Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

This week I’m joined by Tom Metcalfe — interdisciplinary designer, researcher and educator. Tom’s journey into design wasn’t linear — from rally driving to getting into product design at DJCAD through clearing at 21. Since then he's had a yo-yo relationship with Dundee. From Dundee to London (via New Designers and Random International), then Bristol for 10 years and now back. Along the way, he’s d...

Jolene Guthrie, founder of the knitwear fashion brand Jo-AMI (pronounced Jo Amy) joins me this week, talking about how you make knitwear cool, comfy and considered. From internships and positions with the likes of Hayley Scanlan and Tom Pigeon to working with major fashion houses in London, Jolene has built a career rooted in hands-on experience and a deep love for knitwear. Why knitwear? She’s dr...

In this episode, I chat with graphic designer Alastair Walker. After spending 13 years building his career in Manchester, rising through the ranks to creative director, Alastair took a step back to reassess. A four-month break in Vienna gave him the space to reflect and a desire for change eventually led him north to Dundee. We explore the relationship between software skills and creative thinking...

TLDR - I'm starting a newsletter to reach more listeners and avoid the social algorithms. https://substack.com/@cccdundee A quick update on where things are at with the podcast and what’s coming next. This season’s felt a little out of rhythm — not because of the guests (they’ve been brilliant) — but more because of what’s been going on behind the scenes. In this episode, I chat about why things h...

As Eilish grew up, creativity was part of everyday life — and she’s carried that spirit into everything she does. In this episode, we dig into her journey from studying Interior and Environmental Design to shaping creative communities and spaces across Dundee. She shares what it was like balancing a job in a sports shop while trying to break into a design world that felt miles apart and how she fo...

Part 2 of my conversation with Fraser Smith founder of EH9 Espresso and designer and Maker Camillo Feuchter goes much deeper into the construction of the Annfield Road cafe and the considerations of how the space functions. We then move on to some classic podcast questions around success and failure. Then the bigger picture of Dundee as a whole and how it is becoming known for it's speciality coff...

This is part one of a beautifully flowing conversation between two friends—both with an incredible eye for detail. Fraser Smith, the founder of EH9 Espresso, and Camillo Feuchter, a designer and maker, first crossed paths through the EH9’s Perth Road cafe. Over time their relationship flourished into a collaborative partnership in the design and creation of EH9’s second home on Annfield Road. Fras...

I'm excited to reveal that there will be 6 brand new episodes of Creative Chat coming out from next week with Fraser Smith creator of EH9 and multi-disciplinary designer and maker Camillo Feuchter taking me through their creative process of bringing the Anfield Road EH9 to reality. Then I'm chatting to Eilish Victoria, Creative Spaces Producer at Creative Dundee, Graphic Designer Al Walker, Knitwe...

Ruby is the creative director behind Dreamland: happy, nostalgic fun clothing. Known for big bold prints inspired by TV shows and popular culture, in particular her upside down collection inspired by Stranger Things. Ruby takes me through how she started out the label and why travel and people watching are central to her creative process. There’s definitely a thread of nostalgia that quite clearly...

Cat and Andy repurpose old skateboards into beautiful new products. They take me through their labour intensive process from old broken board to shiny new product. The episode is a fascinating insight into how they've learned and developed their woodworking skills from scratch and built the business up at the same time diversifying the product range. I would recommend heading over to their instagr...

Graphic designer, Duncan Barton takes me through his design process, position on current trends and how he's developed a career around the things he loves. "At university they taught you to be 'the best designer in the world' not a jobbing designer" Probably my favourite quote from the episode. You're just not taught all the day to day nitty gritty of being a designer working with real clients, de...

With over 20 years experience in the fashion textiles industry Chris has a really varied and interesting career path. His journey starts from a really dark and troublesome place: at school during Section 28. Chris hasn't done many interviews and I feel privileged he was trusting enough to come on the podcast and share his journey. When I set up the podcast I wanted to share as many amazing creativ...

