tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32695389987062558912024-02-19T08:33:08.940+00:00Creativity Consumerism ConflictPhil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.comBlogger266125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-62990345668196266922016-11-15T12:33:00.004+00:002016-11-15T12:33:49.126+00:00I'm on Medium for the time being<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm posting on <a href="https://medium.com/me/stories/public">Medium</a> for a bit...</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-28384427157043542232016-04-13T17:33:00.000+01:002016-05-13T20:10:29.521+01:00Finnieston? It's Artification not Gentrification.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pic from <a href="http://t.flite.com/t/image.gif?i=e6a08cca-c646-4e49-be0d-841d4baed797&ri=b89843ed-c13a-430b-8981-7e699b7954b1&aik=173666899&pt=17&iv=3&rpv=4&ark=7135179&apk=2391547&aw=970&ah=250&dc=1&prk=undefined&sid=e571d1f0e73c2d92fd1884efd03c401d&vid=e571d1f0e73c2d92fd1884efd03c401d&scp=S68b8149&env=0&it=14&ist=43&tsq=3&cmp=bc7fb770&dt=https%3A%2F%2Fparallel.generatorhostels.com%2Farticles%2Fhow-london-s-abandoned-pets-found-new-homes%3Futm_source%3DVICE%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_content%3Dpets-DT-int%26utm_campaign%3Dparallel&sd.tou=615&sd.a_tou=615&sd.d_tou=6&sd.da_tou=6&sd.late=23201910&vd.var_i9o0ueyd=https%3A%2F%2Fparallel.generatorhostels.com%2Farticles%2Fhow-london-s-abandoned-pets-found-new-homes%3Futm_source%3DVICE%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_content%3Dpets-DT-int%26utm_campaign%3Dparallel&ts=1460564210807&l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen_uk%2Fread%2Fis-finnieston-glasgow-the-hippest-place-in-the-country&sq=4&u=https%3A%2F%2Fparallel.generatorhostels.com%2Farticles%2Fhow-london-s-abandoned-pets-found-new-homes%3Futm_source%3DVICE%26utm_medium%3Dbanner%26utm_content%3Dpets-DT-int%26utm_campaign%3Dparallel&ue=default&up=https%3A%2F%2Fadclick.g.doubleclick.net%2Faclk%3Fsa%3DL%26ai%3DB3LR9UBYOV-LeI9XgzAbanJWwDe2j-YIIAAAAEAEgADgAWO3hrrrZAmC7vq6D0AqCARdjYS1wdWItMjg5NDM3OTczNDY1ODYxM7IBDHd3dy52aWNlLmNvbboBCWdmcF9pbWFnZcgBCdoBVWh0dHA6Ly93d3cudmljZS5jb20vZW5fdWsvcmVhZC9pcy1maW5uaWVzdG9uLWdsYXNnb3ctdGhlLWhpcHBlc3QtcGxhY2UtaW4tdGhlLWNvdW50cnmYAuiVAsACAuACAOoCGC8xNjkxNjI0NS92aWNlLmNvbS9zdHVmZvgCgtIekAOMBpgD4AOoAwHQBJBO4AQB0gUFENXOwnmQBgGgBhbYBwDgBws%26num%3D0%26cid%3D5Gjq-2Hl0XJwkb64BG5t3En5%26sig%3DAOD64_3KtHWQuiuGR-3qSQ73FG6jkIwG0A%26client%3Dca-pub-2894379734658613%26adurl%3D&et=G">Vice</a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Finnieston in Glasgow has been labelled the new Shoreditch after coming top of a 20 hippest places to live list in The Times. Vice sent a reporter up to uncover the </span><a href="http://seems%20finnieston%20is%20the%20new%20shoreditch.%20well%2C%20good%20for%20finnieston.%20gentrification%20is%20a%20rubbish%20term%20for%20what%20happens%20when%20artists%20start%20working%20in%20cheap%20areas%20and%20kick%20start%20a%20process%20of%20improvement%2C%20of%20better%20cafes%20and%20bars%2C%20of%20start-ups%20from%20tech%20and%20culture%2C%20of%20students%20moving%20in%20and%20then%20young%20professionals.%20it%27s%20more%20like%20artification%20and%20its%20better%20than%20being%20a%20stagnant%2C%20ignored%20area%20devoid%20of%20any%20investment.%20artists%20create%20markets./" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">truth</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">, cue a bit of fretting about hipsters and gentrification. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Gentrification is a rubbish term for what has been happening. Ever since artists of all sorts colonised downtown Manhattan in the 70s and kicked off a process of improvement there's been an accompanying complaint that something inauthentic is going on. The appearance of start-ups and young people wanting to live somewhere affordable and hip should be a cause for celebration. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Finnieston's emergence owes something to the extraordinary number of Turner Prize winners and nominees who are Glaswegian, graduates of the art school, resident in the city or some combination of the three. They in turn are part of a lineage that can be traced to the art school kids of 1991 who were graduating into the city the year after it became European City of Culture. This remarkable event was the effect of a process that arguably began when Alasdair Gray published Lanark, </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">a novel about a city without art. That novel came out just as Postcard Records were championing the Sound of Young Scotland and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, Josef K, the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Jesus and Mary Chain al</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">l began bothering the charts, inventing bedsit pop and other new strains of indie until years later morphing into dance as the Primals Screamadelica beat the Mary Chain to win the first Mercury Prize.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">The gentry had nothing to do with all of this so called gentrification. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">It's never the gentry who take the first move into the run down area, its artists and its the young and skint. It's not gentrification, it's</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> more like Artification and its better that for Finnieston or Berlin or Shoreditch than </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">stagnating forever, unloved and undeveloped. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"> Artists create growth.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">Also published in <a href="https://medium.com/@pteer/finnieston-it-s-artification-not-gentrification-c371cbf204f4#.nvx5ri9jc">Medium</a></span><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-50816196115562308942016-04-05T16:45:00.001+01:002016-04-05T16:51:35.384+01:00Existential Living Rooms<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2kIzK31DW-E4INB3WIELdrbC2dZB8sCZImVO27YBqeaiP9VgWLnzJDP8aNHZkA_S8zWoypZ8ncCIpb_SC9CGxscnqlWjTPh0uWi5gCT73AxP3Ws6bdy37y-_LiNBVsezHv0HIn0KO5M/s1600/IMG_7819.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2kIzK31DW-E4INB3WIELdrbC2dZB8sCZImVO27YBqeaiP9VgWLnzJDP8aNHZkA_S8zWoypZ8ncCIpb_SC9CGxscnqlWjTPh0uWi5gCT73AxP3Ws6bdy37y-_LiNBVsezHv0HIn0KO5M/s320/IMG_7819.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The person who is truly free is “engaged in doing something purposeful, in the full confidence that it means something.” So believed Jean Paul Sartre, says Sarah Bakewell in her excellent new book <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/At-The-Existentialist-Caf%C3%A9-Cocktails/dp/0701186585" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/At-The-Existentialist-Caf%C3%A9-Cocktails/dp/0701186585" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%); background-position: 0px 22px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; text-decoration: none;">At The Existentialist Cafe.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps Sartre would have approved of the women I recently met who applied themselves with purpose to the project of re-styling their homes. The home was their thing, their ongoing passion and a canvas for their imagination. Shopping for accessories was a regular weekend activity and flicking through Pinterest in the evening was “better than TV”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a new thing. The homes they had grown up in only changed every few years while their grandparents homes looked like they were last decorated in the 1960’s. However, their own homes are in a perpetual state of flux as they are constantly modified, refreshed and accessorised. It seems to be a fact of modern life that the home is never finished.