Five Brilliant Brands With Love Stories At Their Heart
From around the world, each in a different industry, all committed to daring to do business differently.
Image with permission from Salted Books. Photographer @Iamlaurengrant
1. ‘Buy books from bookshops. Not a billionaire.’
Bookshop - Salted Books, Libson
‘An English language bookshop in Lisbon.’
This is a bookshop you can judge by its tote bag - ‘bookshops not billionaires.’
Salted Books (‘because everything’s better salted’) are rewriting the script not just in their carefully curated selection of titles, which owner Alex Holder describes as “a little bit salty”, but in their brilliant messaging.
Losing track of time in a bookshop and leaving with a stack of newly discovered titles is one of the great pleasures in life. But opening an independent bookshop in 2023 takes nerves of steel, passion and pots of just-the-right-blue paint.
‘Tonnes of independent bookshops in Lisbon - we’re proud to be one of them.’
With Salted Books, Alex and her husband are doing even more; they’re pulling back the curtain on the costs of opening and running a bookshop, and it’s not all the romantic love story. With the belief that ‘a transparent economy is a fairer economy,’ they’re experimenting with ‘open accounting’ - sharing their own bookkeeping and the financial realities of the bookshop dream.
Follow all the plot twists of this story on Instagram @saltedbooklisbon. It’s one that deserves a happily ever after.
2. ‘Limited Edition Jackets, available four days a year.’
Clothing - Paynter Jacket Co.
‘We want to bring meaning back to clothing.’
A story of the desire to make the perfect jacket.
‘We take iconic jacket styles and re-make them using the best materials that we can find. All of our jackets are made to order, in limited edition batches, just four times a year. It's our way of making sure we create no waste.’
Founders and couple Becky Okell and Huw Thomas are fully committed to their values and show it is possible to deliver a no-waste business model, creating clothing that’s beautiful, functional and meaningful.
‘We make what we believe in and love. We only create formulas that we want to use ourselves in our own home for our family and for loved ones.’
Follow Paytner on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter, it’s one of the best.
3. ‘objects for life’
Ceramics - Feldspar
‘beautiful things made properly and to last.’
Feldspar is an irresistibly romantic story set in the wild Dartmoor landscape.
‘Jeremy and Cath began by making a mug for coffee - with a wonky profile to sit perfectly in the hand.’
It’s a business founded on a love of family, home and things done properly.
“Our first child, Milo, had just been born, and it sort of made sense to quit our jobs and take three months off. Jeremy’s parents lived down here, so we found somewhere to rent and spent our time growing vegetables, reading Nigel Slater cookbooks and throwing pots on a wheel that we bought from a man on the moors.”
Soon after, Feldspar was born: a ceramic and homewares company specialising in elegant, textured pieces ranging from coffee cups to butter dishes.
And a passion for preserving craft.
‘A mug for coffee…with a wonky profile to sit perfectly in the hand (mugs are only cylindrical because they are easier to make that way)…
…mould making, slip-casting and industrial bone china production are all listed as critically endangered crafts by the Heritage Crafts Association in the UK. Many of the larger potteries in England now only serve as museums and showrooms, with all of their wares being made (more cheaply) abroad. We were anxious to preserve the skills and craft required to keep bone china production going in England, and to show that it is perfectly possible to make things from start to finish in the UK.’
4. ‘An obsession with chairs’
Furniture - Wilkinson & Rivera
‘Guided by time-honoured techniques and materials, Wilkinson & Rivera create collectable pieces for the everyday.’
With roots in London and New York, the studio was founded in 2020 by Grant Wilkinson & Teresa Rivera, combining their collective experience in fine art, furniture-making and design.
The couple uses ‘age-old processes to craft enduring pieces of design’, turning hardwoods (oak, walnut and ash) into chairs that appear to ripple and move.
Based on traditional designs, their chairs are reimagined with delightful names like ‘puffed’, ‘rippled’ and ‘wilted’.
5. ‘A truly personal dance we do and ongoing labour of love’
Design - Pinch
‘For us, the worlds of work and home are delicately intertwined - balanced in equilibrium.’
An enduring love story.
‘every element of this furniture has been made with passion and from the heart.’
Pinch is led by a husband and wife partnership, Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon, creating products that are ‘characterised by a quiet and elegant aesthetic, the result of tireless refinement and an intense dedication to craft and process.’
‘We believe in poetic design and making beautiful things, pieces that endure, inspire and aspire to be inherited.’
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