We recently caught up with Lucy Weston & Vicki Leach the Co-Founders of Two Girls Co! Lucy and Vicki are a wife and wife design team that make products to celebrate and encourage creativity. The pair talk us through the design scene in Bristol, and the warm fussy feelings they get when they see familiar faces wearing their pins; they give us a list of their top five design crushes, and we get their thoughts on where they think the design industry is heading in the next five years.
Give us the elevator pitch on what you do.
We’re a wife and wife design team and we make products that celebrate and encourage creativity. Since 2017 our products have found their way to all four corners of the globe and this makes us incredibly proud. This month also saw the launch of our new Youtube channel to support and offer guidance to established and emerging designers.
How does the local culture of where you live affect your design work and getting clients?
We actually have quite a few local followers who we see every now and then. Bristol is quite a compact but vibrant and creative city. Everyone is friendly and buoys each other on, so it’s absolutely amazing when we see familiar faces or someone out on the street, wearing our pins. It makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.
What are your top 5 local design things our readers can check out?
Bristol is a thriving but also a growing creative UK hub. More and more businesses are understanding the benefits of locating here, alongside many individual creatives from that London flooding our way. What can we say, it has good vibes!
Some of our local favourites:
1. Fiasco incredibly talented, fun and driven creative studio. They’re also proactive in the local design community and put on brilliant design talks as a sideline – Thread Events
2. West of England Design Forum host events and workshops by renowned designers and agencies.
3. Ana Jaks awesome illustrator.
4. Young & Norgate Beautifully designed and crafted furniture.
5. Simple Simon A great interior design company. Their recent ‘Backyard’ restaurant interior is super cool.
6. Illustrate – A collective of artists and designers creating simple but lovely products
Not here yet, but Channel 4’s Creative team will soon be located to the heart of Bristol, which is very exciting.
What qualities and skills do you look for in a graduate?
Design skills and style can be learned with practice but an eye for detail is key. Someone who understands processes and how things work is invaluable. If you have a passion for design it really shows through, whether you’re confident or not.
Design skills and style can be learned with practice but an eye for detail is key. Someone who understands processes and how things work is invaluable.
Are you involved in any teaching and if so how it shapes your practice?
Yes, we oversee degree courses at UWE and Nottingham Trent. Our Instagram account offers ‘Design Rules’ to give useful tips for those ‘in design’. From this, we’ve also set up a new YouTube channel which expands on those rules and is set up for mentoring a wider audience on all areas of design.
Where do you think design is heading in the next five years and how will you adapt?
We’re acutely aware of UK Government budget cuts to Design & Technology funding in schools. So much so, last year we created ‘Design Aid’ boxes full of materials and tools, which we donated to 10 local schools. It’s unlikely that we’ll be continuing with this but hopefully we can reach a wider audience with our online mentorship which doesn’t cost us anything but our time. We’re part of growing movement for activism in general so we hope that more design studios get on board as well to start giving back to the community and sharing their knowledge and experiences. Small steps become greater strides when you’re doing it together.