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A generation that once left an important part of their brains somewhere in a field in Hampshire are now grown-ups and their creative energy which was once spent on fashion and music and pulling is increasingly channeled into searches for throws, lighting and the perfect shade of paint. (One woman said, without a hint of irony, that she had tried 12 test pots of grey paint before finding the right one. And isn’t Fifty Shades of Grey as much about interior design as sex anyway? His office…his place…his dungeon. There’s even a parody book called 50 sheds of grey.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unlike their parents and grandparents, this generation are well-served with off and online retailers offering homewares at a price low-enough to assuage any guilt about profligacy and allowing them to get as engaged as they like.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If your home is your project then you will be spending many hours online searching makers marketplaces and pinning things you love to themed boards. Your weekends will involve driving to some out-of-town big box retailer with your Bestie in tow or queuing outside the post office parcel delivery office for your latest eBay find. This is not just shopping as leisure or a way to kill time, although its probably those things too, its a fully engaging creative obsession. But does it mean anything?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There should be no value judgement here. Sartre’s idea of a project that gave life purpose may have been writing a play or a philosophical tome but why shouldn’t writing your home be equally valid? Its the same thing in the sense that its a project that makes life feel meaningful. In that way, each writer is free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Its not the shopping that make us free though, its the pursuit of the project that liberates us. Our consumer behaviour is always a reflection of some other purposeful activity, like re-imagining a room or perfecting a vinyl collection or educating your palate in the nuances of craft beer. The consumer is just a shadow of a more authentic individual on a mission.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Does it matter that the homes all looked vaguely the same and the contents were bought in shops rather than made from scratch? Uniqueness and individuality were maybe not not the point. Home projects have meaning in that they express something personal about the owner. That something changes with mood and fashion and it is something that needs no justification. It is an expression that cannot be wrong unless you deem it so. It is your idea and you can hold it up defiantly against the world of taste, saying I like this.</span></div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1;"><span style="font-size: large;">“I want people to like my house but if they don’t then so what? This my place and this is how I want it.”</span></em></div>
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-54075944330096444822015-11-07T11:28:00.003+00:002015-11-07T11:29:10.326+00:00Advertising after the Fall<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
good article on the state of the advertising industry<br />
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<a href="http://on.ft.com/1iHntmz"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBLreZtvUDTYqEIR3iLNhgGnFq4JtWMtGhg-bCU49lzvOAkoYuQpxcSHn2b-YBN2A-6RT5JcfB4aWdiNWfZekD6Ni6c0CUY4hkRsvs3YW1qc09BSfNUBaEMqXsmpQ0j0pCtEhpdTUesVQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-11-07+at+11.27.38.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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http://on.ft.com/1iHntmz</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-21192205280248589192015-07-16T15:27:00.000+01:002015-07-16T15:28:45.096+01:00Thierry Henry Sky Sports Ad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133639784" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br />
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Our new ad just broke and is going absolute gangbusters on social media. 5m+ views in a few hours just on Facebook. Not even on TV yet.<br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-9616994157116646462015-06-01T14:33:00.001+01:002016-03-17T12:30:52.822+00:00Do One Thing Well<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A day with David Hieatt in Cardigan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Down the factory, in the morn<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Getting to Cardigan from London
involves a train to Swansea and then a drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The satnav takes me over country roads through a myriad of junctions and
hamlets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times trees grow over the
top of the road forming a tunnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
just finished reading Holloways by Robert Macfarlane and I wonder whether these
lanes qualify as ancient footpaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
must be old as they are well set into the earth and surely the road builders
followed the old carriageways that in turn followed the tracks of farmers
moving crops and livestock around over thousands of years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s the summer of 2013 and I’m
going to Cardigan to meet a brand creation machine called David Hieatt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has launched four since 1995.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are Howies, The Do Lectures, 25 Mile and
Hiut Denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Howies, he no longer has anything
to do with while the other three are at various stages of development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is Hiut Denim I am particularly interested
in. <o:p></o:p><br />
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While his partner Claire looks after
the business side of things, David does the marketing, which involves
generating word of mouth by talking, tweeting and blogging rather than
expensive advertising campaigns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Hieatt’s build the kind of brands that venture capitalists love to buy but can rarely
create themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are businesses
that make profit because they did not set out with profit as their sole purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are companies that start off as passion
projects, which want to make some aspect of the world better or just do
business in a better way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are full
of soul these sort of brands.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All of these companies have global
resonance but all are very specific to a locality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David calls them “town experiments”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cardigan is a market town of about
4000 people out on the western edge of Wales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Animals are still brought into the town to be sold once every week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cardigan was a port until the railway arrived
in 1886 and sea trade went into decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The last passenger train ran into Cardigan in 1962 and the last goods
train in 1963.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sea gave way to rail
which way to the road and with each shift the town moved further to the edge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The main employer in Cardigan used
to be Dewhirst, a jeans manufacturer who supplied Marks and Spencer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A decade ago they closed down and 400 jobs
were lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When 10% of a town’s
population find themselves suddenly unemployed there is a knock-on effect.
