innovatory culture

op art ceramics with embroidered walls

2009-06-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

Kitchenware drawing on 1960s style op art and new approaches to wallpaper design are among the new products offered by Yoyo Ceramics and on view during its OPEN STUDIO showcase at Cockpit Arts in Holborn this weekend. The enterprising ceramicist Helen Johannessen, who was behind the successful Is That Plastic? hard take on Tupperware five years ago, has just launched a Blimey O Riley bone china tea and toast set and she has begun to collaborate with wallpaper embroiderer Claire Coles on innovative wall surfaces and lighting.

EIS: a new dynamic in film funding

2009-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Film clients of the Innovatory are reporting rising levels of anxiety about the funding of independent movies amid the current gaiety at Cannes. Lots of projects have been frozen despite a boom in the market for for British films and rising cinema revenues. Pre-sales deals and gap funding are proving harder to find for mid range and budget movies, broadcaster budgets are plummeting, and the UK Film Council has too little funding at its disposal to make much of a difference to most producers.

"There may be one silver lining to the cloud hanging over the sector," says director of investment Kevin Davey. "The government's recent raising of tax levels for the better off makes Enterprise Incentive Schemes - arrangements which reduce the tax burdens and liabilities of people making private equity investments - much more attractive. Many film companies have already set up EIS schemes as a way of attracting funds, retaining more control over their work, and holding onto bigger shares of their rights and profits."

Clubbed, by Formosa Films, is a good example of this increasingly common approach to fundraising. The film finance house Matador has recently closed an EIS fund for investors, but it is a very active player in the sector, having set up a total of five funds in the last eighteen months, and it is likely to open another shortly. "Setting up your own EIS is very expensive and time consuming," says Davey. "It can cost anything rom £10,000 to £40,000 in accountancy fees to administer the fund, along with months of campaigning to win over investors. But it's a new way of working that more of us will have to get used to."

Alex Ramsay silversmith success

2008-04-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

The work of award-winning local silversmith Alex Ramsay – who has just moved from a remote workshop in Hackney Wick to the sparkling heart of the diamond and jewellery industry in Hatton Garden – has been selected to launch British Silver Week at Goldsmiths' Hall in June.

Clapton resident Alex took the decision to move her studio soon after winning the silver award in the Goldsmiths' Company Craftsmanship and Design Awards earlier this year.

Many of Hackney’s creative companies are being pushed out of the borough by rising rents and property development, but in this case the relocation of the business is a success story.

“The last few months have been very exciting for me,” says Alex. “I exhibited a new collection of work at the Goldsmiths' Fair and at Somerset House, and I sold out at both shows. I also make bespoke pieces of jewellery and silverware to commission and I’ve recently finished a number of interesting projects, including engagement and eternity rings, wedding presents, candle sticks and pepper pots. So I’ve booked myself into some of the top silver shows taking place this year, and I’ve made the decision to base myself in Hatton Garden, the centre of London’s jewellery market.”

The announcement that her work will feature in British Silver week, the trade’s most prestigious fair, was made last week. “I have to design a new one-off piece to exhibit,” she says. “I’m working on a glass and silver pepper pot which will be a special limited edition with an exclusive hallmark.”

Alex Ramsay specialises in contemporary tableware which combines silver with other materials, including glass and felt. Her latest collection is inspired by the dramatic landscape of the West Coast of Scotland, where she spent a year as a silversmith in residence from 2006-7. Her memories of slate grey rocks and thundery skies threaded with silver sunlight lay behind the design of her glass and silver bowls and dishes. An ethical designer, she only uses diamonds that are certified as coming from zones free of civil war and conflict for her rings and bracelets.

Her rising sales were boosted by a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network. The money was spent on a new website which has won customers from across the United Kingdom.

There are more than sixty jewellery makers and designers like Alex in Hackney, according to recent research carried out by the Innovatory on Richmond Road. However only one third of these small businesses involve full time employment and a number are not profitable.

“The rise in gold and silver prices and the second thoughts people have about luxury purchases as consumer spending falls may hit the market, but jewellery is still, generally speaking, a booming area of sales,” says Hackney Enterprise Network business advisor Patrick Nicholson. “The strong wedding market, and new forms of body jewellery, are all driving sales. Affluent buyers are still willing to splash out for bespoke engagement and wedding rings and other high ticket jewellery items to mark special anniversaries. While Hackney is getting better at holding on to rising talent in the industry, it’s understandable that Alex wants to get closer to suppliers and buyers the top end of the London trade. In this case, Hackney hasn’t lost a business, it has gained a role model and a trailblazer. Her success lights the way for other creatives in the borough.”

People wanting something extra special for a loved one - or just for the dining table - will be able to view the work of Alex Ramsay during an open event at the Clerkenwell Studios from 15-18 May and at the OXO Tower during British Silver Week from 10-16 June.

film funding and mandrake success

2008-04-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

One of Hackney’s large cluster of film companies has found West End success in what is proving to be a difficult year for the funding of independent movies.

Backroads, a hard-hitting film on sex trafficking in the Cambridgeshire Fens, made by Mandrake Films of Dalston, has just been screened to great acclaim at the Curzon Cinema in Soho. The leading role in the film is taken by Ian Puleston Davies, a face well known from Whistleblower, Life on Mars, and Silent Witness.

“We’re following up with "I'll Be Your Mirror", a film about women and body image for Current TV,” says producer Lucy Baxter. “It’s always an uphill struggle when you’re an independent, but we’ve got several documentary, drama and multimedia projects underway, including Israel’s Children, a story about young people in the region today, and another called Memories of a Gold Smuggler, for which we’re raising funding.”

Belfast-born Lucy first got involved with filmmaking at Amnesty International and a number of her documentaries have been nominated for BAFTA awards. A live broadcast of open-heart surgery for the Wellcome Trust is another recent breakthrough for the Kingsland High Street company.

