Building a Brand Around Purpose and Simplicity with Oliver Murphy

Chris Whyte (: 00:06

Hello and welcome to the Design Journeys podcast. I'm your host, Chris Whyte And in this podcast series, we explore the career journeys of design and engineering leaders from the world of physical product development. In today's episode, I'm joined by Oliver Murphy, founder of SLOWE Living, a brand that embraces sustainable minimalist furniture design. Oliver's path from industrial design at Loughborough University to freelancing in branding and ultimately founding his own company is inspiring.

We'll discuss the influence of Japanese and Scandinavian aesthetics, the leap from freelance work to building a brand and how SLOWE living's ethos of purposeful crafted design took shape during the pandemic.

If you're interested in learning how creative vision and sustainable values can drive a successful business, stay tuned because this conversation is for you.

Chris Whyte (: 00:55

Oliver, welcome to the podcast.

Olly (: 00:57

Thank you, Chris. Good to be here.

Chris Whyte (: 00:59

Good to have you. to have you. Oliver Murphy, you are the designer and founder at SLOWE Living, fledgling furniture business. You've got a fantastic career in freelance design and consultancy before that and started your kind of design journey, I suppose, at Loughborough Uni. So, yeah.

rather than me ramble through and cherry pick out kind of bits from your LinkedIn profile. Why don't we kind of, yeah, if you can introduce yourself and maybe then we'll go back to where it all started.

Olly (: 01:31

Yeah, sure. So my name is Ollie or Oliver Murphy. I currently am doing a founder of design furniture design business called SLOWE living. And that sort of started in the pandemic by accident, really, you know, without chopping around and sort of cutting backwards and forwards through time. I studied industrial design at Loughborough, like you said.

and my career sort of moved away from graphic design, from industrial design into graphic design, and then has sort of come back to product or industrial design, more specifically furniture design since. you know, in the top level kind of look at it, it's kind of flipped on its head a bit. So, yes, I did A level

DT absolutely loved that school and I remember being connected to kind of design and just thinking, this is really cool. Like you get to look at buildings and draw stuff and make things in the workshop. I just thought, yeah. My school was quite good at sort of design as a significant thing. I think probably beyond that, was like not every school was, even design as a subject wasn't always kind of, it was a bit poo pooed sometimes and not serious.

Gratefully, that's definitely not the case anymore. it's called Bradfield College in Reading. And they're just very encouraging around leading into design. So then I got a place at Loughborough. Originally, was just looking at all different universities. And Loughborough seemed to be sort of just this one that had a real kind

Chris Whyte (: 02:57

Which school did you go to?

cool.

Olly (: 03:19

product industrial design focus, which at first was a little bit intimidated by because, you know, I was, there was just a lot of different categories to learn within that, know, everything from CAD to, to being in the workshop and learning on milling machines to sketching properly. It was just a real kind of like roller coaster of learning in one, what, in four years and had a placement within that, within that period down in London. And

the yeah I mean I've never worked so hard in my life well maybe more recently now on the brand but yeah it was a really intense learning curve but actually gave me and I'm sure other people listening that did go to Loughborough would attest to that it is it kind of really gives you a solid foundation and at the time you're like my god this is terrifying and intimidating and am I going to get through this and but you come out the other end you think I've really got some great

great skills off the back of that, which I've used both in kind running a business and also, you know, obviously designing products and not just products, but brands and graphic design for clients like post uni. So yeah, think I think that was that was definitely the making of like my design journey as it were. And gave me the confidence to kind of go, you know, actually, I've got some good skills, so I can use these and

Chris Whyte (: 04:32

Yeah.

Olly (: 04:38

But so the placement year I worked with a lovely little company down in the Oxford Tower, like this is my third year at uni, they were called Whitbread and Wilkinson and they sort of, they called it applied art, which is like, so they take licenses from people like the National Gallery, Eames office in California, Pantone, Disney, and that was a real kind of fun year, which was very different to Loughborough in a sense that was very sort of technical and

Chris Whyte (: 04:47

Okay.

Olly (: 05:05

pad based and surface modeling and all that. it was that that year particularly was very graphic led and actually a little bit close to where my interests were, which was in kind of, I suppose, design history and her like culture and product. So they would apply the licenses of the design onto onto sort of white labeled goods or their own design goods. And part of that, my most memorable experience from that was designing something for Disney, which was

they have this sort of archive set of artworks from a ride in from the theme parks called It's a Small World, which I'm sure everyone will know and the theme will come into their head. But we got to sort of apply that to kind of what we call there like a stacking children's meal set. So for there'd be a cup upside down for the body and then on top of that sat the bowl, which was the head and then top of the bowl was a plate.

And you can Google it and it'll come up. it is we had great fun designing that and there's a different different character for like eight countries of the world and and that was just a really fun project to kind of just own and be part of and just yeah again gave me confidence in a kind of real life setting of designing something but then again, you know, very simple product design, but it was it's kind of where I found I think my my my confidence zone or my kind of place which is this sort of simple

simple, less is more kind of approach. And I've always been inspired by the, you know, these periods of design, like Bauhaus and the Eames, you know, and, know, just just anything from the 20th century, really, right up into kind of the 80s and, and, and, know, the Conrad era and stuff like that. So I was was kind of always that was my kind of design language, quote unquote. And

Chris Whyte (: 06:41

Yeah.

Olly (: 06:59

I sometimes found that hard to bring into the course at Loughborough, but I think that placement really helped me kind of express that and get a kind of confidence in, I'm this kind of designer as opposed to designing vacuum cleaners or Hoovers or anything like that.

Chris Whyte (: 07:18

I it's so difficult, isn't it, when you're kind of, what, 17, 18, kind of thinking about life and where it's going, because no one really knows at that stage. And I don't know if it's the same with Loughborough then as it is now. But I mean, you go to the degree shows and there's so many different variations on the courses. I imagine that the choices were a little bit more limited when you were picking. But where do you start?