There is less money around, which is bad for the high street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The businesses that supplied the jeans
factory are also hit, more jobs are lost and so it goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The impact is more than financial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people who lost their jobs find that
there is no market for the skill they have spent a lifetime mastering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their self-worth takes a hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This industry has been a source of some pride
for the town for decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
something to tell outsiders about – “I come from Cardigan where we make 35,000
pairs of jeans a week.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is now in
the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A town loses some of its sense
of purpose when a major business goes under.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Just when it feels like the country
roads will go on forever I am suddenly in the High Street and following
directions from the hotel: past the nail bar, almost double back at the factory
shop then left into the car park.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s one of those coastal summer
evenings where shafts of hot sunshine cut sharply through thick white clouds. I
had imagined a seaside town but Cardigan is actually a mile or so up the river
Teifi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anglers fish from a road bridge
in the town centre.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The place is full of retail: shops,
bars, banks, chippies, curry houses, hotels, cafes, coffeeshops, markets,
factory outlets, small trader outlets, hairdressers, the nail bar, an outdoor
adventure place, a ‘Teepee Pizza” restaurant, a two-screen cinema, an angling shop,
an outdoor activities shop and a sports shop full of guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a few of the usual chains –
Specsavers, Tesco, Co-op– but maybe fewer than you would expect in a British
town in 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seems to be a lot of
independent businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The town has a
lot of retailers for its size but I guess it serves a wide rural community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want to eat. I look at the menus
of a few places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One stands out as being
both more adventurous and more expensive than the rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll find out the next day it is owned by
David Hieatt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I opt for local-caught
mackerel from the hotel by the river for £6.95. It came with peas and potatoes
and was good in a completely unfucked-about-with way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The clientele in the hotel seem to be mostly
tradesmen from outside the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is a regeneration project underway.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I tweet David, asking where and
when tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He replies, “down the
factory, in the morn”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s no specific time or address
so I ask the hotel barmaid where the Hiut Denim factory was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s never heard of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I start to wonder if this is
real?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is the factory an invention? Is
the only thing being manufactured here a clever bit of marketing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are the jeans imported from China?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I Google the address before I get too
paranoid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The barmaid tells me the town might
be charming looking but its boring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half
of the shops on the high street never open. She tells me that tourism has been
poor the last couple of years with the summers being rubbish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are hoping things will pick up with
the good weather we’re having this year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The beaches are beautiful but she is in her
twenties and she’d like to live somewhere big like Birmingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her friends in Birmingham think she’s mad and
would love to live in Cardigan but they don’t know what its really like to live
somewhere where half the town is out of work especially the young and a lot of
them are druggies, smoking dope all the time and occasionally going on the
rampage wrecking cars. I can sympathise as I grew up in a similar place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I wake early in the morning and not
wanting to be sitting outside the factory as it opens, I drive out to see the
beach at Poppit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is long and flat and the horizon
is broad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The surf is low and rolls in
long gentle waves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mother plays with
her toddler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone walks a dog.
Lifeguards are sorting out their kit. There’s a campsite behind with a few
tents and camper vans, one of two with dinghies beside them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is a small island off the shore that is flat, treeless and looks a bit
Hebridean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easy to see the
attraction of living here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cardigan hasn’t benefitted from the
trend for people taking their holidays in the UK that has been growing since
the crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is too hard to
reach, too far out on the edge or maybe its just not on the holidaymakers map
yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a shame, because the beach is
amazing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Later in the morning I find myself
in the industrial estate driving around and around looking for the
factory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know it is here because it
says so on their website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also says
so on the big sign by the entrance to the estate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But can I find it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I drive up to every single unit,
stare at the name and turn around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eventually I realise that the tatty, nondescript little unit that I have
passed several times and rejected, with no sign or any identifying feature
must, by a process of elimination, be the place I’m looking for. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From the outside it looks nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the door, past the office and into the factory
itself it looks great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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There are two large rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is full of workstations the other
contains a large cutting table and what looks like a very wide roller printer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The workstations are built of pitch pine and
the walls are lined with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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One of those walls is full of large
pictures of the likes of Kermit, Blake, De Niro, Hepburn, The Shining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like some weird office game is being
played out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I take your Muppet and
raise you Jack Nicholson.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out
it’s a wall of motivation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
characters are the products of creative minds, just like the jeans.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is a turntable and a pile of
vinyl is stacked on a shelf. “That’s a Linn, I must get a stylus for it” David
Hieatt says as he shows me around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Meanwhile, ELO’s Mr Blue Sky plays on the radio, loudly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m guessing the staff are in charge of
musical motivation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the cutting room, Claudio the
cutter does his cutting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’ll print a
pattern off the roller printer, which is described to me as a giant fax
machine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the pattern, Claudio will
place multiple layers of denim and cut with what looks to me like a vertical
saw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is highly skilled work and
Claudio’s role is clearly important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
is the master craftsman here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
understands concepts like sizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its
explained to me that sizing is a real skill in fashion, as just because one
person is two inches taller than another, it doesn’t mean their fly is two
inches longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes expertise and
experience to size properly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Once the various pieces of denim
are cut, they are moved next door to the machinists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are maybe 15 stations and at 5 are
machinists working away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finished jeans
are hung on rails and piled on shelves ready to be shipped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In bigger factories, a machinist
will be one part of a production line, responsible for stitching up two or
three of the many pieces of cloth that make up a pair of jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, each machinist will stitch up a
complete pair of jeans. This effectively reverses the Fordist system of
production where a task was broken down into component parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Production line systems created
alienation because the worker never got the satisfaction of making a complete
product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Craftsman got to see their skill
produce a whole, finished thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
could say with pride, “I made that.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They would put their mark on it to prove its authenticity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the craftsman, things weren’t made solely
for money, they were also made to demonstrate skill and to build
reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was part commercial and
part sentimental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The factory system
stripped out the emotional benefits in favour of efficiency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no place for sentiment in the
factory.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Hiut Denim system is closer to
the pre-industrial, cottage industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Machinists
are not called machinists here, instead they are The Grand Masters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Grand Masters get the satisfaction that
comes with being responsible for a whole product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They get to feel like craftsmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accordingly, they sign every pair of jeans
they make because, as it says inside, “an artist always signs their work.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Sentiment is returning to
manufacturing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In this little factory, patterns
are printed, cloth is cut, jeans are assembled and sent out to customers around
the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a small company with
a long reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is one of a new type of
manufacturer– micro in scale and global in ambition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could not exist without the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like a globally networked cottage
industry. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Hiut Yearbook is arriving
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an annual publication and
this will be the second edition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
