Go Your Own Way The Carrick Times, in conjunction with Carrickfergus Enterprise, showcases new business start-ups in the borough
NAME: Abigail Percy & Ryan Bell
BUSINESS: abigail*ryan homewares
What is your business?
abigail*ryan, run by couple and design duo, Abigail Percy and Ryan Bell. We design and make a range of home and gift ware to bring colour, beauty and vibrancy to the home. Our range includes eco-friendly screen-printed unbleached cotton tea-towels, cushions, lavender bags and we will soon be adding heirloom patchwork quilts to our collection. All our products are adorned with Abigail’s stunning hand drawn illustrations of plants and flowers, which we use as motifs on the tea-towels and turn in to repeat patterns to create our own line of exclusive fabric. All our soft furnishings use locally milled Irish linen alongside our own cottons.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up doing what you are doing now?
Abigail Percy is an award-winning Jewellery designer born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. She ran her own successful jewellery design company since 2005, closing it in late 2011 to concentrate on a*r. Following her graduation from Glasgow School of Art with First Class honours, and winning The British Jewellers Association prize for ‘One Year On’, awarded by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, she has exhibited her work in venues such as the National Museum of Kyoto , The National Theatre and the Scottish Gallery and has work in many private collections. In addition, Abigail undertakes private styling and business consultation for designers across the UK. She has also lectured at Dundee College of Art in web 2.0 technologies and their application to the Designer Maker industries.
Ryan Bell hails from Northern Ireland and, since graduating from The University of Ulster at Belfast with a First Class honours degree in Fine Art Photography, he has worked on Photography projects with various clients, including a division of Marks and Spencer, and worked with many individual Designer Makers across the UK- creating their brand identities through consultation and graphic design under the monicker ‘DesireLines’. In 2006, to feed Ryan’s love of design and thirst for new challenges, and his desire to return to the more hands-on side of the creative industries, the DesireLines brand diversified into Luxury Accessories. Since then, the business has focused on creating stunning one off handbags and, since early 2009, several collections of Fine Silver Jewellery. Although self taught, Ryan has reached a level of skill with textiles that has allowed him to give various public demonstrations and private teaching workshops in handbag construction.
When we met, we instantly knew we wanted to work together as we were so creatively inspired and constantly bouncing ideas off one another. After batting around a few ideas about how this collaboration could happen, we decided to set up an entirely new enterprise where we could use our individual skills and combined creative strengths to build a unique homewares brand, and so, abigail*ryan was born!
Did you always want to run your own enterprise?
Yes. We are both very creative people, and enterprising too. So, in hindsight, it’s only natural that we both came to be running our own business and have made our livelihood from selling the things that we make...
We also both like being our own boss, so it’s nice to be in the position where you can make your own rules!
What skills/qualifications do you require for the role?
Although no formal qualifications are needed to run a business like ours, we both feel our degrees (as above - Ryan studied Fine Arts, Photography and graduated from the University of Ulster with a First Class Honours degree, Abigail studied for a BA (Hons) Design - Silversmithing and Jewellery and graduated with First Class Honours from Glasgow School of Art) have provided a wonderful creative foundation that we could build on. Design skills are ones you hone through years of practice and application, so we very much have our own set of personal abilities.
Abigail has been in business for seven years, so her experience of making and selling goods and creating websites, online shops and blogs to market them through has been an invaluable skill. In addition, Abigail does all abigail*ryan’s photography and styling in-house, so that is something that brings a great deal to our business. Ryan is extremely skilled at computer graphics and design, so creates all our brand identity, packaging and can manipulate Abigail’s drawings into our fabrics. He is also a skilled machine sewer, so we can do a great deal of our own construction ourselves.
Has your business been affected by the current recession?
We actually launched our business at the end of 2009, so the recession has always been a factor for us. It has affected all creative businesses where products are being sold, simply because people are buying less or at least being more careful where they spend their money. However, on a positive note, people being encouraged to buy local, and to put their money into quality goods (often handmade) that will last much longer than mass produced items and will strengthen the local economy is a wonderful upturn. That kind of awareness can only be a good thing!
What were the biggest challenges you faced when setting up and what support did you get?
One of the biggest challenges we were faced with when we set up the business was financial. We had to buy everything ourselves as we had no outside investment so we chose to continue running our other businesses alongside abigail*ryan to initially fund it. In addition, we were originally a long-distance couple, travelling between Glasgow and Belfast, so we had to juggle our time carefully, along with the physical challenges of having our materials split between two countries and needing to transport them back and forth for various events. Thankfully this was all solved when Abigail moved to Northern Ireland! Ryan’s Mum, Jacki Bell, was a wonderful help and made many a cross-sea journey with her car, us, and a boot-full of cushion pads!
Last year, we also approached Carrick Enterprise which was able to offer us some wonderful support. The business mentoring we received was especially useful and we worked with Ian Kerr who was a fantastic sounding board for new ideas and worked with us to hone our thoughts, ideas and create a tighter brand focus.
What three tips could you offer those considering starting their own business?
However much you think it’s going to cost to start up – double it! And however long you think a project is going to take you – double it!
Surround yourself with good people. For us, that means working with our other half which is a wonderful privilege, but even having family and friends (or mentors!) who you can talk to is really important because running your own business can be overwhelming and all consuming so a positive support network is essential.
Research what is available to you in terms of local and national (council) support, funding and networking opportunities. Take advantage of as many free schemes as you can. Not all of them with work for you, but some of them will! Apply this theory to social networking online, too. Make sure you have a website, a blog, a facebook page, a twitter etc so that people can find you online.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Our new heirloom range of patchwork quilts and cushions will finally launch. This has been in the works for a while so we are excited to share the beautiful pieces we have been working on. We will be attending our second trade fair, at Pulse, Earls Court London, where last year we won ‘Best New Launchpad Exhibitor’. We are excited to build on the hype and positive feedback and attention of last year!
In addition, we hope to be getting married – so that will be a wonderful personal journey with lots to plan and create, in order to have a very special day for all our friends and family to enjoy and help us celebrate!
What do you get up to in your free time?
We don’t really have much free time, to be honest! However, we love spending time with our pup, Angus, who is a Lhasa Apso. So a nice walk with him and throwing a ball around is good. We like to cook and bake, watch movies and do other creative things like take photographs and knit… spending time with family and friends is always good, too.
If you could swap places with anyone who would it be and why?
I don’t think we would swap places with anyone, to be honest. We’re pretty happy just being ourselves!
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Friday 18 May 2012
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