Olly (: 07:23

Yeah.

No, no, no.

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 07:45

And as you know, you've kind of gone into this industrial design and product design, but it's only when you're kind of three quarters of the way through the course that you recognize that actually I want to focus in that kind of niche or that area of design.

Olly (: 07:48

Mm.

Yeah, no, it's a good question. think looking back when I was in that period, I would have thought, my god, there's no, I have to do what the course is telling me to do. And that's what design is. What I'd say to my younger self or someone in it now would be like, you know, keep pushing to kind of try and bring your voice in if you like something and you're into that design, try and bring that into what you know, the course is teaching you. Because I think

same goes for anything in life. It's like the more you can just put your own flavor and be creative and be your own person within your lane within that category or that field. It might seem like you're going against or the status quo of what the course or the the university is trying to mold you in and that's for good reason because they're trying to, you know, create the best designer out of you in that three, four year period. you know, doesn't mean that you just because you're not great at CAD or you're not great at, you know,

conceptualizing, everyone's got a weakness somewhere. It doesn't mean that can't bring in your own kind of influences and flavor and just being open to kind of curious around like design or whatever inspires you and trying to bring that into your work. think that's the thing. I mean, if I look at CVs now, not that I do massively, but you know, when I'm looking for a bit of design support or somebody to help me on a project, whether it's graphic design or with SLOWE living on the furniture side.

immediately just drawn to things where you're like, you know, that person has injected their own personality into this, I can get I can get who they are, you know. So I think, yeah, I would just encourage my younger self to kind of just trust that process a bit more and just like, you know, just because it wasn't a conventional interest. Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 09:38

Can you an example of where, on the CV or portfolio in particular, where something's really grabbed your attention recently?

Olly (: 09:51

Well, actually, I've been looking for some part time support on so have a part time assistant Amanda who shout out to Amanda. She's she's amazing. And she's on graphic design stuff. And then I've been looking for more kind of support on the sales side a little bit. I'll take I'll take sort of Amanda's CV, for example, it just out of I don't know how many received, you know, probably 100 applications or something probably more.

you know, I was, it's quite hard to skim through lots of different things and, and just immediately she'd put effort into the design. You know, literally, I don't always read what's on the CV. I just get an immediate feeling just to filter things down and, and I tell that there was a bit of character there. And then I tried to jump on the call and you just get a connection. And that's when I kind of go, okay, what's this person really about? What is their skill set and where, where, where are the gaps and what are the strengths, whatever.

So I don't know that's a conventional way of doing it. That's the way I've found getting kind of through to stuff is just to like, get a sense of the person and what's on there and then sort of maybe work backwards a little bit into.

Chris Whyte (: 10:48

Well, I think.

Yeah, massively. think when especially when you're a small business and you're to be working very closely with this person, it's first and foremost is do you click? Can you can you see yourself working together? And I think as human beings, we tend to get a good sense of that very quickly within a conversation, whether it's flowing nicely and there's rapport building. And then you can go through and actually tick off whether or not this person can do a job for you.

Olly (: 11:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 11:27

And then it's assessing kind of what, if there are gaps, what can be, what's trainable and what's not. But if if the human connection is not there and the attitude isn't there, it makes everything else a lot harder. So it's not always practical and say it's a very technical role, you know, maybe you want to be screening harder on some of the technical keywords. For instance, if you've got a hundred applicants, you need to whittle it down and then, then flick it back to the personality.

Olly (: 11:39

100 % yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 11:57

kind of when you're assessing those candidates. for that, that one. Yeah.

Olly (: 11:57

Yeah. No, yeah, definitely. Such a small scale for me. It's like, think a lot of it can be, it's not incredibly technical stuff that I'm looking for. It's just like someone that really kind of buys into the concepts and the brand that I'm trying to get out into the world and someone that kind of wants to, you know, grow their portfolio with like nice work and that embellishes what I'm doing, but also really takes their portfolio into a direction that they want to go as well. So yeah, I think, yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 12:08

Mm.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Massively, yeah. you finish, you go back to university, you find over a year having had this epiphany that it's really graphics you're interested in and not as a really physical product. But what was the first kind of job you had after university then? Where did you end up?

Olly (: 12:29

Hmm.

Yeah

So I went back to Whitbury Wilkinson for another year and long story short was made redundant from that. And then I joined another company in the Oxford Tower called Black & Bloom with the founder, Dan Black, and had a real opportunity there to kind of pivot into sort of this...

Chris Whyte (: 13:00

Yes.

Olly (: 13:09

this thing called branding that I was like, I like this, I can kind of do it, I feel a little less kind of responsibility is the wrong word. But with product design, know, that, know, something goes wrong, there's a of pressure attached to that, you know, like tooling goes wrong, or, you know, the design doesn't work. And it's just, it's a very, it's a little much longer drawn out process. And simultaneously, to this, was kind of looking at how I could

potentially create a skill set that I could go freelance with and start my own business. And I just, I was just drawn to branding. just good at it and, or better than at it than, than product, should I say? and, and Dan, I think, you know, saw that I'd left with Wilkinson. It's like, we've got these four brands that we want to kind of, elevate and communicate, better. And I brought me into sort of build websites, create brand identity.

art direction around these four different subcategory brands that Black & Bloom was developing. So that really helped me build a portfolio and, and get a lot closer to, to a good friend called Rich Donaldson, who I worked with there, who was lead product designer, and just, guess, we got on really well. And just seeing how he approached work and design and

manufacturing and he was developing his own range within there, which I was branding. So it was a really nice collaboration of like working directly with the lead designer, the founder, and a small business and thinking, I like this, I like this scale of business, you know, where there's freedom and there's flexibility and there's autonomy and you're trusted to do stuff. And that that was like, yeah, I kind of, I'm happy at this level, you know, and, you know, I've never really been drawn into corporate stuff. Although

Chris Whyte (: 14:44

Yeah.