“Mandrake is blazing a trail in cinemas and on the internet that other Hackney film makers can follow, but the credit crunch is making it very difficult to raise finance and credit for new movies,” says Kevin Davey at the Hackney Enterprise Network.

The network has recently been getting advice from film funding experts at the financial services company Grant Thornton, Film London and the UK Film Council to identify a way forward for Hackney’s independent film companies.

“Putting together the funding package for an independent film is a huge and complex exercise,” says Kevin Davey. “Small budget independent films are backed by private individuals and struggling producers, and they often apply to a combination of the UK Film Council, the BBC, Channel Four and regional film funds like Film London for a significant part of their budget. Pre-release sales, partnerships with production houses and DVD and online distributors also figure in the deal. A combination of a special film tax credit, worth 20% of the budget of a movie, along with the Enterprise Incentive Scheme and bank loans – if you can get them - make up the difference.”

The UK Film Council, which invests fifty million pounds a year in new projects, is currently taking applications from film companies. Every year it distributes around £27 million from the National Lottery and £27 million from the government to support script development, film production, short films, export and distribution, cinemas, and festivals. Recent successes backed by the UK Film Council include Control and This is England.

“A tax regulation which encouraged profitable firms to invest in film as a side effect was closed last year, but fortunately two hedge funds in the city have stepped up to replace them as private investors,” says Vince Holden, Film Council’s head of production finance. “This will help a few film makers putting together movies with budgets of two to four million pounds, but small companies are unlikely to feel the benefit. There’s still a real need for a smart lender in the sector, such as a specialist bank.”

“The market for independent film is growing as internet TV channels – which are crying out for good content - grow in number,” says Kevin Davey. “However these pay lower fees than the large distributors and broadcasters, only partly easing the pressure on small firms.”

A new market for film makers is being opened up by Digital Deli, a fair trade online distributor of independent films which is being assisted by the Innovatory on Richmond Road.

“We’re really committed to the growth of the sector” says CEO Richard Ayers. “Our aim is to enable creative producers to exhibit their work in a virtual market place where they can sell movies and chat about their projects with people inside and outside their industry.”

Digital Deli sells hundreds of films online and takes a much smaller cut of revenues than larger initiatives like Joost and Hulu, which retain half of the income raised.

kylie, posh, madonna dressed by hackney

2008-03-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hackney is a pressure cooker for new fashion ideas, a place where designers from the very top end of the industry rub shoulders with aspiring newcomers to the trade. The results frequently catch the eyes – and attract the cheque books - of global celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Madonna. So it’s not an industry the borough can afford to lose.

Dalston Lane designer Christopher Kane – whose clients include Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Beth Ditto - has been grabbing fashion headlines worldwide for the last three years. One of the best known names on the British catwalk, Hackney is an important source for Kane’s work. The ideas behind some of his latest snakeskin shirts and dresses come from a camouflage T-shirt he bought in Dalston Lane as a teenager ten years ago. Kane's designs are now best sellers in the upmarket stores of Paris, Milan, Tokyo and London Angeles. This year he is launching a high street range of cashmere knitwear and jewellery for Swarovski.

Kane honed his design skills at St Martin’s School of Art, alongside Marios Schwab, another big name in the industry who is based just around the corner in Arcola Street. Schwab was recently named Best New Designer in the British Fashion Awards. This year he is using scientific body imaging – such as heat scans – to develop unusual colour schemes for his dresses. He has Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss among his regular customers.

Kylie Minogue recently commissioned Mare Street fashion designer Emma Roach to make a costume which the Australian superstar has been wearing as she promotes X, her latest album. Roach created a very striking and unique outfit which looks like body armour. “There has been strong interest from a number of other chart bands since that order,” she says. The Emma Roach studio has just been awarded a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network to purchase more computing equipment to help the young design practice.

Superstars also queue up to buy underwear from Buttress and Snatch of Broadway Market, the hottest news in the fast growing luxury underwear trade. The company is benefiting from a backlash against cheap and disposable knickers by upmarket shoppers who are fuelling a "lingerie renaissance." Designer Rachel Kenyon uses vintage trims and hand-clipped lace from the last surviving real lace company in Nottingham, and all her garments are made in the UK from local materials. Her buyers include Christina Aguilera and Madonna. Buttress and Snatch sells well in Barneys department store in New York, which Rachel says is because "I don't scrimp on the frills and fanciness."

A large number of new designers are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Kane, Schwab, Roach and Kenyon. Of these Kelly Shaw and Goodone are strong contenders.

Retro-womanswear designer Kelly Shaw recently took second place and a cash prize of £2000 in the River Island awards for garments which evoke memories of the 1950s. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have purchased three of her dresses.

Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson of Goodone, an ethical fashion business based in Tudor Road, create their garments from hand selected recycled fabric. They call this "mass producing the one-off". Goodone supplies retail outlets in London, Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow along with customers in Europe and Japan The company recently won a Trevor Campbell award for enterprise. A recent grant of £16,000 from the London Development Agency means that Goodone has time to provide advice and guidance to students and other companies on how the fashion industry can become sustainable. "We enjoy instigating positive change in the industry," they say.

All these companies expect to benefit from the extension of the tube line to Dalston over the next two years. But many are also worried about rent rises for studios and the demolition of workshops to make way for new apartment blocks.

“We need to make sure that the affordable studio and workshop spaces which attracted these growing companies to Hackney when they first started out remain a feature of the business landscape,” says kevin Davey of the Hackney Enterprise Network. “Innovative designers create new markets for businesses of all kinds in the capital, and these trailblazing small companies are precious assets in Hackney’s economy.”

masterclass on software development

2008-03-10T03:34:00.000-07:00

“If you don’t get to know the needs of your customers better, and check out their willingness to buy first, you’ll waste more money on developing new products than you will ever get back,” software millionaire Ben Finn OBE warned a masterclass for local computing companies last week.