both a catalogue and a book of ideas and inspirations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are articles, Bukowski quotes and
pictures from a photo-shoot on the Hieatt’s farm where young fans of the brand
wear the jeans as they help build a pizza oven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It costs £7.50 and they will ship a couple of thousand copies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Life is complicated, sport is simple.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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David and I walk into town for
breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mention an old Howies ad I
like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a film of a bloke riding a
mountain bike through a forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It said:
“life is complicated, sport is simple.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is on YouTube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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David tells me how much of a
struggle it was to convince his colleagues at Howies to let him make it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite
running his own business, he was having the same battles he would have had when
he worked in advertising except rather than having to convince clients of the
merits of an execution that tries to be more subtle than shouting buy more
stuff, now he was trying to convince his partners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic problem was the same, “they didn’t
understand that you have to make people feel something.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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David isn’t from around here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He grew up in the South Wales Valleys and
used to visit Cardigan as a teenager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
moved here with Claire in 2001 when he packed in his job as an advertising
copywriter and went on the payroll of Howies, the company he had launched in
1995.<o:p></o:p></div>
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David puts his success down to a
stubborn streak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a 16 year old he had
wanted to leave school and start his own sports shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His dad gave him £500 and he got a stall and
six months later he had lost all his Dad’s money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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He went back to school, got some A
levels, went to college, dropped out and spent a year and a half on the dole
before getting a job as a advertising copywriter at Saatchi and Saatchi when he
was only 21, which is quite an achievement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He set up Howies while working at his
next agency, AMV. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was open with his
new bosses about what he was doing and they were relaxed about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Which was handy because I probably burnt out
the photocopier”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Howies began as a T-shirt
brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In London in the late 90’s, T-shirts
were very fashionable and cycle couriers were the epitome of street cool so
David gave free t-shirts to the couriers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It felt like every courier in London was
wearing Howies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He then gave them to the famously
cool like Thom Yorke who wore his and instantly made the brand a bit cooler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also sent one to Banksy but who knows
whether he wore his.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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He did a “shoplifter” T that was
intended to set off shop alarms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also
set off alarms in the minds of the press and got the brand more publicity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By the end of the decade Howies
were growing at a furious rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They branched
out into jeans, jackets and tops for mountain bikers, surfers and skateboarders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rate of growth was exhilarating but it
felt out of control. “It was like cycling downhill and we didn’t know whether
we should put the brakes on or not.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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David began to develop the
brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wanted it to be a business that
produced a quality product while treating people well, respecting the planet
and generally being a force for good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I
hadn’t heard of Patagonia at the time but that is what I was trying to
be.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Patagonia is ethical and
green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are an outdoor activities
clothing brand who do as little harm to the environment as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They insist on a fair wage for the workers
who make its products, which are well made from quality materials. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Howies were heading down the same road.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
First the company needed to develop
some driving skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The downhill freewheeling
bike ride was going far too fast. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were chancing their luck, rebadging own label jeans and they were falling
behind fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To cap it all, two of
their main suppliers in the UK closed down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fashion manufacturing was all but dead in Britain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had moved to the east and Howies was beginning
to look stranded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
David decided he needed help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wanted to hire an experienced fashion
designer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gideon Day had worked with
Paul Smith and fitted the bill, but was expensive. David had to convince his
partners who argued that they had done it all themselves so far and wanted to
continue doing so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David argued they
couldn’t afford not to hire him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
stubbornness won the day, so to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If any further proof of the need for some expertise was needed, the
morning Day joined a case of shorts arrived from a manufacturer which were all sized
wrong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
David and Gideon immediately flew
to Hong Kong to meet one of the best jeans makers in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While out there Day started work a new range
for Howies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He designed two seasons in
two days and saved the company,” says David.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Howies continued to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They opened a flagship store in Carnaby
Street and, in 2006, sold to Timberland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The dream was to create a global, ethical, high quality brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, tension was building between the
values that David wanted to instil into the brand and the growth rate of the
business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David uses the analogy of the
natural muscle stretch of an athlete who can train hard and make themselves 10%
faster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>10% is possible, but they can’t
do 20%. This holds for business too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Grow too fast and something will break.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
At the same time it felt to David like
they had stood back from the edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were so busy growing, they were failing to be truly innovative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had the potential to be great, to be a
globally successful brand that did things properly, that was ethical, that was
green at a time when these values were beginning to really matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, growth was prioritised and corners
were cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Promises that had been made at
the time of the Timberland deal had been forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compromises had been made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It stopped feeling like the company David had
originally dreamt of creating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
There was a lesson here about the
difference between doers and advisors and the importance of not listening too
much to experts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Advisors tend not to be
entrepreneurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They advise but they
don’t do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was important for David to know
when not to be cautious as well as when not to take risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had to trust his doing instinct.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
In 2010 David and Claire left
Howies, the company they had formed 15 years earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, “for 10 years I loved Howies and it
didn’t love me back”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The first thing they did after
leaving was create a festival for doers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Do Lectures<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The Do Lectures are a weekend
festival of talks from “people who do things that can inspire the rest of us to
go and do things.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
David and Claire had launched the
Do Lectures over a year earlier, in 2008.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Its easy to imagine them scouring the web for inspiration about what to
do next themselves, discovering loads of people who have done cool stuff and
thinking it would be great to meet them all and loads of other people would
love to hear these people’s stories too and oh wait a minute, there’s an idea in
that…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The spirit of the Do Lectures is
follow your heart and the money will come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They have been happening on a farm outside Cardigan since 2008 and the
website has accumulated an amazing catalogue of films of previous speakers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
They are aimed at people who want
to find their own passion or who have a passion but want to know how to do
something about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People come to
listen to stories that “light a fire in your belly to go and do your thing, the
thing that sits in the back of your head each day, just waiting and waiting for
you to follow your heart.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Since launch, the business has
expanded and diversified and now includes workshops offering help on subjects
ranging from pulling ideas together to actually securing funding and launching a
businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also a small
publishing wing and a series of pamphlets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
In the spring of 2013 the theme was
72-hour start-up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea was to get
businesses from concept to funding over the weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the autumn of the same year the first US
Do Lectures took place in California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
next phase will be to launch a school-cum-incubator for “purpose businesses” in
2014.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
This seems a natural step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From creating a forum where prospective
do-ers can be inspired, to running workshops to help them get off the ground to
creating a place where they can get advice and support and also meet potential
investors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
It also feels innovative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are plenty of incubators for tech