Olly (: 14:53

following that when I started branding, I did go into agencies and stuff. And it wasn't for me. But I think where people are creating things and product and it's just, you know, all the while, I think at that early stage of your career, you're just figuring out who am I? What am I? What am I into? What is it okay to like? Why should I be liking this? Because the industry is going that way. you know, and I just think, no, no, you just trust your gut and go into the

area you would like and if that's not necessarily the one that's got all the awards or has got, you know, the massive turnover and the revenue, you know, but if you looked after and you're doing good stuff every day and you then I think to me that's a more a success signal than, you know, all the sort of accolades and, and, know, awards that the industries can be a bit too focused on in my opinion. but I think just being, being happy, you yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 15:41

It's all subjective and yeah, that. Yeah, awards and achievements. Actually, it's all personal to the individual, isn't it? So you just got to find joy in whatever you're doing. Can I just say I'm going to attempt something. This is the first time I've tried this on the podcast, but I'm just I've got your LinkedIn profile on the side screen kind of while we're chatting and I've found you've got a great example on your LinkedIn profile.

Olly (: 15:51

Yeah, completely. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 16:09

that I'm going to try and share my screen and hopefully create a nice little snippet for people. so this could go terribly wrong, but I'm going to click this and there we go. I don't know if it's going to come up on your screen, but cool. Right. This is real time action. your prophet, you were talking about the work you were doing at W2 at Whitbread Wilkinson. And then I've just

Olly (: 16:12

Yeah.

Let's give it a go.

Yeah, I can see that.

You

Yeah, we're going to work with the WCA.

Chris Whyte (: 16:36

seeing that you've embedded the pictures onto your profile. So these are really cool. I really like this and yeah, that's great fun. So for the context, anyone watching this, you can see kind of some of the work, but also it's a great use of a LinkedIn profile. Like if you're thinking about kind of your career as an individual, whether it's graphic design or product design, you you've got the ability here to embed images and websites and stuff within the body of the

Olly (: 16:40

That's it, yeah, that's the Disney meal sets, yeah. Yeah, they're great, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 17:06

have you experienced that? So, definitely if, you're thinking about, your next step and you've got some sort of work you can show off if it's in the public domain, like this is clearly a marketing photo, isn't it? So that's, that's, that's good to go. As long you put the context of what you've worked on, you know, it's like with the CV that you mentioned, you know, these are the little things I let them make it stand out. if, if you've got recruiters like me or

Olly (: 17:19

Yeah.

Yeah.

work in such a visual field. I think like it's, as designers, I don't speak for myself, but like, it's, we're just drawn to things visual. And then you're like, okay, what's that? And then and then look into kind of what they how that came about, or what involvement they had, I think. Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 17:36

Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah, it's great. So yeah, hopefully that's actually useful for people. But I just want to dig into something then. you mentioned that you moved on from Whitbread and Wilkinson, you joined Black and Blum, but you had one eye on how do I build up a portfolio that I might then use as freelance. So even at that early stage in your career, you were thinking about self-employment and going alone.

Olly (: 18:14

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 18:15

Where did that kind of come from?

Olly (: 18:18

Good question. I don't really know. I think I had a lot of besides work, I had a lot of other things that I wanted to sort of fulfill in, my life or early career around that time. part of that was to live in these areas, countries that were really inspired to me from from design and still are the first one being Japan. And I knew that

it would be quite difficult to get a job out there. So why not create a job where I can work remotely and travel and sort of base myself there. And that's what I did. Sort of my late 20s. I guess the reason for that in Japan just I mean, you know, not alone in the design world to just the significance it has on as a country and its culture and

Chris Whyte (: 18:50

Awesome.

Yeah.

Olly (: 19:07

design on on on my own influence that I have. And I think, you know, that probably read its head at a younger age from things like Nintendo and Pokemon and all these just kind of things that were just very visual and fun and design orientated and that later led on to kind of architecture, clothing, manufacturing, technology, you know, anime, just just just absolute

Chris Whyte (: 19:17

Yeah.

Olly (: 19:37

mecca for visual art and design. And I thought I've got to get to this place. know, why is it so why is the output of just cool stuff just so high and such a good quality. And also the philosophy around Japan as a history and its and its approach to work and processes and and just outlook and philosophies in life really, we just look so really interesting at the same time. So it's like, I've got to get out there. And that was almost kind of

Chris Whyte (: 19:39

Fascinating isn't it?

Olly (: 20:06

I treated that as a bit of a career step. It's like the promotion in a way. Like I think if I can get that experience, I don't know now, but I'll know that in the future it will benefit me tenfold because I've made that leap and I've done that and I can sort of start to see how now. So I went one the first time, which was a bit more of a kind of

bit aimless in the sense of I went out there and had my laptop and I was working for clients remotely from UK and had a client in Australia at the time doing graphic design and sort of websites branding. then I was sort of just just kind of traveling around and doing that. And there was a loose idea of to kind of get connections and build a network there. I think I was just too enjoying

much enjoying the process just traveling around Japan at that stage. And as I was due to fly home, had a really like a friend of mine who I met and was we're still really good friends. You San. He he put me in touch with another guy called at sushi San, who worked for a company called Bay Cruise, which were a massive, it's quite hard to kind of compare them to anything a business like them in the UK, but essentially a big corporation, which you know, you go retail corporation for food and

fashion and interiors. And their job or at sushi sounds job was to come to the UK, Paris, New York, travel the world to find cool retail concepts. He was in fashion, but it moved to food and hospitality, you know, and to bring those concepts to Japan and and bakeries would sort of set them up into retail spots around Tokyo and Japan. So he likes my portfolio and he was keen to chat and he used to live in

