Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

What would make your city more liveable/loveable? - http://dundeedesignfestival.com Fun a Day Dundee Website - https://funadaydundee.wordpress.com/ Fun a Day Dundee Twitter - https://twitter.com/faddundee?lang=en Fun a Day Dundee Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/funadaydundee/ Sam’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sambaxterart/ Sam’s Website - https://sambaxterart.co.uk/ Sam’s Twitter -...

Film maker Ed Broughton is my guest this week. I’ve known Ed for a few years now, sharing co-working space Fleet Collective. In 75 episodes I’ve never had anyone derail the flow of the podcast quite as much as Ed did! He deflected talking about himself and his journey by bringing along his 10 top tips for freelancing. There’s lots of great tidbits in this episode around lifestyle, free things and...

Laura is a community artist and has been for about 16 years now. 12 of those years have been spent at The Corner in Dundee, a health and information service in Dundee, bringing amazing projects to life and influencing the lives of many young people. We go on a journey from where she started as a 20 year old working for the lighthouse in communities like Easterhouse in Glasgow to the amazing projec...

Freelance Illustrator Lauren Morsley joins me for this episode. After graduating in the summer, Lauren exhibited at D&AD New Blood in London where she won a One to Watch award. We talk through her university experience and transitioning to life working as an illustrator. During our chat, Lauren highlights a few gaps and places that universities could really improve on when sending students out int...

Samantha Paton is the fashion designer behind independent clothing label Isolated Heroes. She describes it as a lot of fun with sequins and faux fur. From the outset, Samantha wanted to create a brand that resonated with real people. Using street cast models and an honest voice she has built an amazing following. Although she has worked on custom pieces for the likes of Lilly Allen she has also ha...

Louise Kirby is a designer and illustrator based in Dundee. She was also part of the Maggies Penguin Trail with her creation, the Provincial Penguin. It carries her signature style that has a very handcrafted aesthetic. We chat about how she has developed this and how it has come from a very hands-on creative process. I found her focus on 'play' very liberating and interesting. I can definitely re...

A multidisciplinary artist based in Dundee. Although she produces work in many forms, Sekai’s often works with photography and has created a signature dark style in subject matter and aesthetic. I ask Sekai about where she thinks her style originated from and how difficult it is to take photos when you are the subject matter. It leads to chat about the nature of collaboration and when someone goes...

I think it’s fair to say that Mike Press is a big personality and a well known figure in the Dundee Creative community. He runs service design consultancy Open Change with Hazel White. He decided to make the jump back into consultancy after a 25 year stint in education. This episode is a whistle stop tour of Mike’s amazing varied career from selling insurance to computer programming to being a ser...

Richard runs Abandon Ship Apparel, Hard Grind barbers and Daily Grind coffee bar. He’s pretty much taking over exchange street in Dundee with an alternative way to experience Dundee. He’s created a massive following and audience from his design work and the culture he has curated around his businesses. We talk about how Abandon Ship went from an idea in a bedroom to 1.2million in turnover to liqui...

Lynn and I had a chat about her route into teaching animation and interactive art at Abertay University. We also explore the topic of her PhD - play. How can you get more play into your daily life? Listen to find out.

Ryan is a super talented photographer, specialising in music photography. He has an amazing portfolio of artists that he’s shot, from Foo Fighters to Seal to Chvrches. After graduating from DJCAD in 2015 he knew that music photography was his passion and the best place in Scotland to do that was Glasgow. We talk a lot about talent retention in Dundee but with Ryan it just wouldn’t have been possib...

Yann is a musician, composer and artist as well as many other things. His project list is vast and varied, to say the least but seems to be rooted in performance. 11 years ago Yann ended up in Scotland. After graduating from his masters he ended up taking a role in the Dundee Rep’s Christmas production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Being from North America the concept of ‘Panto’ wasn’t exactly someth...