start-ups, especially in east London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is not much in the way of support for businesses who are about purpose and who
are run by those who want to change something.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Get Our Town Making Jeans Again<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
By 2011 David had a new idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote a business plan then sat on it for a
year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He hesitated partly because he was
still a bit burnt by his Howies experience and partly because he wasn’t entirely
sure why he was doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His plan lacked purpose.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
He knew what he wanted to do – he’d
make jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew how he would do it –
he’d make them here in Cardigan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
hadn’t worked out why and this mattered to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Simply setting up a business to make money wasn’t enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s nothing romantic about profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Make me richer” is unlikely to capture the
public imagination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
He spoke to his designer friend
Gideon Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told Gideon about Cardigan,
about how there used to be 400 people employed making jeans in the town and how
those jobs have all gone and all that expertise is going to waste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Gideon said “isn’t that why you want to
make jeans, to bring back jeans-making to Cardigan?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
That was it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiut Denim would get the town making jeans
again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
They raised capital by selling shares, but only non-voting
shares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The founders had learned from
experience and wanted their shareholders to trust them to run the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pitch to investors was to invest for the
long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company would not pay
dividends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wanted to plough profit
back into the business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reward would
come when they became a global brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
pitch to shareholders in the Users Manual said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“t</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he compound interest of investing back into the business
will over time be far greater than giving dividends to shareholders.”</span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Most of the investors turned out to be friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In David’s view, non-voting helped protect
them from themselves, as they would not feel a duty to get actively involved
with management decision-making.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
The brand was pre-launched online by David announcing it on
his blog then talking about it regularly on Twitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This proved to be a particular effective strategy
as the company was hit with a deluge of orders as soon as they opened for
business.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
In fact, they took 6 months of
orders in the first month of trading and were struggling to cope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had started out with 3 machinists, a
cutter and a mechanic and had to find more people and equipment quickly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Rather than battening down the hatches, David turned the
crisis into a drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
On twitter he kept customers up to date with their struggles
to hire extra machinists and find more equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On one occasion he needed a truck to pick up
a machine, he asked for help and someone responded. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
There is a well-used analogy in business of a well-run
company being like a duck moving through water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Under the surface it is all frenetic equipment but the part that is
visible to the world glides calmly along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hiut Denim was an upside down duck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The furiously paddling legs were on display and it was all the more
interesting for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
The result was that rather than feeling resentful that their jeans were
not ready on time, most of those waiting felt they were in on the adventure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Building tolerance among customers proved to be invaluable
for a company this size operating on such a big stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiut Denim’s business model doesn’t allow
them to stockpile raw material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are
a small company and prefer to pay a surcharge for materials than carry the risk
of holding too much stock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They prefer
peace of mind to risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Demand isn’t consistent, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the weather gets hot, order for
heavyweight jeans declines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they
get some publicity, maybe a style mag picks up on their story, and there will
be a surge in orders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
The type of crisis they experienced at launch will happen again,
there will be another rush and orders may well be delayed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most effective thing they can do about it
is build a relationship with customers that gives them some leeway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
The flurry of media coverage that accompanied the launch and
the subsequent rushes of orders show that the ideas behind the brand were
resonating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t one idea, it was
many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some stories were about Cardigan,
some were more interested in raw denim and others wanted to talk about what the
Howies founders were now up to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As time
passed, other ideas would generate publicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the washing instructions got people talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By surrounding his product with lots of
ideas, David sowed the seeds of lots of different stories, gave the media
plenty of angles and gave potential customers lots of reasons to like and talk
about the brand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do One Thing Well<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Howies had spread from t-shirts to
jeans out across general fashion and even bags. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had tried to do too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiut Denim
would be a specialist, making jeans and nothing else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so, it would put craft on a pedestal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At launch David said, “We will spend the next
20 years becoming good at jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
won’t be duped into doing too much.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Doing things properly has been a
recurring theme since the recession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Proper burgers and pizzas, stripped-down and pared-back proper bikes,
proper beer, proper coffee, proper 35mm film photography, a proper record shop
selling vinyl, the proper medium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
discovered an appetite for things done properly, for older ideals for ideas
that had almost been lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are going
back in time, looking for something authentic from the past and then making it
relevant to the modern world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Consumers have the appetite,
entrepreneurs and artists feed the demand, stimulating more consumer
interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This dialectic is one way to
create growth out of stagnation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Hiut launched with just two
products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both were raw denim. There was
a selvedge product and an organic denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each came in regular and slim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both were for men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A women’s range came out a year
later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Raw is how denim started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raw means heavy denim material with a natural
indigo dye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raw denim is hard wearing
and long-lasting as befits a product that was popular with Klondike gold
miners. Raw denim will shrink and should be worn damp after the first wash for
a perfect fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raw denim is the authentic
version of jeans. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
In a famous Levis ad from the 1980’s,
a guy gets into the bath wearing his jeans in order to shrink them to fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was harking back to raw denim, although
the Levis they advertised now came pre-shrunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which was how we preferred our
jeans in the 80’s, along with stone washed, bleached, torn off-the-peg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With raw denim, wearing gets you the same effect,
it just takes a bit longer and when you get there, your jeans are completely
unique.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
A pair of Hiut jeans comes with
very clear washing instruction – don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least not until they have been worn for six months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wash them too soon and the indigo will wash
off evenly and they won’t look so interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If they smell, hang them out on the line or stick them in the freezer
where the cold will kill the odorous bacteria.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The jeans start off stiff as
cardboard and gradually soften.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lines are
worn into them where they crease according to how you walk and sit and only
become visible after that first wash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
By wearing them unwashed for half a year and then reshaping
them to your body while damp, the jeans become uniquely yours, reflecting how
you alone sit and move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The romantic story
of a company getting a town making jeans again evolves into a romantic story of
how you made a pair of jeans uniquely yours. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
Going that long without washing a pair of jeans may seem
gross but, in the days before washing machines in the home were popular, people
didn’t wash their clothes nearly so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Modern attitudes to washing clothes are equivalent to a sort of built-in
obsolescence; we have conditioned ourselves to wear our clothes out faster than
need be. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Washing jeans less frequently
is, like raw denim, an old idea that has new relevance today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto;">
The No Wash Club is a blog on the Hiut website for people who
adhere to the 6-month rule and want to share their stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each pair of jeans has a unique History Tag
number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That number can be used to set
up a page on HistoryTag.com. Here an owner of a pair of Hiuts can chronicle the
lifespan of the jeans using photos and tweets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like all the ideas around this brand, this is an experiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The thinking appears sound on paper: people