London. so we've gotten really well. And at that point, I my flight book time. It's like, you know, crisis should be out here trying to kind of develop this. Anyway, so I went home to UK and I spent the next year just thinking, I need to be back out there trying to grow this thing that I don't know what it is, but I just feel good about this and want to kind of lean into it. Because, you know, it just felt kind of like something I had to do. And

Then I went back out and I was there for about eight months or something in total and built up a sort of network around that area. Long story short, it was kind of, it was time to come home and I realised you kind of, you've got to commit a lot of time there to really make that work. But fast forward now to SLOWE living, which I guess we'll talk about in a bit, it's coming back into its, it's kind of...

it's becoming useful again. like, there's that network is kind of, I can re tap into that. And it's becoming a kind of talking point around my approach, what I'm inspired by, it kind of helps the brand story. And it's just just my story, as opposed to kind of something, you know, that was created in a sort of strategy meeting, anything like that. So I wanted to just tell like, my inspiration of Japan and, and that period and like,

Chris Whyte (: 23:10

Yeah.

Olly (: 23:19

and what it a bit of a bit of a dream for the brand would be to have a pop up or a kind of some exposure and presence in Tokyo and Japan. And so working on that. But that's a long, long goal.

Chris Whyte (: 23:33

Did you, so before you went out to Japan, did you know anyone out there or was it just go and find your way?

Olly (: 23:39

No, no, booked a flight. did go with a friend, Ben. and he, he was a chef. we've, we've known him for a long time since school and we bonded a lot over all the things I mentioned before. And he, he's him in particular from his chef background. I really wanted to go there and kind of get under the skin of Japanese cooking and just, you know, see the processes of knife making and the hit. We're both interested in the history of the place. and yeah, it was just an amazing.

amazing experience. That's, you know, definitely left a bit of myself there and bought a bit of Japan back if you know if that's the cliche, it's true. And then then, you know, so so simultaneously to all of this, I'm working for a mixture of agencies, private clients, small and large, anything from law firms to to freight forwarding.

It was a very, very generalist mix, which at the time, you know, I very happy with because, you know, was kind of, you know, supporting living to travel and to do the things I wanted to do, but it wasn't necessarily, they were slightly disconnected. I was like, what I was doing, what I was trying to do and achieve with these kind of trips was, wasn't really connected to the, to the work I was doing. And that was sort of before COVID was, was becoming a bit jarring in the sense like, I'm I'm not in the direction that I want to go.

sort of. So it, and I knew that I wanted to bring them closer together, I either work that I was doing was connected to mortar with the kind of things that I was trying to push outside of work, work more with Japan work more with kind of furniture and product design. And, and that that that that shift took quite a long time post COVID to really kind of make the transition. It wasn't just like ripping a plaster off and going, I'm a furniture maker now or whatever it was, it took a bit of

you know, mental understanding and confidence to go, you know, is this the right move? You know, had had, you know, quite a, you know, good run at freelance, but COVID and a couple of things changed that. But yeah, I'll come on to that, I guess, in a second. But I think

Chris Whyte (: 25:49

Yeah, it sounds like earlier on in your career, you're quite adventurous, willing to take a risk and a gamble and see where things go. And I think that's a great attitude. And the networking element of that, mean, clearly going out to a foreign country on almost on your own, obviously with a friend, you're both doing different careers. You've got to make your own kind of networks there and find business. That's so character building, I think.

Olly (: 25:58

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 26:17

I imagine you're still benefiting from some of the connections you've made kind of while you're out there. Yeah.

Olly (: 26:20

100 % Yeah, yeah, I think I, yeah, it was a bit of a gamble. And I think people got why I was going. But then there was a kind of like, what's this for? Like, you know, but I knew that I knew I had to do it. And I knew that it was something I wanted to kind of, I knew that the benefit wouldn't be immediate. And that to kind of create connections there. Now, you know, I can go to Japan.

I've got a friend to stay with and I've got people there can put, if friends go, I can put them in touch with people and that in itself is, I just love having a kind of connection to this culture. And yeah, just, it it massively inspired the work that I did and made it kind of worthwhile and just interesting. And then I kind of, so did Tokyo and then just before the pandemic happened, I was living in Copenhagen for a year, which another kind of place.

Chris Whyte (: 27:01

Yeah.

Olly (: 27:11

specifically for furniture and interior and architecture was somewhere that I was always drawn to as well. it's like, okay, so I've done Tokyo, like I really want to see what Copenhagen's like. I did the same thing. kind of found that I had a break up and I thought, okay, well, now or never. Obviously didn't see the pandemic coming down the road, but I got a good year out of it. And the...

Chris Whyte (: 27:22

Yeah.

Yeah.

Olly (: 27:41

Yeah, I just went on to Facebook marketplace, looked for spare rooms, found a found a guy. And then it's like, Yeah, we've got a space next. We've got a space, nice looking apartment, whatever. And that looked fine. We had a call on the phone. And then I think the week later was there. And I stayed there for a year.

Chris Whyte (: 27:58

wow. So, so your kind of sense for adventure hadn't really waned up into that point. I guess, yeah, going through a breakup, I did the same thing. I broke up with my fiance years ago. And then it's like, you don't know what to do with yourself. So I ended up going to visit my friend in Thailand for for a week, like last minute, never flown anywhere outside of Europe before. And I just thought,

Olly (: 28:02

yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, It feels liberating to just kind of put just to do something like that and go and get out the root. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 28:26

it's kind of an adventure and just kind of just forget about life and stuff have something completely different but so fast forward then obviously covid hit and you touched on something earlier also we'll talk about SLOWE living because part of this but you know i get the sense that that sense of adventure or risk taking may have been dampened slightly or kind of by by the pandemic as

Do you recognise, did anything change really in terms of that? Did it take you longer to think about kind of jumping into something very different with SLOWE living or?