Ceramicist Steph Little joins me this week to talk about going from taking an evening class to falling in love with ceramics and making a living from it. At the core of everything she does is this lovely warmth and homeliness (if that’s even a word). It feels like she’s always doodling ideas in her sketch pad and then some actually make it into the clay. The geometric patterns that Steph is now kn...

A musician formerly known as Panda Su but now releases her music under SHHE. We cover her musical career so far and why she decided it was time to move on from the Panda Su persona. Su hasn’t done many interviews in the past so I feel privileged that she agreed to come on the podcast. It’s clear that there has been a change in mindset and outlook from Panda Su to SHHE. Su is much more open to coll...

Mark Beaumont is an adventurer, broadcaster, author and Rector of Dundee University. Probably best known for beating the world record for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle. Once in 2008 after graduating from university and again in 2017 in just 78 days, beating the existing record by over 40 days. Surprisingly, our chat focused very little on the cycling and record attempts themselves. I think...

A furniture designer from just outside Lyon, Aymeric has started a Draff a company creating eco-friendly material from the waste products of breweries and distilleries. Like many podcast guests before him Aymeric followed his partner to Dundee and after a few visits decided to move here himself. He talks about the differences in the educational institutions in France and Scotland. He found DJCAD m...

Murray has worked in music industry PR for over 30 years representing names like Kylie, the Petshop Boys, Coldplay, Yoko Ono and many more. He's been running MCPR for 10 years now and has decided to make the move back to Dundee to start a new chapter in his career. Murray talks about growing up in Lochee and always being part of an alternative scene and some of the difficulties that come with that...

Richard Cook is the man behind optical boutique Spex Pistols in Dundee’s Westport. Chances are if you see someone with interesting eyewear in Dundee, they’ve been to see Richard. Spex Pistols specialises in designer, vintage and classic frames as well as their very own range that’s due to launch soon. I think it’s fair to say that Richard is a big personality and well known throughout the creative...

Annie is Project Coordinator for UNESCO Dundee City of Design team & Place Partnership Programme. You may know her from events such as the Dundee Design Festival. We talk about how she came to apply for the roles she's in now and why her career has led her into wearing lots of different hats. Little known fact, she used to do the train announcements at Inverness station before it all got automated...

Composer and sound designer Rachel Simpson joins me this week to talk about her day job working at games company Outplay Entertainment, some of her amazing musical work and cycling. I think Rachel must be one of the most modest guests I’ve ever had on and she did take a bit of encouragement to get her in front of the mic. It was specified that Fred the dog had to be present for moral support. So I...

On this week is Ali McGill an accountant and experience designer. You wouldn’t necessarily put the two together. Ali talks about making a start in his career training as a traditional accountant. Over the years of running businesses and being responsible for profit and loss sheets he started to see the real value of putting yourself in your customers shoes. Using design tools and methodologies to...

This week’s podcast is the announcement that Fleet Collective will be closing its doors. Donna Holford Lovell joins me to chat through starting Fleet with Lyall Bruce. We talk about the journey she’s been on and how the co-working space has grown and developed over time. We then finish up with talking about the reasons behind closing the collective. Afterwards you’ll about what Fleet meant to the...

Hayley is a Dundee born fashion designer with clients that include Little Mix, The Saturdays and Pixie Lot. We talk about how she got into the industry and established her clothing label H.S. It was clear from chatting to Hayley that style and appearance have been key considerations for her from a really early age. Sitting round the kitchen table with her Gran sewing clothes for her barbies and pa...

Shahbaz Majeed is my guest this week and he is an amazing photographer based in Dundee, who brings landscapes to life from the air. If you haven’t heard of him already, chances are you will have seen his work. Shahbaz has had his photos used and featured in a lot of places as well as picking up a few awards along the way. Probably the most fascinating story is how he got his photo on Scotland’s fi...

Hazel runs service design agency Open Change along with Mike Press and has spent a significant part of her career in education but according to her that might have been a little too long. She started out at Edinburgh University with her first degree but after 5 years working she realised that art school was calling. Hazel found herself in jewellery and metal work apparently attracted by the materi...