love the way their jeans wear and become more personalised with time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone has a mobile with a camera and
internet access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put the two together
and people can document the life of their jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they for any reason pass them on to
someone or give them to a charity shop, then the story of the jeans will live
on because its all based on that unique number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It makes sense logically but it isn’t really taking off so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it just needs a few more people to do
it for it to catch on or maybe it is just too much effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social media marketing is littered with ideas
that died because they asked too much of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the biggest fans are reluctant to do
much more than click “like” or “share” on behalf of a brand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Creative
Workers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Jeans from Hiut Denim will mostly
be worn by designers, programmers, media workers and generally people who can
wear jeans to the office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wear and
tear of the first six months will likely be around the backside from sitting at
a desk too long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few pairs of these
jeans will ever see a building site, scale scaffolding while building
skyscrapers or cross rivers in spate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They may get scuffed by the act of pedalling a mountain bike but it will
probably happen on the morning commute rather than on scree slopes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The clever thing about the 6-month
no wash rule is that it imposes a bit of hardship on the wearer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The jeans may not be put through their paces
as part of a tough lifestyle, but they will have an alternative legend attached
to them – “I wore them almost constantly for six months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I washed them I was excited and
nervous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What would they turn out
like?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The no wash rule romanticises the
product. It brings the owner into the story and makes them the protagonist with
hardship, hurdles to overcome, turning points, drama, comedy and an uncertain
ending.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Denim Breakers Wanted<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
No Wash is maybe the most memorable
thing about Hiut Denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is such a
jarring notion yet it came about due to what can be described as a fortuitous
coincidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Local regulations in Cardigan
stopped Hiut’s from washing denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
dye pollutes the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was
potentially a massive problem for a jeans maker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David’s response was to turn it to his
advantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A limitation was turned into
a point of differentiation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
People are now asking Hiut for
pre-washed jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David’s response is a
sort of surrogacy scheme called The Denim Breakers Club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea is to recruit people to wear a pair
of jeans for 6 months then wash them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They then get a share of the profit when the jeans are sold on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The end-buyer gets a pair of perfectly broken
in Hiut’s, albeit second-hand (or pre-loved as the vintage shops prefer) and
the river doesn’t get polluted.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Everyone in Denim<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Jeans are the most ubiquitous
fashion item on the planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s estimated
that half the world wears jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet
they are also the most personal of products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We all have our favourite fit and look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The desire for that personal authenticity is so keen that jeans
manufacturers long ago built it into their production process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With raw denim, the consumer has to do some
of the production themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By making them
your own jeans, you share in the creation and increase their authenticity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Authenticity is an odd notion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is always an invented concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeans were originally work wear, not
ubiquitous yet personalised fashion items.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were a hardwearing product for manual work. The original jeans
wearers wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing them for anything other than
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They couldn’t have anyway as they
were often banned in restaurants, theatres and the like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact they shrunk and faded was a design
flaw that no one worried too much about because they were, after all, only for
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brands that first pre-shrunk
and pre-washed jeans before selling them were making life a bit easier for the
consumer by making the product more convenient.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Made in Britain<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Hiut share a commitment to quality
of manufacturing and attention to detail with other British menswear brands that
have been appearing recently but they are also the only company in the UK both making
and selling their own jeans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
One of the knock-on effects of
fashion manufacturing being relocated to places like China is that it becomes
very time-consuming to get anything made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A domestic fashion industry would be useful for domestic designers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>London Fashion Week has helped put the
British fashion design on a world stage again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are plenty of people with design ideas around, there is just not
so many people capable of making those ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hiut Denim can now do in three days what it may well take months to
achieve in Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the advantage
of being small, you can experiment, run up a one off and see how it looks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps to have machinists who can each sew
up a complete pair of jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In China the production process is so broken
down that getting a few items made quickly is so complicated it is almost
impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Fashion manufacturing needs infrastructure;
it needs the likes of pattern makers, graders and machinists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a lot of skill and judgement
involved and the fact that these skills are dying is a real worry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Hieatt’s had waited a few more years a
lot of the skilled people in Cardigan would have retired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They now need to work out how to train the
next generation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
“The crash was a jolt for a lot of
people, but we think more clearly when we are scared,” says David.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We realised that Britain doesn’t make much
stuff and that we are over-reliant on the service sector, including financial
services, and that we don’t really know what they are doing and they sometimes
don’t know what they are doing either. We can’t give up the right to make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are an island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve learned that we can’t leave ourselves
in the hands of the service sector again.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Change an industry with ideas<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Creating more jobs in Cardigan will
take a bit of imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For jeans,
the product itself has been more or less nailed since Levis patented the rivet,
so the innovation has to happen around the product. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All David’s ideas - History Tag, No Wash Club,
Denim Breaker Club – are ways of innovating around the product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He imagines one day having two factories side
by side with one making jeans and the other making ideas to sell the jeans.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
This is a great time to be making
things, argues David, because technology gives you direct access to potential
customers like never before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like technology
offers a 21<sup>st</sup> century toolkit for innovation, meaning there’s never
been a better time to be a small maker.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
That toolkit is a smart phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every owner of his jeans has legs and a
phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find an idea that brings the two
together and catches the imagination and you have global fame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The playing field is now more level when it
comes to taking on bigger brands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
“Can we reignite the town?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buck the manufacturing trend?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be the most creative jeans company in the
world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The future is the mobile.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Breakfast at 25 Mile<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
After the factory tour, David and I
head into town for a late breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
place we go to is an all day eatery doing breakfast, lunch, dinner or just
coffee or a drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s got the
mid-century modern design and wouldn’t look out of place in Soho, Brooklyn or
Berlin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David is the owner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
After Hiut Denim and the Do
Lectures, 25 Mile is the third of the trilogy of his big purposeful ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Hiut
idea is to get Cardigan making jeans again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Do Lectures exist so the people who do things can inspire the rest
of us to go and do things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>25 Mile is a
local eating house that sources its main ingredients from within a 25 mile
radius.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The restaurants purpose is to
celebrate local produce and support local suppliers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason why it is relatively expensive,
compared to other places in Cardigan, is because a decent price is paid for the
produce.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The place is run by a Michelin
starred chef, the menu looks great, there’s wine and local ale and plenty of ideas
– a Keralan Curry Night is coming up and there are regular “cause workshops”
where people come together to discuss the cause they are working on, share
advice, have a meal and the best liked cause gets 25% of the nights
profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(25 miles and 25 per cent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Advertising copywriters do seem to have a
mystical attraction to ideas that are symmetrical) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The reviews of the restaurant are
positive and it adds something to the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a destination place that fills a gap in the market but its