Olly (: 29:04

Yeah, no, that's good question. I think the answer is yes. think the pandemic changed a lot for a lot of people. From my perspective, I think it is weird because I kind of before the pandemic, I was had a kind of bit of a stressful year, even if I was in Copenhagen, the work that I was doing, I just wasn't connecting to. And it's like, you know, I don't want I kind of

to be working more in the industries that I'm interested in and connected to and kind of really can pour my love into it and show up to that work better. And you know as a freelancer you sometimes have to just it's part and parcel of taking work you know.

isn't always speaks to you, but you know, pays the bills and, that's completely part of it. And there's there's just part of me that's like, I kind of want to do what I'm doing and move that into kind of industries that I was I was into. But at the same time, I could really do with a little bit of a just a pause. then the pandemic happened. And it was a bit of a, it was a big pause, which which I lost a lot of clients, a lot of work, lot of businesses is working for kind of either no longer resist or just had to really cut back and

So that was a bit of a shock and I had to adapt. But what it did mean is I had a lot of time on my hands and I kind of thought I'm just going to pause this sort of brand thing for a minute. I had a couple of projects that I wasn't enjoying. What's the next step? I was 30 at this point and then...

remembering Copenhagen walking around the Design Museum, Furniture Design Museum, and they had this small exhibition on which was like all different furniture makers that designed a chair or something. just thought, that would be cool to just have a product that was like, you know, in this, not necessarily in a design museum, but just have realised a product that you've made and someone's kind of gone, I like that, or I want to buy it or I'm into that sort of thing. And I thought, you know, I'd like to get back to this

product design thing a bit more and realize actually

the move to graphic design and branding served a purpose for that period of my life post uni and you know, travel and all that. But you know, where I was at that time is thinking I want to work my hands again. And when I lost these clients, I reached out to a friend, really good friend of mine, and very, talented furniture designer, Ed Collinson, Edward Collinson, which I did his website for a beautiful furniture. And I kind of just said, Look, I've got some spare time on my hands. He's his workshop was in Tottenham.

can I come and just re refresh my design workshop skills, put me on anything, sanding, I don't care. I just want to be in a workshop. I want to be kind of working with my hands again. So I was going there sort of a couple of days a week. So at this point I was back at my parents because the pandemic happened and it just so happened that I was back in the UK and there was lockdown and didn't end up going back to Copenhagen. So I was driving from my parents to Tottenham.

and then working with Ed and I was thinking, yeah, I'm really into this. like this. kind of want to somehow bring this back, know, merge the two. So then that was a bit more confusing because it's like, well, how can you do branding and products? So anyway, very long story short, I was thinking I was, was moving into an apartment with my new girlfriend and we were looking for a sofa and a particular sofa bed and I just couldn't find

anything that I liked or was prepared to spend the sort of money on that I didn't want to. I like kind of over time treating myself to nice design pieces that I'll know I'll have forever and because that's my passion and that's what I like and you know I think it's nice to have those things because I really appreciate the designers have created them and it's you know I guess what kind of

Chris Whyte (: 34:32

Mm.

Olly (: 34:48

I love. But I couldn't find like the sofa bed that was like the thing that was well designed, well made, responsibly made, comfortable, looked cool, that you wanted in your living room or, know, that kind of felt like

Chris Whyte (: 35:01

Mm.

Olly (: 35:03

you know, if Vitra did a, yeah, just, I couldn't find any of this. like, I'll this. I'm I'm going to try and make this because this is my, this is my time. This is my moment. And yeah, I, I, you know, with, with the, with Ed's help, I, well, on Illustrator, I, you know, sort of forgotten how to use CAD by this point. I went on to Illustrator and just sort of sketched out this sofa and

Chris Whyte (: 35:06

Didn't fit, it? Yeah.

Olly (: 35:30

being kind of, again, coming back to the sort of the Disney products, I was quite limited in terms of this less is more approach. But that's not because I'm, you know, purist about that concept. It's just like, I'm not a great kind of 3D modeler. So I can do it. So all the only thing I do is really work with kind of 2D flat surfaces. So I that's plywood. And I think plywood appears a lot in the design I like. So I'm going to make this plywood safer, you know.

And I got a friend of mine who, his parents run a farm and they have a workshop. So I like, I rung him up and I said, if I sent some plans and got some sheets of plywood, this is mid pandemic, by the way, sent to you, could you cut them out? And he's like, yeah, I'll do that. And he brought them around and I gave him a keg of beer or something for the privilege.

I just screwed it together thinking, this could easily fall over the first time I've ever made it. and I found a, an upholsterer who we're still using Emma again on Facebook marketplace. It's going to be a theme here and you can find anything on there. And then, and then she, she, she made the cushions to fit and put it together. And I was like, my God, this is kind of cool. I'm really happy with this. Didn't fall over.

Chris Whyte (: 36:37

Yeah.

Olly (: 36:47

In fact, was rock solid. And as you do, put it up on Instagram. And people are this is nice. Like, really into this. Got a bit of attention. And, you know, this is over a slightly longer period of time, but people were starting to go, can you make me one of those sofas? And so I did sort of five or six for friends all the while kind of at just at cost to kind of improve the design and get it to a place where I was like,

Chris Whyte (: 36:48

start yeah

Olly (: 37:13

if I'm going to sell this like, well, at that point, I wasn't really thinking about selling, doing it. was just like, I quite enjoy getting into the workshop and making this these things on the on the side, know, it's quite a struggle to kind of get the freelancing going up again. And yeah, just selling the prototypes and and, and improving the material, the production, the finish. And it wasn't probably until about so for bed number

Chris Whyte (: 37:28

You're selling the prototypes of me.