When it comes to making money from carefully crafted software, Mr Finn – who received an OBE in 2007 for his services to the industry - knows what he’s talking about. Early last year he sold the international music notation company Sibelius to American media giant Avid Technology for $23 million.

The musically minded brothers started work on the specialist software – which was used to make movies including Billie Elliott and James Bond – when they were still at school. After twenty years of product development, clever pricing, and well chosen distribution partnerships, Sibelius is now the industry standard worldwide. The educational version of the package is also used in three quarters of the schools in the UK.

Mr Finn’s presentation converted two decades of experience into ninety minutes of expert advice. He explained how to develop radical new products and ideas, choose the right business model, set up the best distribution channels, and select the best strategies for pricing and copy protection, right through to the best way of demonstrating new products and how to pick a name for new software that customers will like and understand.

“Windows is short, evocative and memorable, and it translates well internationally,” he said. “It’s a great name for software. But the first name Microsoft came up with was ‘Interface Manager.’ It was clunky, too long, and dreamed by technicians unable to see the product from a general customer’s point of view. A bad name can kill an new and innovative product.”

He gave detailed advice on international sales, explaining that American buyers are the largest market in the world but they expect to pay half the price that software is sold for in London. “When you get a distributor in the States, you’ll still have to go there to do your own marketing,” he pointed out. “They are great at shifting boxes, but that’s all.” He also highlighted how difficult it is to make money from software sales in Asia. “You can buy Sibelius in every city in China,” he says. “The problem is, it’s all pirated. We’ve never sent a single box east, nor received a penny of income back.”

Mr Finn placed a huge emphasis on the need for companies to research the real needs of their customers, and to check that new features they are planning to add to software products really are wanted, will be purchased, and can be created at a profit before going ahead with expensive development work. He set out a detailed mechanism for prioritising the development of new features and a tested formula to analyse benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) of software development work.

“The latest trend, providing software as a hosted service, reduces the delivery costs of companies and lends itself to charging subscriptions,” he explained. “It’s cheaper to get a new software business up and running now than it was when I first started out, and that’s good. But it’s also easier to lose sight of what your customers want, and to make the same old mistakes.”

Mr Finn was speaking to a group of software architects attending a masterclass the Innovatory on Old Street, where he is an associate of the business advice team.

His words has a strong and immediate impact on the twelve companies taking part.

“I feel that the transfer of knowledge from software gurus like Ben to a company like mine is invaluable for someone like me, as I move from factory management to software development,” said Marcia Lazar, the director of F2IT in Great Eastern Street, which is designing software to manage production processes in the fashion industry.

“He was really well informed on all the key issues facing software companies which want to grow,” said Leon Tong, the manager of Bright Lemon, which builds social networking sites for the government and the British Council in its studio in Provost Street. “I’ll be putting some of his advice on marketing and pricing into practice straight away.”

"It was well worth attending," said Geoff Marchant of Coublis in Tabernacle Street. "I found Ben's comments about internationalisation, particularly differential pricing, interesting, the distribution discussion was very relevant and his views on brand names were entertaining."

The masterclass was sponsored by the Gateway to Investment, which has helped more than thirty new companies in London raise a total of £22 million of private equity investment over the last two and a half years.

top end but temporary apartment hotels

2008-03-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

Eye catching temporary apartment hotels could be erected in the north and south of Hackney over the next few years, before being donated to charities for the homeless, as the result of a radical design breakthrough by local architect Tim Pyne.

Sclater Street in Shoreditch has been selected as the most likely first location for a pioneering thirty two unit self-catering hotel which will take only nine weeks to build, and operate for eight years, before being taken apart and relocated to another piece of wasteland somewhere else in the capital.

The M-hotel – pronounced motel - is a development of the highly acclaimed M-house, a luxurious two-bedroom metal bungalow Pyne designed with Michael Howe of Mae Architects.

The apartment units are made from insulated aluminium panels and lined internally with plaster walls. Made in Newcastle, they contain state of the art kitchen and bathroom fittings, and top end furnishings in the living and sleeping areas. The apartments, each of which has a balcony, slot into a customised steel rack, and are designed to last one hundred years in a changing series of locations..

“At average rental costs for the area the self-catering units will pay for themselves within twenty four months,” Pine explains. “The new hotels will put unused land waiting for development to good use, and give a better return to landowners than temporary car parks, an all too common use of land in limbo. They will draw the European business people arriving to work in the City’s new skyscrapers into Hackney, which will benefit from higher council tax revenues and increased spending in local shops, bars and restaurants. At the moment international business staff are often put up in hotel chains or distant suburban flats with long commute times. Temporary self catering hotels of this kind are also an obvious way to accommodate people working on Olympic projects in the north and east of the borough over the next four years.”

The hotels could turn Hackney’s backstreets into designer locations. “Attractive visual branding from fashion labels like Paul Smith and Prada will be mounted on the external panels of the hotels, sharing and promoting their visual cool,” he says. “Olympic sponsors may also be interested in this feature.”

As well as providing much needed accommodation for the growing international business community, at high speed and low cost, Pyne believes that his innovation will benefit some of the poorest people in the capital too.

“I would like to think that when the apartments are removed from temporary sites, having paid for themselves many times over, the units could be given to charities so that homeless people and couples caught in miserable, temporary accommodation could benefit from them,” says Pyne. “I believe that many large companies could be persuaded to do this. I also think that housing associations and charities will realise that units of this kind can be deployed more quickly than traditional new build, and can complement their modernisation plans.”

“The M-hotel is an innovation with potentially huge local benefits,” says Patrick Nicholson, a construction specialist at the Hackney Enterprise Network. “Hackney’s daytime workforce in Broadgate and in the Olympic Park will get local accommodation, landowners will get higher rental income, local traders will get increased business, the Town Hall will get more Council Tax, and charities and the homeless will get a valuable trickle down too. It’s a great idea.”