debateable whether, as the saying goes, there is a market in the gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The obvious issue is whether there is enough
money in the town to sustain the business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A business, David say pointedly, can’t be built on sentiment alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
This is bigger than just one local restaurant,
though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the model is refined the plan
is to roll it out around the country as a franchise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cardigan is the testing ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If David can make it work here then there is
a good chance it can work in any town. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
25 Mile closed in 2014.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Town Projects<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
At the heart of all David’s
ventures is the goal of regenerating a town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hiut is about getting Cardigan working again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>25 Mile is about supporting producers around
the town. The next phase of the Do Lectures will be an incubator, based on the
Hieatt’s farm on the edge of Cardigan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
All three ideas also have much
wider relevance that Cardigan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Hiut
Denim is successful it will show that it is possible to locate fashion
manufacturing on the UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly 25
mile could prove that people are willing to pay prices that give the producer a
decent deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, the Do Lectures
incubator could send a stream of purposeful businesses into the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
British towns could do with more
revival projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the crash, what was
dubbed Tescoisation had sucked much of the life from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the process where a supermarket
opens on the edge of a town and draws business away from the high street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the same supermarket opens on the high street
and applies another turn of the screw to local businesses some of which close. More
chains move in: the off-licence, the chemist, the shoe shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This demand for space pushes up rates and
squeezes out more local businesses and eventually one town look like any other.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the crash many of the chains went
bust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had been dubbed voodoo
businesses – so geared up with debt that they could not survive a slump, they
were the walking dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their legacy was
empty shops and high rates - voodoo high streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
A regeneration one town at a time
is a romantic idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like inverse
globalisation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than the same big
brand made in one big factory being sold to people everywhere, we would have
small businesses each with a local impact, creating employment locally and
stimulating the local economy but selling around the world and collectively all
these networked shops and factories would have a big impact.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
It is a romantic idea and that is
its strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A more rational approach
would be focussed on scale and growth rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is what Venture Capitalists would focus on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the language of financial
business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this thinking doesn’t
generate many new ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>VC’s invest in
businesses but they don’t often start them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In David’s view, every VC wanted to buy Patagonia but none could have
built it, because none would have had the patience or the long-term view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes a romantic imagination and a sense
of purpose to conjure an idea out of thin air and make it happen<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Make People Feel Something<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
I had a dream the night before I
visited the Hiut factory and I woke struck by how ephemeral and fragile the
ideas around this brand are. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The difference between one make of
jeans and another is down to elusive, fleeting feelings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a lot feeling and sentient attached
to Hiut Denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The brand is about
craftsmanship, quality product, specialist skills all wrapped up in a
philosophy about doing something well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is about a town that once produced a lot of jeans, a town that is now down on
its luck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is about getting that town
making jeans again. It is about raw denim, dark indigo jeans that are not to be
washed for the first six months, which when washed will be like no othyer pair
on the planet, every crease will belong to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is about transforming the most ubiquitous fashion item in the world
into so ething totally individual and personal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
It takes a romantic mind to tease such
notions into existence, to build them into fully-fledged ideas and to take them
to the world with confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
From the industrial revolution on,
British manufacturing was driven as much by romantic dreamers as hardheaded
industrialists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the one
person was both, people like Robert Owen and his model village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The decline of British
manufacturing in the 1980’s was in many ways a failure of the imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The thinking that inspired the switch from a
manufacturing to a financial and service economy was narrow-minded and completely
lacking in romance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The manufacturing
businesses that did survive – BAE and Rolls Royce for example – are powerful
ideas, part of a national psyche and a source of pride and self-respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are premium, quality brands imbued with
notions of history, talent and innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
It takes a particular mindset to
look at manufacturing, see the romance in it and turn that into a brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeans are hard enough to make properly, but
the jeans alone are not the brand. The brand has to be made out of not cotton
and thread, but ideas and associations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Brands give people a reason to like
a product. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brands are commodities and
services we feel something for. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are
dreams articulated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To create a brand is
to get people to feel something not just about the product they buy but also
about what it represents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Hiut
Denim’s case it is about romanticising the making of something and what that
means to the people who do the making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is also about romanticising the owning and what that means to the
people who own the jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiut Denim is
a brand that romanticises makers and wearers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, it makes the wearer a maker by virtue of the washing
instructions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Wanting to get a town working again
is a romantic notion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is not
some big fashion brand doing an ad about regenerating a town – like Levis did
with their Go Forth and Work campaign where they pledged $1m dollars over two
years to the town of Braddock in Pennsylvania in return for featuring it in
their advertising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a small jeans
brand set up in its local town, employing locals and doing it for all for real
without the luxury of a big advertising budget.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Getting Cardigan making jeans again
is a romantic belief in the power of ideas to make the world a better
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hard-nosed businessman would
say that the world has moved on, that manufacturing in Cardigan is not
economically viable, that consumers aren’t willing to pay the higher prices. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The romantic believes people can understand
the true value of something made well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For decades the making of the
product has been separated from the making of the brand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nike outsourced manufacturing in the nineties
so they could focus totally on being a marketing organisation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hiut are bringing the two back together
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sitting in 25 Mile we discuss what
a business should be. Not just an investment mechanism, a means of delivering a
fast return on investment or something to be trimmed and stripped and discarded
or to be flipped, as the VC’s like to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, businesses are people’s dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are local pride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are
part of culture, not a parasite upon it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are a means of turning dreams into a living.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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That is the point of town projects,
the economy needs new ideas and rationalism alone won’t supply them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I ask David what his advice would
be to anyone starting a business:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Be narrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t do many things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apple only really has ten products.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt;">
Build a great
team<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
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Fight for it<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Know there will
be ebbs and flows<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Understand it
takes 10 years to get there<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Know what you
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 36.0pt;">
Know how
creative you need to be. Most company’s can do safe, to succeed you need to be
creative enough to make people feel something.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Summer 2013.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-9710223087004185232015-06-01T12:41:00.001+01:002015-06-01T12:41:14.402+01:00Chasing The Scream<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczWpPgcNYTno7h4dAe8eo_UIKh92duZXITjRyKvUfUHnRff9ulawOUYjlWW0YTy9Hs6qCVwLHMjOSOsR-LNYvWEmFi7Rdp2qMPQ58UJQ-P1yOUW5iBe800hLazuQ_MWF0Vui7ig0SiXc/s1600/22245552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczWpPgcNYTno7h4dAe8eo_UIKh92duZXITjRyKvUfUHnRff9ulawOUYjlWW0YTy9Hs6qCVwLHMjOSOsR-LNYvWEmFi7Rdp2qMPQ58UJQ-P1yOUW5iBe800hLazuQ_MWF0Vui7ig0SiXc/s320/22245552.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