Olly (: 37:42

eight or so that I kind of, and I found a partner workshop manufacturer down in Cornwall that I was like, I can actually, I'm confident in selling these now. This is a really good product I'm proud of. It's comfortable, it works, it's, you know, it's all flat pack. So you can get through like, you know, different doorways and hallways and all of that. And

I thought, I do not this, I'm just, I just have this on the side as a kind of side project thing. But I just, I thought I'm going to build a brand around this. want I'm going to the branding that the branding projects I wasn't getting it through my personal work, I thought, I'm just going to write the brief I'd love to have that was inspired by Japan inspired by, you know, these these movements, Denmark, Danish history, also the music and kind of interest I'm in have through, I guess,

subcultures and where people have done things for themselves and followed that sort of intuition. So whether that's like, you know, the designers or it's like how skateboarding started, you know, in LA or artists or sculptors or just just interesting people that have kind of done things for the you know, just just followed their heart and done it. And then that's what we now look back on and think, you these people were so cool because they they

they made music and they created and I've just always been fascinated by those people. So I thought, this brand which is pulling in references from all these different places that are just things I liked from album covers, record covers to sort of Japanese construction and the Bauhaus 20th century design. I just thought, and it ended up and at the time we were in the pandemic and I just, I think everyone, well, not everybody, of course, but there was a sense of like,

Chris Whyte (: 39:17

Yeah.

Olly (: 39:28

life has just sort of slowed down a bit and we've kind of got this moment to pause and reconsider. Certainly for me and I'm sure other people. so I just I kind of, you know, SLOWE living came about and I thought, well, that works quite nicely because, you know, we're all we're all working hard and we get this kind of, you know,

persistence of progress all the time. And I think actually there's we've lost lost so this connection with taking time to rest and just be comfortable in ourselves and be us, you know, be be be at peace with just being still for a little while. And I know I have that issue because I'm, you know, you know, the irony of it is I work, work more now, but I'm doing something I love. But I have to remind myself, I've got a sticker on my computer that says work less. But

And I did the whole concept is sort of started to make sense like sofa bed, comfort, rest, take it easy, you know, and it just sort of happened organically wasn't like I went and found a gap in the market or anything. And then I was like, you know, again, again, I'm fast forwarding a bit, but I got to a point where it's like, I'm enjoying this more than the than the design, the freelance stuff. And simultaneously, I guess.

that workload was going down and becoming challenging to find for various reasons. but the sofa bed was like, you know, when you're taking a product to market, which is a brand new thing, because I've been, I've been used to selling services as such, but not manufacturing and taking the product to market is a whole different kettle of fish. felt a little bit like, you know, this is, this is, this is a new ballgame. So it took a bit of time to sort of really get the confidence to just lead into it full time. You know, visually I had the presence of the brand and the

Chris Whyte (: 40:57

yeah.

Olly (: 41:09

the e-commerce site. But that's required me to learn a whole different discipline and practice of marketing and e-commerce and manufacturing and distribution, which has been overwhelming at times. I feel like kind of only recently, I've, I've got to this place where I feel like, wow, like, if I look back at where I've come, and what I've learned, feel like I'm at this base level now, I'm quite, and I'm confident, but just like, just

Chris Whyte (: 41:25

about you.

Olly (: 41:39

Yeah, I feel I feel much more kind of at ease with the challenges I've got, whereas before it's like, my god, this task of creating a product and bringing it to market is massively intimidating and making that switch and leap into into a completely different business model. Just took time to kind of get to and get into the mindset and now there with the support of, you know, family and friends and my girlfriend that just saw the kind of the real

Chris Whyte (: 41:50

Hmm.

Olly (: 42:08

that there was for it. So yeah, mean, yeah, romanticizing it. It's just been kind of really, yeah, I absolutely love, love the design, like creating it and art directing and creating the content for it and just talking about it. It's, yeah, I'm really, really, really proud of it. And yeah, it's just been a, it's been a fun journey. Sometimes quite isolating, I'll say with, with, with, know, design, having your own business.

Chris Whyte (: 42:11

It's great.

Yeah.

You should be, yeah.

Olly (: 42:36

whatever business you're in and just making sure that, you know, I've got support and friends around me. And something I've done quite recently as well is bring all the founders I know, like product founders together in a kind of WhatsApp group, which is open by the way. And you know, you're interested in your listening and you want to, you know, you've got a business that you're running that's, you know, loosely under the product category. You know, we've got people in there that are sort of doing mindfulness.

Chris Whyte (: 42:52

That's cool.

Olly (: 43:05

workshops right up to furniture, eyewear, and clothing, and even even property as well. Just a place that we can meet every week and check in, share the losses and the wins and the challenges and resources, and then a lunch every once a month or something. part of that is to kind of, I'd like to grow that a bit. And that's really brought a sense of kind of community and

Chris Whyte (: 43:09

That's awesome.

Hmm.

That's awesome.

Olly (: 43:33

even though I hire anyone or have full staff or a team or anything, it feels as though I'm part of something with other people in the same boat as me, which has been massively valuable.

Chris Whyte (: 43:44

Yeah, it's so important and I've got a set up with, mean, a few groups actually of founders and recruiting business owners that are kind of all going through the same journey. like, it's interesting, isn't it? you launch a business for the first time, regardless of what it is, you kind of, you don't really realize how little you know until you're presented with it. It's like, you're really good at...

Olly (: 43:52

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 44:10

that one thing and you've become an expert, but all of a sudden you've got all these new things that you've never done before. You may have heard of them, but it's like, it's so, I found it anyway, so frustrating because you know, you've got to put a lot of time into it. You know that there's going to be a payoff, but all that time that you have to sink into learning something new or kind of developing, I put a website together or like just for me, you know, when I was sending my first,

Olly (: 44:12

Yeah.

Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's hard.

Chris Whyte (: 44:39

profiles out to clients. It's like, you know, I took it for granted in my last place that had an administrator and we had a format and something that but creating documents from scratch is like, huh, this is how my business is going to be presented to to customers in some way. So just spend ages agonizing over little details like that.

Olly (: 44:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know. And even though we're our businesses are different, we're only really design, we're actually very, very similar in the sense that we, we've both got to learn to market it. You know, you're, you're, you're, you've got the podcast, which is you've got to learn how to, you know, is another thing to market and create and run. know, that's, that's, that's, you know, hats off to you because it's like, you kind of have to just go, okay, I'm a podcast producer now. Okay, I'm making a phone. Like I said to you before, like, have you told me I was

Chris Whyte (: 45:09

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Olly (: 45:27

running a sofa business five years ago, would have laughed. But here we are, you know, you just kind of think if you keep sort of learning new things and being curious, like, good things come from that. Yeah, I'm just always interested in people whether they do their own thing, whether it's like yourself, Chris, doing the recruitment, or all the guys in this, girls in this WhatsApp group. It's just, the support is massive. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 45:31

Yeah.

Massively,

having that support. The camaraderie and the the fact that there's other people going through similar situations and just not a little advice as well kind of that you get from those. I've benefited so much from being part of different groups, but also, like, I want to, it's just my character, I just want to give back. whenever someone asks for help, or if I I spot something, I think is really helpful, like

Olly (: 46:02

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 46:18

like a chat GPT kind of use case for making things easier. I just want to share that in the group. want other people to benefit from this kind of this thing that I've found, which is saving me tons of time because it's just, I get quite excited by that. But yeah.

Olly (: 46:24

100%. Yeah.

And I'm the same. think it's sometimes there's, there's, you can, you've helped someone achieve something or, like you say, open their eyes to a different thing or that you've, you've struggled with. And then that's, you can share that, that's helped them. That's almost more satisfying than sort of selling a product or getting a sale. It's, it's, it's, it's more to it than, than just kind of, or doing it for a business. It's,

Chris Whyte (: 46:46

Hmm.

Yeah.

Olly (: 47:01

there's a lot more kind of fulfillment I get from, you know, creating things with people and, you know, helping other younger designers to build a portfolio and see them go on and get other projects or jobs and be able to, you know, there's all sorts of things you just like, there's more to it than just, I'm going to work every day and, you know, I just see it differently, I think.

Chris Whyte (: 47:05

That's the thing.

I love that. Yeah.

Olly (: 47:28

I really put as part of this WhatsApp group and also the SLOWE living and even being on this podcast, it's like, I really do like part of this, I guess, yardstick of success for me will be, you know, if I can get someone that's not in a job they're happy with, or is got a product that they really want to take to market, but don't really know how and feels like it's intimidating on big mountain to, to, to

you know, to chat with them or to, you know, help in any way to just go like, you know, so just follow it and go for it. You know, there's no one kind of route through a career. It's, know, with the tools you've got available now, you know, setting up a podcast and hosting that online or finding an upholsterer on Facebook marketplace. Like it's just all you have to do is just kind of, you can just Google it and the person's there. I it's making it sound a lot, you know.

Chris Whyte (: 48:00

Yeah, massively,

Hmm.

Yeah.

But it's like, yeah, where would you start with that? Yeah.

Olly (: 48:21

even in the years. I think if I can help someone do that, I think that's a bigger, that's the main achievement as well.

Chris Whyte (: 48:30

Yeah, but you say that. mean, I, you know, it seems very obvious when you say it out loud, but I imagine there's a lot of people that listen to this that go, I would never have thought to look for a supplier on Facebook marketplace, but there must be thousands of small independent businesses that are, that do really well out of that kind of setup. So that's, that's wonderful. And your, your sticker as well on your screen where it says work less. I think the joy of

Olly (: 48:35

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 48:57

working on something that you love and you're passionate about and you've got a community around means that is it really work? know, find something you love.

Olly (: 49:06

Well, this is Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I don't know what you think about this as well, Chris. But I think if you're doing something that you love, I said to my girlfriend last night, I don't wake up thinking I've got to go to work. I'm excited by Mondays, you know, I think I've had a probably more stressful few years than used to, both financially and because I've made this pivot into a different thing. It's been like, you know, is this really the right thing to do? That has been a little bit kind of

Chris Whyte (: 49:29

Hmm.

Olly (: 49:36

But I only recently got to a point, ironically, where I've committed to myself and focused on it. You know, I completely get this concept of focus now. Whereas before it was like aimless focus in a way. was like, that makes any sense. But focus now has just been like, it's just completely cleared the anxiety or the kind of confusion around where I'm going. And I'm like, two feet in and I'm

put my seatbelt on and I'm going for it. that's, is more terrifying. But you don't have time to sort of think about that because you're like, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. And there's various things that have signaled to me that this is worth doing. And if not just, and that's why I've taken probably too long to make that decision. it's

Chris Whyte (: 50:10

You

But it sounds like you've got your sense of adventure back and, and the worst case scenario, you know, what's the worst that can happen? The business fails, but you've still got a career of freelancing to fall back on. you know, it's, you've got options.

Olly (: 50:23

Yeah, that's a good way of it.

Exactly.

Yeah, I think it's also ironically bringing more of a, know, I would never have been invited onto a podcast, you know, before. now I think, yeah, I just think there's, there's, there's, it's, it's got, it's giving me more opportunity to meet more people and work with other people. not just from the product side of things, but you know, design and branding and then, it's still very much, taking on those opportunities and work to help people to communicate their brand and their products.