Pyne’s rapid assembly, mobile M-Hotel has already generated enquiries from developers in Libya and Dubai, from enthusiasts for extreme sports who need accommodation near mountains and glaciers, and from the organisers of an international sports event shortly to take place in Africa.

recycled fabrics key to sustainable fashion

2008-02-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

The innovative design work of goodone, an ethical fashion business based in Tudor Road, Hackney which uses only recycled fabrics, features in a recent online report by Clare Davidson for the BBC.

Goodone - which supplies retail outlets in London, Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow along with customers in Europe and Japan - is run by Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson.

The company "mass produces the one-off" by creating individual garments from a unique combination of hand selected recycled fabrics.

The company won a £15,000 Trevor Campbell award for enterprise in 2007. A more recent grant of £16,000 from the London Development Agency has enabled goodone to provide advice and guidance to students and other companies on how the fashion industry can become sustainable.

"We enjoy instigating positive change in the industry," they say.

hackney's fashion vanguard: kane and schwab

2008-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Dalston Lane designer Christopher Kane – whose clients include Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Beth Ditto and Swarovski - has been grabbing the headlines as London Fashion Week looms, along with risk-taker Marios Schwab - who is also based in Hackney. Both designers honed their skills at St Martin's School of Art.

In her survey of East London based designers for the Observer, Sarah Mower calls Kane "the 25-year-old Glaswegian poster boy for London's latest fashion surge."

Christopher Kane's designer clothing is available from upmarket outlets worldwide, including Browns, Dover Street Market, Barneys, Corso Como, Villa Moda, Maria Luisa in Paris and Quatar, Joyce in Hong Kong, Corso Como in Milan, Tokyo and Seoul, Ikram in Chicago, Maxfields in LA, Comme des Garcons in Tokyo, Sotris in Athens, Elle in Perth, and Podium in Russia.

new wave of eco-building in hackney

2008-02-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

The Olympic organisers and the developers in Broadgate aren’t the only people erecting futuristic buildings in Hackney. The borough is now attracting some of the most innovative architects in London, and they are using wood, straw, recycled materials and wind turbines in their attempts to reduce the local impact on the environment. And Hackney’s school leavers are also about to get the chance to train as pioneers in the new building techniques.

Plastered bales of straw are the main material used in an innovative new building at Hackney City Farm in Goldsmith’s Row, where a training centre designed by the environmental experts Amazonails has recently opened.

“The foundations of the centre are rammed earth tyres, and the bale walls are plastered with lime and clay recycled form the farm’s own pottery,” says Emma Appleton. “The main cross beam of the building is made of greenheart wood, a tropical hardwood reclaimed from the Norfolk sea defences. We also salvaged a teak boat from the 1930s that has been stripped down to make the desks in the room.”

Cath Hassel of Ech20 was the first teacher to use the space, in a workshop on water efficiency for Town Hall staff. “This is the best room I have ever trained in,” she says. “It has warm natural light, and uses natural materials. The interaction between the delegates was really high and I’m convinced the room aided that.”

“This building points the way forward for companies looking for less environmentally damaging forms of creating homes and workspace,” says Patrick Nicholson, a construction specialist at the Hackney Enterprise Network. “The materials for a house built with straw bales cost significantly less than brick and block. The outlay for a family-sized strawbale house in the UK would be about £60,000 plus the price of the land. Plastered strawbale walling has a surprisingly high level of fire resistance, and the UK currently produces 4 million tons of straw a year more than it needs. This is sufficient to build 250,000 well insulated and affordable new homes a year.”

Strawbale building techniques will be demonstrated at this year's Ecobuild show, an annual event dedicated to sustainable forms of design and construction, at Earl's Court from 26-28 February.

Hackney Council recently granted planning permission for a nine-storey tower in Murray Grove in Shoreditch which the architects, Waugh Thistleton, say will be the world’s tallest timber residential building.

The Stadthaus will be constructed using an Austrian solid timber system with wood from sustainable spruce forests, giving the tower – which will only take nine weeks to build – an unusually low carbon footprint. The stair and lift cores, load-bearing walls and even the floor slabs will all be constructed entirely from timber. Demand for the nineteen flats in the tower was extremely high and all the apartments were reserved on a recent launch day.

Waugh Thistleton’s designers are also the brains behind the fourteen storey Kinetica, fifty six apartments and three floors of commercial space to be built in Ramsgate Street, behind the Kingsland Shopping Centre, by 2010.

The futuristic tower is specially designed to harness wind power, which will be captured on its south side by four vertical turbines designed and installed by wind technology experts Quiet Revolution. Any renewable energy generated by the turbines which is not used by the residents will be forwarded to the National Grid.

The building will also have a very unusual façade – pixillated like an over-enlarged photograph - inspired by the images produced by German artist Gerhad Richter. The external surface will consist of thousands of black, grey and white panels made from waste timber.

Kinetica will be launched at the Hoxton Hotel on Great Eastern Street on Wednesday 20th February.

“These ground-breaking new buildings are pointers to the way the construction industry is moving,” says Dave Geddes, who runs a specialist centre for new construction techniques at Hackney Community College on Falkirk Street. “That’s why we are launching a new Diploma for 14-19 year olds in construction and the built environment in September. The next generation of architects and builders will need to be experts in low carbon footprint buildings which draw on renewable energy sources, and the college intends to stay at the cutting edge of the industry.”

The new qualification in construction and the environment is a joint initiative linking the college and Stoke Newington, Haggerston and Cardinal Pole schools.

“The construction industry is booming in Hackney, but it’s also changing its spots at the same time,” says Patrick Nicholson. “Local builders, and people buying or commissioning new buildings locally, are being forced to reduce their impact on the environment by high energy prices, new regulations and public opinion. Every building firm, and young person thinking of entering the industry, must move with the times and play their part in making London a more sustainable and cleaner city to live in.”

hackney's house of straw is sign of buildings to come

2008-01-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

Plastered bales of straw are the main material for an innovative new building at Hackney City Farm, an education and training facility completed by Amazonails in December. The building points the way forward for companies and clients looking for sustainable and less environmentally damaging forms of construction over the years ahead.

