 -->
38:22.175Oh no, I left it blank, James. Left it blank.
38:23.933 -->
38:27.906What's inspired me? Um, what's your
38:28.406 -->
38:31.901favorite podcast at the moment? Oh God. I listen to quite a few different ones.
38:32.753 -->
38:36.659I love Off Menu. I kind of— I went
38:37.159 -->
38:40.719to the live recording of that at
38:41.060 -->
38:42.505Royal Albert Hall, I want to say.
38:44.350 -->
38:47.287London. London. Somewhere in London. Yeah.
38:48.013 -->
38:51.240Big city. And yeah,
38:52.031 -->
38:55.717but I'm listening to the Lena Dunham Well,
38:55.733 -->
38:58.236I'm reading her book actually. I've got the, um,
38:58.765 -->
39:02.375audiobook downloaded, but, um, I keep mentioning this book all the time,
39:02.391 -->
39:05.247but I just loved Girls, the TV series.
39:05.905 -->
39:09.499And, um, so I'm listening to her book at the moment. Actually, I'm reading it.
39:10.028 -->
39:13.814Oh, I could listen to it. That's why I was— anyway,
39:14.023 -->
39:17.055yeah. Um, God. And fine, I'll let you, let you off now.
39:17.617 -->
39:21.952Um, if you weren't doing what you're doing now work-wise,
39:21.984 -->
39:24.940not sat here in front of me. Yeah. What do you think you'd be doing
39:24.972 -->
39:28.251instead? Okay. Well, I get so
39:28.283 -->
39:31.729excited about the possibilities of like endless jobs.
39:32.637 -->
39:36.609I feel like my kids are like, you're crazy, because I'll watch a
39:37.109 -->
39:39.530film, for instance, and I'll be like, you know, there was someone that made that.
39:39.755 -->
39:42.895And there was someone that they had to get to do that, that made that
39:43.395 -->
39:46.679thing, or someone did those lights. And, you know, because I'm just fascinated that
39:47.179 -->
39:50.583there's jobs for every aspect of everything. I don't know,
39:50.791 -->
39:54.574it's like everything you can see has been made by a job. It's crazy.
39:54.799 -->
39:57.267Yeah, there's some crazy jobs out there, is what I'm saying.
39:57.925 -->
40:01.804Um, but interior design is always going
40:02.304 -->
40:05.619to be something that I feel like I would have loved to have done a
40:06.119 -->
40:09.867bit more of. I was actually very close to getting through onto a
40:10.043 -->
40:13.826TV program, interior design for BBC. Um,
40:13.971 -->
40:18.090they came to my house and interviewed me, like do a test kind of thing.
40:18.299 -->
40:21.700I was down to like the last few people. And, uh, I didn't get on,
40:21.893 -->
40:25.409but, um, so that would have been comedy. That is
40:25.473 -->
40:29.182very cool though. Um, but I love, yeah, interiors and
40:29.246 -->
40:33.276stuff, and that's why I love it when I can work with a company
40:33.308 -->
40:36.567that is like starting, like with Norsto. Yeah. Um,
40:36.904 -->
40:40.164because I can have a real say of how the brand reflects. You've got that
40:40.276 -->
40:43.086control from the start. You're not coming into something that's already there and gone,
40:43.166 -->
40:46.219well, how can we fix it? It's like, right, blank canvas. Yeah. Yeah.
40:46.397 -->
40:50.266And how the brand moves through the space and is reflected in
40:50.347 -->
40:54.136the space. I think that is sometimes not thought about as
40:54.168 -->
40:58.565much either. So like, I, again, it all kind of ties together.
41:00.143 -->
41:02.783So that would probably be cool. Yeah.
41:03.347 -->
41:06.497So what's next for you? Yeah.
41:06.659 -->
41:09.328What's, what's, what's on the horizon? And also We3Club.
41:10.379 -->
41:13.777I know it said it's lying relatively dormant, but I feel there's,
41:13.858 -->
41:17.609there are things happening. There's things bubbling away. There's always things
41:17.641 -->
41:20.939bubbling away. So yeah,
41:21.551 -->
41:24.688I'm just trying to think. So for me, I'm— yeah,
41:24.849 -->
41:27.472I'm just happy kind of bumbling along.
41:30.168 -->
41:34.228I've got lots of lovely clients that I'm working for at the moment
41:34.357 -->
41:38.191and just— it's— I love how organic it is. You know, I'll get
41:38.256 -->
41:41.971someone coming over, you know, I need this website and I
41:42.181 -->
41:45.655want to tweak this kind of branding or I want some
41:46.155 -->
41:49.411content for this and I recently did a bunch of
41:49.911 -->
41:52.469content for Wood Street Coffee, which has been really great.
41:53.930 -->
41:58.437They're total babes, actually. And so yeah,
41:58.519 -->
42:01.124there's lots of fun things kind of happening regularly.