Chris Whyte (: 50:43

Ha

Massively,

Olly (: 51:04

in creative ways, know, particularly through my expertise and skills are through like e-commerce and content, brand, brand content. So that's.

Chris Whyte (: 51:13

I love how your career has kind of come full circle in some respects, starting off in product design, then going into the branding piece. And I think actually that's probably served you really well, hasn't it? Having all that experience in branding and the marketing side, that's a really strong foundation for starting a business because you could have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, then what's the point? So combine those two.

Olly (: 51:18

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 51:41

And sounds like you're absolutely loving it. So it's great to see.

Olly (: 51:43

Yeah, I think it's, it's definitely makes more sense now, you know, whereas earlier you're like, I've these two kind of two different things. And they're both mountains, where do I go? And it takes a bit of time to kind of just realise and to get it and you need certain signals back from clients or customers to make sure you're going in the right direction. But I think, you know, yeah, it's just persistence, I guess. But yeah, I'm in a good place within a

Chris Whyte (: 52:01

Hmm.

That's awesome. Awesome. Right. We're to wrap up very shortly, but I always ask everyone before, before we go, what are your favorite books or podcasts that you're into at the moment?

Olly (: 52:22

I'm so I flick around a lot through podcasts. One that I found is super helpful. Besides your own Chris is one that's very, very, it's almost like business coaching guy called James Sinclair, which I just found by accident. I was searching furniture designer on podcasts and on Spotify.

Chris Whyte (: 52:33

Very kind of you,

yeah.

Olly (: 52:47

And his podcast came up and the concept of people aren't aware is he he's a successful, sort of young entrepreneur, very different fields to what I do. But just valuable knowledge and each episode he coaches a kind of a different business owner that's in a tricky spot or has got challenges and he looks at how they might scale it. And it's yeah, it's been it's just really interesting to listen into that kind of knowledge of somebody else.

Chris Whyte (: 53:09

Yeah.

Is it the business broadcast with James Sinclair? Is that the one? Yeah.

Olly (: 53:17

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's something I've only been listening to for a few weeks, but just kind of been sessioning because it's it's just, wow, it's opened up a whole load of different things. And actually, that's attributed quite a bit of like this confidence to go in and do that. Yeah. Generally, I just love listening to other sort of designer or founder or business, businesses stories, particularly smaller businesses.

Chris Whyte (: 53:32

That's really interesting. Yeah. I love.

Yeah.

Olly (: 53:46

I just think it's really interesting to hear how people, you know, start things, you know, all different, and there's a business for anything really, and they're all, they're all different. There's always relatable stuff. And then I'm not a huge reader, actually, I'm more a podcast person, but it's, it's obviously a very, there's a book by Rick Rubin. I've actually forgotten the name of the title of the book, but I think a lot of people will know it. Let's Google it.

Chris Whyte (: 53:56

Yeah.

Olly (: 54:13

And that he that's talked about his process of creativity. The critics called the creative act a way of being and it's it's like short little snippets. So each each chapter is probably about four or five pages max and Rubin is record producer, you know, he's worked for all sorts of people. And it's just his pro he's just talked through his creative process and particularly it's been helpful when

Chris Whyte (: 54:21

yeah.

there.

Olly (: 54:41

you know, you get quite blindsided and blocked by all the different things that you've got to do. and is this the right idea? And he's, he takes on a quite very sort of spiritual, mindful approach to it, creativity and ways that you can kind of just kind of relax into the process a bit and not take it too seriously. And I found that really insightful. And because I'm not a kind of, you know, bookworm as it were, like four or five pages, and you can just pick that up and you can go, that was really interesting. And it sort of sets.

sets your way of thinking for the day. And not to mention that, you know, the artists that he's worked with massively influential and to what I'm inspired by, you know, music and design and yeah, just a really interesting guy. So that's something I've been picking up. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Whyte (: 55:25

Awesome.

I'll check both of those actually, because I do enjoy the business podcasts. I listen to the Alex and Moses stuff that he puts out. And then there's a ton of recruitment brand in a marketing ones that I listen to, which is quite interesting. then, yeah, that James Sinclair one looks like right over my street. then Rick Rubin, mean, he's a legend in the music industry, isn't he? So that'd be quite an interesting one to get into on Audible, I think it's on there.

Olly (: 55:36

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, definitely. he's got a nice sort of... Some of his YouTube videos are a great way to just tap into that without the book, so to speak. the book is brilliant. But just his kind of approach is really interesting for me.

Chris Whyte (: 56:08

Mm. Awesome.

Nice, yeah I'll definitely get that on the on the listening list. wonderful, Oli it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you and hearing your story. Yeah no worries, well I'll put links to SLOWE Living and to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes if people want to reach out and say hello they can. But yeah thank you for joining me.

Olly (: 56:19

Thanks Chris, I likewise, yeah, and really appreciate you having me on. Yeah, means a lot.

Please do, yeah.

Thanks Chris, cheers.

Chris Whyte (: 56:40

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Design Journeys podcast. I hope you found it insightful and inspiring.

If you did, please consider sharing it with a friend or colleague who might enjoy it too. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Before I sign off, just a quick note from me. Besides hosting this podcast, I'm also the founder of Kodu a recruitment business that specializes in physical product development. We help startups, established brands and consultancies find top tier mechanical design and development talent, often in as little as six weeks. At Kodu, we're all about providing an outstanding experience.

with our clients and candidates consistently rating us plus 88 on the Net Promoter Score or NPS, which is world-class in recruitment. And I should probably mention we have a 100 % fill rate too. The inspiring people I've met over the years in consumer electronics, e-bikes, medical devices and beyond have been the reason behind creating this podcast. If you'd like to know more about Kodu and how we can help your business, feel free to visit teamkodu.com or connect with me, Chris Whyte on LinkedIn.

Thanks again for listening, see you next time.