The materials for a house built with straw bales cost about the same as those needed for a conventional timber-frame house, but significantly less than brick and block. A family-sized strawbale house in the UK would cost about £60,000 plus the price of the land. The UK currently produces 4 million tons of straw a year more than it needs. This is sufficient to build 250,000 homes a year.

Strawbale buildings are not the fire risk you might imagine. They have been subjected to rigorous testing by Amazonails, who say that the bales resist burning for the same reason it is difficult to burn a telephone directory. It is easy to set fire to one page, but not to a dense block of paper. When plastered, strawbale walls have an even greater resistance to fire.

Design consultant Barbara Jones, the director of Amazonails, recently supervised the construction of the largest strawbale building in the UK, the new offices and auction room of fine art auctioneers G E Sworder and Sons of Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, which will open in May. The building was constructed using a new technique called ‘compressive framing’ in which the roof is supported on a timber frame while the strawbale walls are constructed. It is then lowered onto the strawbales, which become the loadbearing structure. The roof then protects the strawbale walls from the weather while they are being plastered.

Strawbale building techniques will be demonstrated at this year's Ecobuild show, an annual event dedicated to sustainable forms of design and construction, at Earl's Court from 26-28 February.

luxury underwear by buttress and snatch

2008-01-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

The Hackney company Buttress and Snatch recently featured prominently in a Guardian survey of the growing luxury underwear trade. Journalist Leonie Cooper writes of a "backlash against disposable fashion" and a "lingerie renaissance" which includes "a flourishing of upmarket, bijoux underwear brands."

"Rachel Kenyon fell in love with underwear thanks to her glamorous French grandmother's pink boudoir. A fashion graduate of Bristol UWE, she now runs the frilly and silly underwear label Buttress and Snatch, which has fast become a burlesque favourite. When it was founded in 1999, however, it was nothing more than a lighthearted performance-art project. "We were all about dressing up fancy and showing off," says Kenyon. "It wasn't called burlesque or anything then. It was quite a funny joke to dress up like olden-days ladies when we'd all spent years being scruffy punk rockers." Now Kenyon's flamboyant bloomers are worn by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Madonna, and over the past year Buttress and Snatch has racked up top underwear sales in Barneys department store in New York, which she attributes to the fact that "I don't scrimp on the frills and fanciness".

Kenyon admits she always has a waiting list for her showy designs: "I've never been able to keep up with making enough pants for everyone who wants them!" Kenyon's underwear is less than cheap because of her time-intensive methods and use of deluxe but ethical fabrics. "The clothing industry these days is all about mass production, globalisation, cost cutting and maximising profits rather than craftsmanship, tradition and beautiful things," she laments. She uses vintage trims and hand-clipped lace from the last real lace company in Nottingham, and all production takes place in the UK with local materials, to support the British fabric industry."

is 2008-12 cultural olympiad a business opportunity?

2007-12-04T02:54:00.000-08:00

The Cultural Olympiad – a programme of arts and cultural activities which is being set up to showcase British talent and innovation to the world - will run for the four years leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games. It starts next August, immediately after our athletes return from Beijing. For many local companies, the Cultural Olympiad will be first real chance to benefit from the preparations for 2012. But at the moment the plans are rather vague, the funds are in short supply, and there is not much focus on the involvement and opportunities for local businesses.

So far, very few Hackney firms have managed to become suppliers to the organisers of the Olympic games. McGrath Brothers in Hackney Wick, who are helping with demolition and rubble disposal, are a notable exception. A number of local businesses have actually shut down due to land purchases and road closures near the construction site, including nine out of thirty nine pubs that used to be in the E3 postcode near Bow. The Lighthouse pub in Wick Lane, near the now virtually unused Pudding Mill Lane station, says that it has lost 70 per cent of its trade this year.

So the Cultural Olympiad will be the first major Olympic business opportunity for local companies, and perhaps the only one for the many cultural and arts businesses in Hackney. The plans include regional celebrations and showcases of local talent, thousands of community events, contracts for film and video makers, a World Cultural Festival, an International Shakespeare Festival, and an international Museums Exhibition.

Last week the Hackney Enterprise Network took part in a discussion about the content and purpose of the Cultural Olympiad with Baroness Lola Young, a cross bench member of the House of Lords, and Keith Khan, the Head of Culture for London 2012.

“Barcelona and Sydney used the cultural events associated with the Olympic Games to reposition the host city and host country in the eyes of their own communities and of the world,” says Baroness Young. “The Cultural Olympiad is a chance to boost regeneration and employment in London, to develop skills, to widen participation in the arts, and to discuss Britishness. Perhaps we can come together for this one moment, healing our divisions and overcoming our lack of social cohesion. But to do that a clearer, more precise vision for the Cultural Olympiad is required.”

“These aims are important, but too many people see the Cultural Olympiad as an opportunity for handouts to minority arts,” says Marek Simon of Digital Sport, an online gaming company in Shoreditch. “If the benefits are to be long term, the arts and cultural sector will have to become more businesslike, setting up partnerships around the themes of the Cultural Olympiad with enterprises from the private sector. The funds for performances and exhibitions should come from satisfied paying customers, not government sponsors. The Cultural Olympiad should help the arts to pay their own way, not foot the bill.”

There does appear to be a gap between the aims of the scheme and its ability to pay. Arts organisations nationwide have pointed out that government and lottery cash for the arts has recently fallen by £300 million as funds have been reallocated to preparations for the Olympic Games.

“Financially, things will be very tough for the culture and arts sector,” Baroness Young admits. “But we can’t let this once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate our diverse cultures pass, so we must do what we can with the funding available. Large scale projects are important, but I’d particularly like to see more small organisations helped to do local events with small amounts of money.”