Social disconnection drives addiction and re-connection aids recovery. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html">Good article </a>on addiction by Johann Hari who has just published Chasing The Scream</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-30579486628844158372015-02-15T14:17:00.001+00:002015-02-15T14:17:39.894+00:00Bill Drummonds Manifesto for Artists<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/jun/15/bill-drummonds-10-commandments-of-art-klf">here</a></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi34BvAB6RCNrby9AD7Jqdlm90JghAcEK5QEcGjD3wXGaW1WNZaZl4xFgkLHSXG-yiqrmDK4d2hBP1EsZpRvYeS1Adqe6uw5fZBcnZqnpx2GjIA1G50wBQ5URX8ZD3ZK67tqwnIHwBvD_w/s1600/aa4fe67b-3f1a-4f64-8528-8e0f2a8d8b07-620x413.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi34BvAB6RCNrby9AD7Jqdlm90JghAcEK5QEcGjD3wXGaW1WNZaZl4xFgkLHSXG-yiqrmDK4d2hBP1EsZpRvYeS1Adqe6uw5fZBcnZqnpx2GjIA1G50wBQ5URX8ZD3ZK67tqwnIHwBvD_w/s1600/aa4fe67b-3f1a-4f64-8528-8e0f2a8d8b07-620x413.jpeg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 Don't Make Art For Rich People</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 Make Art for Everyone</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">Don’t stand on the outside looking in, stand on the outside looking further out</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 Don’t make punk rock</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 Don’t make art bigger than yourself</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 Don’t come the rebel </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7 The Lost Commandment</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 Let your Lone Ranger ride</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9 Riot now, pay later</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10 Burn the Bridge </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11 Accept the contradictions</span></span></div>
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-16725404998279378852015-02-05T18:11:00.004+00:002015-02-05T18:11:54.080+00:00Bitter Lake<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi2V2K34N10LsNfdaznKHEG73awj22-vO1NTqhBkI9G-03_JS03V3YOOEny7KLQ30vBcdgGWYrMBX6oh0BcpVG8fwWlQoF2JaPADVu3LSriyC70TtzYcj5kK9soXhAnwJk-QfLhkttoQ/s1600/p02h7n5x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi2V2K34N10LsNfdaznKHEG73awj22-vO1NTqhBkI9G-03_JS03V3YOOEny7KLQ30vBcdgGWYrMBX6oh0BcpVG8fwWlQoF2JaPADVu3LSriyC70TtzYcj5kK9soXhAnwJk-QfLhkttoQ/s1600/p02h7n5x.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
This is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02gyz6b/adam-curtis-bitter-lake">here</a> on iPlayer<br />
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An excellent documentary about how ISIS emerged out of Al Qaeda and The Taliban and, further back, Saudi Wahabism helped by both flawed western intervention and Saudi support.<br />
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Curtis' big point is that politicians have long tried to reduce the complex to simple stories and fables, which contributed to them picking the wrong fights in Afghanistan and Iraq and ultimately failing in their missions.<br />
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Now, with ISIS, it is no longer possible to tell a simple good guy, bad guy story. Assad in Syria is a bad guy unless he's fighting ISIS then he is good. He is bad and good, something which is not simple at all.<br />
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Curtis' narrative, told through archive material and new footage is raw, shocking and dreamlike.<br />
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In the Russian sci-fi move Solaris, space travellers beam rays onto a planet to try to see if it is alive, unaware that the planet is doing the same to them, infiltrating their dreams and leaving them confused about what is real and what is not. While they affected the planet, they never stopped to ask how it was affecting them. This was used by a Russian journalist as an analogy for that countries Afghan war. The soviets went in to encourage communism without realising that the corruption and bribery of a land run by competing warlords was eating away at their soul. 100,000's returned to the soviet union affected and disillusioned. In the same way, western soldiers, aid workers, NGO staff, businesspeople and workers return from failing to create democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq struck by the strength of the enemy's beliefs and left with the feeling that we believe in nothing.</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-61269503322516708902015-01-19T10:39:00.000+00:002015-01-19T10:39:48.951+00:00The Teen Movie Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-teen-movie-manifesto-10-lessons-that-all-future-efforts-should-heed-9982857.html">here</a> and its worth a read.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyU7OTAYBeZCTGehz1i6s36CGrSsGV64f2bfcN9EnC0phyphenhyphenxejE2ynLSWSDCvw0QumH_7rQhUXw_06gHZ3QmqtwpJgTB_VEQ0ln38OKwKGVD8NubRr1TYXjF05fGSLS1zZv1leRcDZO-lU/s1600/imgres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyU7OTAYBeZCTGehz1i6s36CGrSsGV64f2bfcN9EnC0phyphenhyphenxejE2ynLSWSDCvw0QumH_7rQhUXw_06gHZ3QmqtwpJgTB_VEQ0ln38OKwKGVD8NubRr1TYXjF05fGSLS1zZv1leRcDZO-lU/s1600/imgres.jpg" /></a></div>
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-79479732396727087662015-01-19T10:35:00.001+00:002015-01-19T10:35:28.679+00:00The Content Marketing Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A manifesto for content marketing, funnily enough and <a href="http://moz.com/blog/manifesto-of-content-marketing">here</a></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-68380570992573183962015-01-16T16:53:00.002+00:002015-01-16T16:53:03.575+00:00Chipotle; Farmed and Dangerous<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
subversive content from Chipotle<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/U5_D0rdqeAs" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-9522217493528684482015-01-16T14:56:00.003+00:002015-01-16T14:56:56.972+00:0098% Pure Potato<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Account planners, discover your roots...<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="590" scrolling="no" src="http://unbound.co.uk/books/98percentpurepotato/embed" width="330"></iframe><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-14043505176534229422015-01-16T10:14:00.001+00:002015-01-16T10:17:10.227+00:00A Manifesto for Cats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At first glance I thought this manifesto thing is getting ridiculous. Also, who knew cats used snares and crossbows, I thought they all claws and teeth? Anyway, it turns out its not cats on the the march but some sensible measures for their protection from a charity.<br />
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The highlights from the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a-manifesto-for-cats-cat-charity-to-launch-its-10point-proposal-at-the-house-of-commons-9981412.html">Indy</a>:<br />
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The Manifesto for Cats<br />
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<strong style="outline: none;">-</strong> Compulsory microchipping of owned cats</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px !important; line-height: 23px !important; outline: none;">
<strong style="outline: none;">- </strong>A national database of cats entering the UK legally so those entering illegally without a rabies vaccination can be identified without delay</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px !important; line-height: 23px !important; outline: none;">
<strong style="outline: none;">- </strong>Updating the DangerousDogs Act to allow prosecution of owners whose dogs attack cats</div>
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<strong style="outline: none;">-</strong> Inclusion of animal welfare in the National Curriculum</div>
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<strong style="outline: none;">- </strong>Clear labelling of flowers, plants and household products that are toxic to cats</div>
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<strong style="outline: none;">-</strong> Outright ban on snares</div>
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<strong style="outline: none;">-</strong> Stricter regulation on the ownership of air guns and crossbows</div>
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a slightly deranged video here:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gOglW7DbHIo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-38217468069261660312015-01-06T10:52:00.000+00:002015-01-06T15:11:45.549+00:00Oh Dear<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Adam Curtis's very short film about the manipulation of public consciousness in Putin's Russia and in the UK that was broadcast on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe 2014<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wcy8uLjRHPM" width="560"></iframe><br />
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and a no holds barred critique of Curtis published on <a href="http://laurencetennant.com/bonds/pandorasdocs.html">Pandora's Docs</a></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-30743597342175117982015-01-03T18:24:00.003+00:002015-01-03T18:25:23.129+00:00Fever: the rise of European Fascism in photographs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Between the wars, every country in Europe had a fascist movement. Recession, lack of representation, anger, fear and ignorance drove them then, and drive them now. <br />
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<a href="https://www.lensculture.com/articles/paolo-marchetti-fever-the-awakening-of-european-fascism#slide-1">here</a><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-62846124979219414432015-01-03T17:15:00.000+00:002015-01-03T17:15:18.658+00:00Philosophy Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Found this <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/24/what-is-philosophy-for-alain-de-botton/">here</a> on Brain Pickings, originally from a series of School of Life animated films found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/schooloflifechannel">here</a>.<br />
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http://youtu.be/mIYdx6lDDhg</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-16949458876937438062015-01-03T17:11:00.000+00:002015-01-03T17:11:03.935+00:00Manifesto for the arts in 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Nice, very specific and pointed manifesto by David Lister of the Indy<br />
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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/manifesto-for-2015-an-end-to-audience-ripoffs-9950879.html<br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-40330707016413819472014-12-20T10:13:00.000+00:002014-12-20T10:13:16.568+00:00The Maneater Manifesto - about Hall and Oats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-maneater-manifesto-717f8ebf5d32</div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-54990311218695036712014-12-19T16:39:00.002+00:002014-12-19T16:39:46.223+00:00LOCO Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Excellent manifesto from the people behind <a href="http://locofilmfestival.com/">LOCO</a>. The London Comedy Festival is <span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">22nd-25th January 2015:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/114760986" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-43277814846604281362014-12-19T14:54:00.001+00:002014-12-19T16:32:27.036+00:00everybody looks the same<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<img alt="Image " src="http://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/citylab/2014/12/Screen_Shot_2014_12_17_at_1.17.03_PM/lead_large.png" title="20 Years of Street Photography Shows Just How Boring We All Are" />]<br />
<span style="font-family: Oxygen, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.9998874664307px;"><a href="http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/12/20-years-of-photos-show-just-how-boring-we-all-are/383781/">Here</a>, Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom captures the universal anti-style of pedestrians around the world.</span><br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-80604772438807042382014-12-19T14:23:00.003+00:002014-12-19T14:23:18.241+00:00Record Store Day and the return of vinyl<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://m.billboard.com/entry/view/id/110478<br />
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Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-87085802856716138072014-12-18T08:27:00.002+00:002014-12-18T08:27:41.443+00:00The rise of the essay<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/hazlitt/feature/how-essay-was-won-and-where-it-got-us#<br />
<br /></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-12259480119228056782014-12-15T16:25:00.001+00:002014-12-15T16:25:39.011+00:00return of books and bookshops<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/14/book-revival-james-daunt-waterstones<br />
<br /></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269538998706255891.post-43384400967626748972014-12-08T10:15:00.000+00:002014-12-08T10:15:55.481+00:00Harley Manifesto<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pXVuPsNC4uU" width="420"></iframe></div>
Phil Teerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939071320027194766noreply@blogger.com0