Let me explain…
It started with Colin Priest and a project called Design Lab. A project for MA Interior Spatial students at Camberwell. We made origami papers, furoshiki-inspired wrapping cloths, and then we wanted bigger. I kept floating the idea of wallpaper. We’d been working with our wonderful pals Mark and Keith of Mini Moderns and, for round 3, it seemed like a no-brainer to make wallpaper!
We’re on collection 3 now, 12 wallpaper designs down. But at some point in this process, with my wonderful line manager urging me to shout more about the work I’d been doing, I decided, okay, we have to rock this box. But I don’t want to go to conferences and shout in that way.
So how do I shout on my terms? Maybe, how do I first try a little whisper?
So one day I just said out loud in a meeting:
‘I’m going to wallpaper the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s office.’
And the scene was set and the gauntlet laid.
I think people thought I was joking, but I was deeply serious!
I thought it was perfect. I’m biased, of course, but I’d solved it! No need to stand at a lectern at a conference (please still invite me to conferences because I think I’m ready now! Haha) and say things that, to me, seem
SO OBVIOUS!
I could picture it. The PVC (now former PVC) in his blue workwear jacket, against this backdrop of wallpaper, also blue, inspired by the Thames! Him talking about the work I’d been doing in his termly all-staff briefing. Maybe it would resonate with other courses and we could do more projects. We’d launched about 50 products by this point, but I wanted more.
So I sat on it. I just kept saying it out loud. You might say manifesting it.
Every entrepreneurial bro podcast you’ve ever listened to will spout some nonsense like ‘entrepreneurs don’t think, they just act’. Capitalism wants us to move in this way. To behave like everything is urgent. It really and truly isn’t! I firmly believe that.
But I had a moment, a few wobbles if you will. Why have I not just sent that email? What am I waiting for?
I think I probably sat on it for more than a year. Then one afternoon I was preparing for another live brief, a brief called Home.
I’d asked the students what drink and snack reminds them of home. Momentarily forgetting how international and beautifully diverse our student body is! So I found myself running around central London trying to find these niche snacks and drinks: White Rabbit sweets from Chinatown, Portuguese grape soda, samosas and so on!
Picture the scene. I’m slightly in chaos mode, excited with the anticipation of meeting the new cohort! Slightly red-faced from running around town.
And then it happens. I walk past the PVC, in the wild, on the street. Probably going home. I walk past him and in my head, “Oh, there’s the PVC,” and keep walking.
Then I circle back and decide now is my moment.
So I run back down the road after him, forget to introduce myself at all and just launch into: ‘I’m sure this is really unprofessional – I hate the idea of the word – but I just need a minute of your time because I need to wallpaper your office with student-designed wallpaper.’
He’s surprisingly open. I then realise I haven’t even introduced myself, so I correct a little! Apologise again, because British!
He tells me it sounds great and I should email him so we can talk. I’m absolutely convinced his EA will email me back saying thanks but no thanks.
So I go home, heart full after launching the Home brief, to recompose my street blabber into a more strategic, more academic email with the wider context on why this is so important.
Before I know it, I’m in the PVC’s office having this heartening, expansive chat about my work, about showcasing, about really all the things the Atterbury Flat is now designed to do and say.
I’m told about this pot of money that sits outside of normal budgets. I’m encouraged to apply. They email me the forms and off I go! I think they’re expecting me to ask for £300 to wallpaper a wall in his office and that’ll be that. So off I go. Busy, teaching, thinking, chatting – always chatting!
And I find out about the Atterbury Flat, a guest flat at Chelsea College.
And it all just clicks.
This is why I waited so long. This is why I had to let this idea percolate. What if I’d just asked for £300 and wallpapered his office?
You wouldn’t be reading this!
– Z