“London is going to integrate the Cultural Olympiad with its plans to regenerate the East End, improving education, local life, skills and employment,” says 2012 Head of Culture Keith Khan. “The Cultural Olympiad is central to turning our communities around, and making London a world class city once again. It is a major opportunity for the cultural and creative sector, and for young people, and it will leave a strong legacy.”

In the division of tasks between the five Olympic boroughs, Hackney Council was given overall responsibility for cultural activity related to the Games.

The Cultural Olympiad will be discussed at a Hackney Enterprise Network Christmas event on Tuesday 11 December from 6-9pm at the Old Ship in Hackney. Cllr Guy Nicholson will be talking about the prospects for local business in 2008 and Mike Mulvey, the Chief Executive of the London Business Network, will be talking about Olympic opportunities. For further details email events@hackneyenterprise.net or call 020 7553 3024

shoreditch hairdressser in religious discrimination case

2007-11-15T03:30:00.000-08:00

Sarah Desrosiers, a hairdresser living in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch is being sued by a muslim woman who wears a traditional headscarf. Bushra Noah failed to secure a job as a stylist in the fashionable Kings Cross salon Wedge in March. Sarah Desrosiers says for her business to succeed her staff must embody the values and image of the salon, which provides urban, funky haircuts, and an individual wearing a headscarf cannot do this. Bushra Noah claims that this is an example of religious discrimination.

"The essence of my line of work is the display of hair," says Sarah Desrosiers. "To me, it's absolutely basic that people should be able to see the stylist's hair. It has nothing to do with religion. Ihave never discriminated against muslims. My name is being dragged through the mud and I feel victimised."

Bushra Noah is suing the salon for £15,000 in a case that will be heard in January.

"Wearing a headscarf is very important in my religion and non-negotiable," she says. "It has always been my ambition to be a hairdresser but I have given up now after being rejected twenty five times. It is always because of my headscarf whether they say it or not."

hackney designer kits out kylie

2007-10-30T05:00:00.001-07:00

Mare Street based fashion designer Emma Roach has been meeting regularly with singer Kylie Minogue, who has commissioned her to design and deliver a costume which the Australian superstar will wear during An Audience with Kylie Minogue, a programme which will be broadcast in late November, coinciding with the release of X, her tenth studio album. The unique garments have the appearance of body armour. Emma Roach has just been awarded a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network to purchase computing equipment for use in her fast growing design practice.

future of television takes shape in hackney

2007-10-29T02:38:00.000-07:00

Television is being transformed by internet TV channels, audience participation and voting, new programmes for mobile phones and other portable devices, and the introduction of links to online communities, information services and shopping services. A large number of the small, innovative companies involved in this work can be found in Shoreditch, in the south of the borough.

More than twenty local media companies attended a forum on the future of television at the Innovatory last week to discuss the new business opportunities which are opening up in the sector. The event – jointly organised with the Hackney Enterprise Network – brought together buyers and commissioning editors from major channels and fifteen Hackney-based documentary, video and film companies.

“The market for television and related activities is growing very rapidly, by almost twenty per cent a year,” Kevin Davey of the Innovatory told the audience. “At the same time, traditional broadcasting is coming to an end. The new wave of television expansion is interactive. The new programmes sought by commissioning editors are cross-platform - linking television, radio, and the internet - and in many cases they are also participatory, featuring viewer feedback and questions, viewer voting and the growth of online communities.”

“The companies which will succeed are those who can take existing genres and formats and flip them, transform them, or subvert them with something more edgy,” said Jo Taylor, the manager of 4Talent, the Channel Four outreach team which searches for new suppliers and fresh ideas for programmes “Creatives should identify the participatory, cross-platform potential of their ideas right from the start, and like all media start up companies, work with stronger partners who already have a track record if they can’t deliver it themselves.”

“Channel Four has no in house production of its own,” she told the forum. “So we need new companies to pitch strong new ideas to us all the time. We’re actively looking for a new generation of talented programme makers to come up with proposals which are right for our viewers, who are younger than those watching BBC and ITV. And we are opening our doors to smaller production companies. We are determined that 20% of the new work we commission next year will come from businesses with turnovers of less than two million pounds.”

Channel Four encourages production companies to place sixty second and three minute test programmes on the Microdocs and FourDocs areas of its website. These are continually reviewed by commissioning editors and fees are paid for the best, which are then broadcast. The channel also offers a professional summer school and regularly assesses new movie scripts through its Extreme Cinema scheme.

Rishi Sankar, an Eastenders producer at the BBC, has just been appointed as the commissioning editor for Ability TV, a new channel which will launch next year. He explained that the new channel was looking for companies to make radical new programmes that would actively involve young viewers through web cams, blogs, audience stringers, and citizen media.

“Choice and opinion are highly valued by young viewers,” he said. “In order to be successful, soap operas, dramas, comedy slots, music and magazine programmes all need interactive and multi-platform components that will involve and retain them as viewers.”

“Imagine watching a show which includes a review of a computer game you’re interested in,” said Alestir Waller, the head of channel for Ability TV. “The kind of programme we intend to buy will offer you a trial run of that game in a separate window on your screen while you’re watching the show, then let you comment on the game via a web cam, and see your views broadcast before the programme ends.”

Other east London channels taking part in the event included Greenzone, a shopping channel for environmentally friendly products, and YourkindaTV, which transmits an interactive stand up comedy programme that allows the audience to heckle and vote online. Rarekwai, Hackney’s street art and underground music channel, Glocal films, which is developing a video exchange linking young people in the UK with the Third World, and the ecommerce software company Coublis also took part.

