Over the past ten years, 8,000 young people from across the UK have taken part in the National Saturday Club programme (including us, Chloe and Abigail of Buttercrumble). We were excited when the National Saturday Club invited us back to deliver a masterclass at the University of Leeds to further the creative ambitions of young people. Here’s an insight into our creative workshop!

Let’s face it, building your business is hard-work, and you want to protect your success. We are often asked about intellectual property and how businesses can protect their product and brand. Are they automatically entitled to protection? Do we retain the rights? Can they change their design? There is so much to consider but it doesn’t need to be complicated.

China has recently celebrated their Lunar New Year and for 2020, we celebrate the Year of the Rat. However, what does this really mean? The Rat (and all zodiac animals) are metaphors in order to tell a richer story. Symbolism in design is important as images are simply vehicles of message and meaning. It’s up to us, the audience, to decode.

We recently uncovered a surprising family connection with the Hepworth Gallery. We had visited the gallery on numerous occasions without realising a piece of our family history was being stored in the archive.

We made the discovery in an old newspaper clipping (attached to a wedding invitation), ensuing the passing of our late Great Auntie. It referred to the painting and exhibitions in Scarborough and London that Ernest Sugden had been involved in.

We’ve recently been fearless in the pursuit of improving our practice. We were due to represent British design to Hong Kong as part of Business of Design Week (BoDW) with support from the Department for International Trade. Sadly, the main event was cancelled due to recent escalations in civil disturbances across the region. Undeterred by this, we decided to visit the region anyway!

At the beginning of 2019, we shared a graphic on social media stating "dreams are the seeds of change". At this time, we were still working at home – just the two of us! Twelve months later and we are now settled in our new studio with a larger team of three. This was something we dreamt of when first starting. We are so grateful we've been able to grow to this point (with plenty of growth left in us).

How did we get to this point, now? Let us share a recap of the last twelve months, starting in January 2019...