A lead consultant at the Service Design Academy, Katie says that she fell into Service Design after doing a masters in leadership and innovation. We have a really interesting discussion around whether Katie sees herself as a designer and the complexity around design terminology. This also leads onto a topic I'd like to explore further run the future of how we make design skills a core competency i...

After a successful kickstarter campaign Alastair decided to start Lowtek Games a studio focused on creating games and tools to help dyslexic players enjoy video games more. It was at primary school that Alastair got an early diagnosis of dyslexia creating real difficulty with reading. As text to speech technology became more readily available and with the rise of online video tutorials it allowed...

Design researcher Stephanie Crowe and Design Generalist Kevin Sinclair met and decided their love in discussing the failings of design in the world around them was enough to start Muckle Studios. They take me through a journey of how they built a partnership based upon the crossovers in their skillsets and also what they could learn from each other. They are a balance of optimist vs realist and de...

Hear how a trip to Vienna where all the museums were unexpected closed due to the pandemic led to Elizabeth Ann Day and Luke Cassidy Greer creating an art dispensing vending machine in the Keiller Centre in Dundee. It's been a long time since I've had two guests on the podcast and this week it's a real deep dive into the Volk Gallery project. One year on from installing and launching their art ven...

This week we start back in the 80s where Rick takes me through his own creative career as well as the history of the skate scene in Dundee. He went from college to a full time job as a graphic designer and then on to study Time Based Art at DJCAD. After staying around as a research assistant Rick taught himself how to cope websites and the rest is history really. He started up his own business and...

Stephanie Graham founder of Natla Jewellery and Dundee Community Craft joins me this week. Her goal is to make Dundee the recovery capital of Europe supporting recovery through teaching design skills. She takes her mobile jewellery workshops out into the community to deliver them. The workshops take people through a design process over several weeks but they also create a safe space where people c...

Hippies communes to funeral directors to Jennifer Lopez and Dior, Jennie grew up in Dundee, was drawn to Glasgow and inevitably London building her eclectic PR career before returning to Dundee. Starting out in Pitkerro House, a sort of hippie commune on the outskirts of Dundee, this instilled the values of community and people working together on common goals from the very outset of her life. Thi...

We take a deep dive into some of the nuances of graphic design with Badbish Design this week, featuring how to vent your creative frustrations, the need for building relationships when giving and receiving feedback and why she would happily draw a hippo for £5,000. Badbish's career started out with a frustrating time at art school but after picking up some graphics work for the bars she was workin...

I'm joined by Jillian Elizabeth owner of the Little Green Larder a zero waste, plastic free shop aiming to make shopping for sustainable products easy and convenient. The Little Green Larder offers a wide variety of foods and products with their best seller being their vegan pick n mix. Jillian saw zero waste shops opening up across the world and sick of waiting on someone setting one up in Dundee...

Jeweller and owner of Double Door Studios joins me for a wonderful meandering chat through her journey. There's a little sidetrack into busking and then onto building a jewellery practice in kilt pins, wedding rings and collections. A quick jaunt around making brooches more accessible through skirting boards and broken musical instruments. Before focusing on finding a space, setting up the finance...

Fashion designer Kerrie Aldo joins me this week. Probably best known for her signature wax cotton jackets created using material from local manufacturer Halley Stevenson. We talk about slow vs fast fashion and how you get across the value of small scale sustainable production. Kerrie talks me through her journey starting out by being influenced by the indie music scene to finding her own style and...

This week it's all about street art with C.Gul. Inspired by Dundee's ballsy bird community he has been creating seagull inspired street art for 9 years now. Clearly he doesn't take himself too seriously and his work is about putting smiles on people's faces. We touch on the differences between street art and graffiti and go into the rules and politics that surround the two closely linked but disti...

It's textile designer Kate Harvey's turn to be the guest on this week's podcast. We go from corner shops to Australia and eventually back to Dundee where she started her own clothing brand. Kate produces hand made one-off appliqué garments in a style that I would describe as beautifully organised chaos. We discuss how she has developed her style and process over time as well as building her audien...