“In television today, the old divisions between creatives, technologists and audiences are being eroded,” says Patrick Nicholson of the Hackney Enterprise Network. “To win commissions in the fast-changing media business, creatives must start to work with technology, telecommunications and web experts who know how to bridge formats, deliver participation, and build online communities. South Hackney has exactly the right mix of companies for that to happen.”

two years of success for London Bites theatre business

2007-10-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

The Hackney-based company London Bites, which brings writers, actors, and theatre directors together for informal public performances of new work every month, has a lot to celebrate on its second birthday, including a pat on the back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a grant to help build the business over the year ahead, and a new franchise in South Wales.

A glitzy anniversary party was hosted by comedian Shazia Mirza – who has been described as the “Lenny Bruce of female stand-up” - at the Top Floor Bar @Turnmills in Clerkenwell. Talented actors performing new work on the night included Martin Miller, Esther McAuley, Karen Osenton and Andrew McGillan.

For the last two years London Bites has been helping scriptwriters to secure commissions, actors to get work, and London’s theatre directors to book the best new talent in the capital.

For one evening every month, up to twelve performers - who have been selected by audition - perform five minute sets of new drama and comedy onstage in front of directors, industry professionals and the public.

Organiser Claire-Louise English has exactly the right background and connections to make the gatherings succeed. The Hoxton-based manager of London Bytes is the daughter of the actor and comedian Arthur English, probably best known for his role as Mr Harman the maintenance man in the TV series Are You Being Served?

“We are always looking for new talent for our show,” she says. “We audition every month and we’re looking for five minute monologues and ten minute duologues. We welcome new writing. If you have a script that you would like to see performed, this is the place to do it.”

“I am doing great since my appearance in Superhero at London Bites,” says actor Dylan MacDonough. “I got a show from it, which led to an agent, which led to a job in television. It’s an approach that works.”

“London is a world centre for performance and composition, but the opportunities for professionals to meet and perform with other actors and writers are actually few and far between,” says the founder of London Bytes, Melissa Leigh. “We provide an informal atmosphere in which performers and writers can demonstrate their work, free from the normal constraints and pressures of a conventional showcase.”

The theatre world has begun to sit up and take notice. A report from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival recently praised London Bites for “introducing excellent new theatrical acting and writing talent to audiences and the media via high quality and compelling shows.”

London Bite’s networking and performance events have also won sponsorship by Spotlight, the main casting directory for stage and screen.

Work is now underway to franchise the pioneering arts business out to theatre professionals in other cities in the United Kingdom, with the support of a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network.

The first of these new ventures, Cardiff Bites, is already up and running in South Wales, and holding auditions. Its first shows will be held in November.

“It is notoriously difficult for new writers and actors from east London to get onto the radar of the theatre establishment,” says Patrick Nicholson of the Hackney Enterprise Network. “London Bites opens doors and makes introductions that matter, as well as laying on a very good night out for everyone involved. It is a theatrical innovation that has begun in Hackney and I will believe it will be replicated across the country.”

To contact London Bites, email clare@standupdrama.com or call 02079232295.

hackney-china trade is growing

2007-10-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

Half the world’s computers, clothes and digital electronics are made in China, and more than three quarters of the childrens’ toys distributed around the planet come from its huge factories. Clothes, toys, furniture and shoes that used to be manufactured in workshops in Hackney now come from assembly lines in Chongqing, Shandong and Huangzou. So it’s no surprise that Hackney’s small businesses are starting to reach out to Chinese suppliers and share the benefits of low labour costs and high volume production.

Local regeneration expert and executive coach Chris Hadley has just returned from his third trip to China in three years. Earlier this week he briefed the Hackney Enterprise Network on his tour of Wuhan, Jinzhou, Yichang and Beijing, during which he visited commercial ports - including Han Kou, a major centre for the transport of coal and aggregates – as well as temples, and the monastic centre of Tai Chi culture at Wu Dang Shan, accompanied by inward investors and science and innovation specialist Julia Knight of the British Consulate in Shanghai.

“Even China’s smaller cities are now highly developed and entrepreneurial, with good road and river-based transport systems” he says. “New office buildings are going up everywhere. China now has a huge middle class. Life at every level is commercial, with traders and shops and small factories everywhere you go, and evidence that the peasants are beginning to prosper too. It’s an extremely enterprising society, and this gives rise to a huge contrast between the urban bustle, and the transport of raw materials and manufactured products through the countryside and along the rivers, and the scenic beauty of the mountains and rural areas.”

Chris Hadley travelled with the north London-based Meridian Society, which has devised an innovative way to teach Chinese using the Tian Di Ren (time, place, person) system based on the Chinese sentence structure. The society is also planning a summer school in a village outside Beijing, where visitors will teach local learners English in the mornings, and the be taught Chinese in the afternoon.

In Beijing Chris Hadley also met with Matthew Kelly, who helps local businesses trading with the Chinese capital on behalf of the Innovatory on Old Street. Mr Kelly links Hackney businesses with Chinese manufacturers, exporters, and freight forwarders, making introductions, assisting in negotiations, and ensuring that goods reach shops and businesses in the borough on time and in good shape.

“We’ve been opening doors for Hackney firms for the last two months, with interest mainly coming from the garment, print and construction trades,” Matthew Kelly reports. “We’ve also been helping to provide interpreters and translation, to source samples and prices, and to arrange shipments, helping small firms in Hackney avoid the many pitfalls which exist in international trade. There’s a growing appetite for goods from China in the borough.”

“The price and quality of the MP3 music players we’ve from Beijing beats anything we were able to source in Europe,” says Hackney Wick electrical wholesaler James Wilcox.

“We’ve been importing reclaimed building materials,” says Alan Davis of Redecor in Homerton. “Even with the transportation costs factored in, they cost only 25% of the going rate in Britain.”

On Tuesday night Michael Sinclair, the chair of the Stoke Newington Business Association, launched yet another service which will help Hackney businesses overcome the barriers to trade with China.