42:02.802 -->
42:06.015We3 Club, again, we're about to start Record Store
42:06.515 -->
42:09.889Day. It starts quite early, getting it ready for
42:10.389 -->
42:13.577the next year. And we just
42:14.077 -->
42:17.900did, which is quite cool, which actually you might
42:18.400 -->
42:21.940appreciate Dunlop, the guitar company. Yeah. Um, they are working with Jimi
42:21.956 -->
42:25.664Hendrix Foundation, and we just designed a bunch of guitar
42:26.164 -->
42:29.646straps for Jimi Hendrix Foundation. That's amazing. Um, which is
42:29.678 -->
42:33.852pretty cool. So yeah, Chris was like, this is blowing
42:33.917 -->
42:37.850my mind. Yeah. Um, so that's— I can't
42:38.350 -->
42:42.249wait to see them made and put out there. So that's an exclusive.
42:43.227 -->
42:46.899Um, so that's gonna be really cool.
42:47.012 -->
42:50.074So yeah, there's always lots of crazy things happening. We've got, um,
42:50.860 -->
42:54.372I didn't really bring this up earlier, but we do a bunch of stuff with
42:54.872 -->
42:59.006festivals, predominantly Green Man Festival every year. So every
42:59.022 -->
43:02.726year, so off the back of the gig poster situation,
43:03.672 -->
43:07.328situation, we, uh, started the UK Poster Association,
43:07.520 -->
43:11.066which is a kind of umbrella to support UK gig poster artists,
43:11.291 -->
43:15.243and we've made a little family of nerds that every year we
43:15.743 -->
43:19.887go to Green Man Festival and we have a stall there that
43:20.387 -->
43:24.562showcases 4 different artists' kind of gig posters that we've done. And then we ask
43:25.062 -->
43:29.222various bands that are playing the festival if we can do a commemorative poster
43:29.784 -->
43:33.270showcasing that they've played this festival. So we've done
43:34.202 -->
43:38.314those. I mean, this year we're doing Wilco So
43:38.378 -->
43:42.184yeah, we just kind of approach the band straight,
43:42.312 -->
43:45.764like their management or, you know, or whatever. And then we
43:46.264 -->
43:49.634say, look, we just want to do this thing. We don't make any money from
43:49.682 -->
43:53.150it. We literally just print them and get the money back from the print.
43:53.472 -->
43:57.181Like, you know, we don't— it's not a money-making thing. We just love doing it.
43:57.309 -->
44:01.741Yeah. And then we do the official Green Man poster.
44:02.126 -->
44:05.508With all the other artists each year, and it's just really great. So we're
44:06.008 -->
44:09.243at Green Man Festival every year. So if anyone's there, pop by, come and say
44:09.259 -->
44:12.545hello. Say hello. My kids have been going since they were like
44:13.045 -->
44:16.9532, so they're pretty much primed, ready to run the stall. But the
44:17.453 -->
44:21.041problem is people that come to the stall want to talk to the nerds about
44:21.057 -->
44:24.760gig posters because there's a lot of— there's a lot
44:25.260 -->
44:28.382of intense chats that go on.
44:28.430 -->
44:31.961And like, if you You get a 14-year-old girl, you're like, this is not— this
44:32.461 -->
44:36.215is not— well, not their bag. No, I wanted some really
44:36.715 -->
44:39.907solid nerding. But yeah, so I can't
44:40.407 -->
44:43.262really remember how I got to this point talking what you asked. Things that are
44:43.762 -->
44:47.115coming up. Okay. But yeah,
44:47.532 -->
44:50.438that's coming up. That's coming up. Cool.
44:51.144 -->
44:53.552We could do a wow out. We could do better than that. We could do
44:53.632 -->
44:57.017an applause. Goes on
44:57.517 -->
45:00.666far too long. Perfect. So for anyone who doesn't
45:00.715 -->
45:04.229already follow you on all your social media, where can you
45:04.245 -->
45:08.661be found? So We Three Club is
45:08.935 -->
45:12.093on Instagram. We don't actually post that much, but you can have
45:12.593 -->
45:15.960a little look, have a dive into that. And then my
45:16.655 -->
45:20.257personal one is Hello Alex White. Yes.
45:20.693 -->
45:22.890Yeah. Yes. Should know.
45:25.378 -->
45:28.650On Instagram. And so yeah,
45:29.150 -->
45:32.810have a little Hello Dot Alex White. That's the all-important
45:33.310 -->
45:36.530dot. That's really bad, isn't it? But you need to find Hello Alex White
45:37.030 -->
45:41.110and have a word. I know, exactly. Ridiculous. We will
45:41.610 -->
45:45.630link it all through. Well, thank you so much for coming in. Really appreciate it.
45:46.130 -->
45:49.010I'm going to go and dust off a load of old music and pretend I'm
45:49.510 -->
45:52.930still 19. Oh mate, it was so good to
45:53.430 -->
45:56.090chat. Yeah, dressed as a cowboy. Yeah. Thank you very much. And thanks, dude.
45:56.590 -->
45:58.503Yeah. You later.