“ChinaOnecall is an interpreter in your pocket,” he says. “It provides a twenty four hour telephone link to Chinese staff who are fluent in English and Mandarin. The interpreters will speak over your phone to hotel staff, taxi drivers, business managers and ordinary people on the streets of Chinese cities.“

“There will be no need for a business to feel friendless and misunderstood in China again,” says Mr Sinclair. “One call to us and you’ll be on speaking terms with everyone around you.”

To contact the Meridian Society email mecs@meridiandao.co.uk To contact Matthew Kelly email Beijingoffice@theinnovatory.com For more information on ChinaOnecall visit www.chinaonecall.com

hackney hairdresser goes to broadgate for growth

2007-09-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

Opera star Jordene Soprano swapped the Royal Festival Hall for Hackney last week to serenade VIPs from the beauty business at the glitzy opening party of high fashion hairdresser IDENTITY UK's brand new salon close to the foot of the new Broadgate Tower in the south of the borough.

IDENTITY UK, which was recently awarded five stars in The Good Salon Guide, has trebled its workforce and increased its overheads as a result of the move from Kingsland Road to Shoreditch High Street, but award-winning stylist Tony Hegarty and his business partner Mikey Varellas are both confident that their business will grow rapidly in its new location.

The thirty five storey Broadgate Tower, just a few steps from IDENTITY UK’s front door, is still under construction but once it is completed in the summer of 2008 it will be the workplace of up to 15,000 people.

Currently the tallest building under construction in the capital, the fast-rising tower already blocks Hackney’s old view of the Gherkin in St Mary’s Axe just behind it.

Fashion and beauty professionals from L’Oréal, IZANI and KMS packed the two storey salon for the launch party to hear singer Jordene Soprano, who was drafted in from the South Bank where she is currently performing in the musical Carmen Jones.

They were also treated to a spectacular live show in which models sporting innovative modern European, Afro and mixed race hairstyles paraded in front of champagne-sipping guests.

“After outgrowing our original premises in Kingsland Road, where we were based for six years, it took a long time for us to find a larger location with new opportunities to reach more customers,” says Mikey Varellas. “But now we’re in our new home, business is booming.”

Architects, managers and builders working on Broadgate have been among the first customers visiting the Shoreditch High Street venue.

The ultra modern salon has ten styling stations, a L’Oréal Colour Lab, a MIZANI consultation area and two beauty rooms offering a wide range of beauty treatments, manicure, massage, reflexology, thermostraightening and AromaSteam.

"This place is a sanctuary, giving the best haircuts in London,” says customer Hope Harriott.

“Our stylists are highly skilled professionals who have won many awards,” says Tony Hegarty. “But every client leaves our salon with a first class haircut that hasn’t broken the bank.”

“The relocation of IDENTITY UK is part of a clear trend for successful retailers, restaurateurs, software developers and providers of professional and personal services to move to the south of the borough, where more affluent customers and business clients can be found in larger numbers,” says Kevin Davey, the senior business advisor at the Innovatory on Old Street.

“Hackney’s most ambitious entrepreneurs are prepared to take the risk of the higher rents charged on the fringe of the City, and the cost of providing higher quality goods and services to clients in the area, because the rewards are much higher too. For this reason the push towards the south is likely to continue even after the tube line is extended to Hackney.”

The change of premises and expansion of IDENTITY UK was assisted by a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network which helped to pay for the salon’s new shopfront.

designer kelly shaw wins river island fashion award

2007-06-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hackney fashion designer Kelly Shaw has won second place and £2000 in this year's River Island awards for her 1950s style womenswear. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have purchased three of her dresses. "I've been trying to push the boundaries of fashion, rather than just staying inside them," Kelly told the Hackney Gazette, adding that the work of photographer Martin Parr is an inspiration for her designs.

three million pounds for shoreditch software pioneers

2007-05-10T05:53:00.001-07:00

A Hackney company has won three million pounds from American investors to boost sales of a groundbreaking piece of software called SONAR, which will revolutionise the way in which businesses manage their information.

The deal is the first major investment in a new generation of business software, known as Enterprise 2, which has taken place anywhere in Europe.

Trampoline Systems, based in Old Aske’s Hospital, a former almshouse in Buttesland Street, Hoxton, has signed up to the deal with the Boston-based Tudor Investment Corporation, which specialises in new internet infrastructure and information technology companies.

Trampoline’s software transforms the way in which news, knowledge and ideas circulate and are used in businesses. The software uses the results of personal research into how small communities pass on new information – which Mr Armstrong carried out for twelve months in the Scilly Isles – to change the way in which emails, documents and data are distributed in large organisations.

“When I completed the research, I saw that most business software today works against the methods humans have evolved to distribute information,” says Mr Armstrong. “We have built the SONAR platform to support human instincts rather than disable them. It pinpoints centres of expertise, recognised and unrecognised, in a social network or organisation, and it relays new and incoming knowledge to where it is needed.”

“SONAR brings the statistical processing of natural language and social network analysis to the problem of browsing and filtering large archives,” chief technologist Craig McMillan explains. “We permit users to see who is talking to who, how much and about what. There are applications in areas including the discovery of expertise, compliance, forensics, searching and alerting.”

Trampoline was formed in 2003 with seed finance from funds and private investors in San Francisco, London and Tokyo. The company was helped in its recent search for funds by the Gateway to Investment service operating from the Innovatory on Old Street.

Over the last twelve months the business has gone from strength to strength. The SONAR system has been snapped up for use by the global defence and aerospace company Raytheon, as well as by the Foreign Office and Channel 4 Television. And in February Trampoline brought the Oracle UK Innovation Award back to Buttesland Street from a glitzy ceremony in Canary Wharf.

The company will be using the £3million investment to strengthen its sales activity, particularly in the United States, and to boost the company’s software development.

“It’s been an amazing experience coming from research on a remote island to being a successful technology start-up,” says chief executive Charles Armstrong. “The next stage of the journey is going to be even more exciting.”