As if eating, living, sleeping all under one roof wasn’t enough, there are couples out there who work together, too! We spotted these couples out in the wilderness, and captured them for an interview. (Translation: we asked them for an interview, and they agreed.)
Bishop, Please
Tell us the story of how your creative collaboration began, and what inspired you to work together professionally?
We (Adam and Bethan) started making greeting cards 8 years ago because Bethan’s family is far too big, and we were fed up with buying so many generic cards. Turns out we are both pretty good at making unique and niche cards.
What strengths do you have individually, and how do they complement each other in your creative work?
Bethan’s very good at coming up with ideas for new designs, and Adam’s very good at illustrating the initial design. We only work well as a team, we are poopy on our own.
Do you find that your personal relationship influences your creative work? How do you strike a balance between the two?
Yes! A lot of our content is centred around ‘love’ and being ‘in love’ (which luckily, we are.) And to be honest, we don’t have a balance between the two because we genuinely love our jobs, so we are always working.
What 3 pieces of advice do you have for other couples looking to collaborate in the creative industry?
Make sure you actually like each other. Make sure you are properly honest with each other or you won’t get very far. Make sure your work is centred around the same interests you have (for example, Adam loves football and Bethan doesn’t. Hence why we don’t do football cards.)
Do you have similar aspirations as a couple in your creative careers?
We do. We aren’t looking to build an empire where we employ people. We are extremely happy being us two in our little home office.
What inspires and motivates you both creatively?
We tend to quote a lot of TV shows and films to each other, in the attempt to make the other one laugh. We like to see if we can do the same with our cards.
What is your creator pet peeve?
When we see generic phrases and mottos used over and over again (Live laugh love xox)
How do you manage creative burnout?
We take lots of walks, which tend to end up turning into brainstorming sessions…
If your creative partnership had a theme song, what would it be and why?
We belong together by Randy Newman. (Sidenote: This was the song after our first dance at our wedding.)
What is your favourite card you’ve designed?
Our Pingu “noot noot” design. Bethan drew it as a handmade Valentine’s Day card for Adam! We put it on our social media and everyone loved it so much we made it available to buy.
Pink Peach Illustrate
Tell us the story of how your creative collaboration began, and what inspired you to work together professionally?
I (Tia) have a background in art & studied an art subject at university and Paul has a background in sales. For Christmas 2020 Paul bought me an illustration of the both of us and I absolutely loved it. I thought I’d like to have a go at drawing like this so I got myself an iPad and started drawing for fun and posting on Instagram. I started getting messages from people to ask if I could draw them and that’s when I turned to Paul and asked for help. From then on we’ve always worked as a great team!
What strengths do you have individually, and how do they complement each other in your creative work?
I am very organised and work really quickly and Paul comes up with the best ideas. He will have an idea for a card for Thortful and explain how he thinks it should look, I’ll draw it up and then we will both fine-tune it until we think it’s perfect.
Do you find that your personal relationship influences your creative work? How do you strike a balance between the two?
I don’t really think our personal relationship interferes at all. We usually allocate a couple of hours in the morning or evening which we dedicate to working and spend the rest of our time enjoying our travels. We occasionally discuss work outside of these hours but like to keep it separate. Being a couple allows us to constantly bounce off of each other and we know each other so well that we know what the other person means pretty much straight away.
What 3 pieces of advice do you have for other couples looking to collaborate in the creative industry?
Firstly, go for it! We had separate, secure, well paid jobs but after taking the leap we haven’t looked back. It’s brought us closer being able to work together. Secondly, have fun doing it! It doesn’t always need to be work, work, work. You can have dedicated time to create and work.
Thirdly, compromise. You’ll both have good ideas, you just need to be able to step back and think the other person’s idea might work a bit better than yours.
Do you have similar aspirations as a couple in your creative careers?
Yes we do. thortful is one of our main income streams, we both want to build our brand for the long term.
What inspires and motivates you both creatively?
The freedom to be creative, do what we want, create what we want and do what we enjoy and the freedom to be able work remotely and travel the world.
What is your creator pet peeve?
Two things, battery life of my iPad! And when we think of an awesome idea but another creator has beaten us to it, haha.
How do you manage creative burnout?
Take a break and don’t try to force it. We both get burnt out and don’t try and push each other to just carry on. We work the best when we work together so we just enjoy travelling until we get our creative spark back.
If your creative partnership had a theme song, what would it be and why?
Skeggs – Up In The Clouds. They’re an Australian band so a lot of people probably haven’t heard of them but the lyrics just describe us perfectly!
What is your favourite card you’ve designed?
It’s got to be our Will Smith and Chris Rock slap card!
Studio Boketto
Tell us the story of how your creative collaboration began, and what inspired you to work together professionally?
We, Micky (originally a menswear designer) and Olivia (a nurse) started Studio Boketto in 2015 from the bedroom of our tiny Mancunian flat. It all started when Micky was made redundant just a few weeks before Christmas. He started illustrating to pass the time while he was looking for work when Olivia suggested opening an Etsy shop. With Christmas around the corner it made sense to put the designs on cards and the rest, as they say, is history.
What strengths do you have individually, and how do they complement each other in your creative work?
Micky is actually the one that does all of the illustrating, but Olivia is involved throughout the process, particularly generating new ideas and selecting colour combinations. It works well for us and together we are able to bring our silly ideas to life through beautiful illustrations that then go onto greeting cards.
Do you find that your personal relationship influences your creative work? How do you strike a balance between the two?
Micky says that Olivia is much more honest (brutal!) about his designs because of their personal relationship! But also, there’s more of an ability to be open and free with ideas and not worry about suggesting stuff!
What 3 pieces of advice do you have for other couples looking to collaborate in the creative industry?
Listen to each other… it’s a partnership so you both need to be heard!
Try and find a way to bring your creative ideas together so that your work/business becomes a shared vision.
Have fun! We literally laugh all day and think that shows in what we create.
Do you have similar aspirations as a couple in your creative careers?
Boketto is us and all of our aspirations are around building it and creating lovely paper stuff!
What inspires and motivates you both creatively?
We are inspired by all of the usual stuff; food, fashion, music etc. But also small moments of joy like a little snuggle with our dog Yoshi.
What is your creator pet peeve?
We are not huge fans of big chunks of text on a card but that’s just us!
How do you manage creative burnout?
Honestly, this is not something we have had an issue with. But for anyone struggling we would say: don’t put pressure on yourself; have a brew and a biscuit; get outdoors for some fresh air; and if you’re really struggling with a specific idea, just park it and come back to it in a few days time with fresh eyes. Also, don’t compare yourself to anyone else, that’s a biggie!
If your creative partnership had a theme song, what would it be?
The Avalanches – Because I’m Me
Paper Plane Designs
Tell us the story of how your creative collaboration began, and what inspired you to work together professionally?
Jack: We met when we both worked for a magazine publisher, so we already worked in the creative industry, I was a sub editor and Laura an art editor.
Laura: Before Paper Plane, we had a side hustle selling vintage homeware and furniture. The painted furniture side started to take off, but it was very time consuming and took up a lot of space in our house!
We had a little brainstorm and came up with a few Christmas card ideas and designs, which we sold in a local shop and listed on some online marketplaces. They sold well enough for us to design some Valentine’s cards, then Mother’s Day, then things just grew from there.
What strengths do you have individually, and how do they complement each other in your creative work?
Jack: Laura’s a real perfectionist and is the more driven of the two of us to push forward and launch new products. I think I am more comfortable trying to sell those products and do a lot of the logistics in the background to get them into people’s shops and homes. Laura does all of the design and product photography. The ideas come from both of us, sometimes together, sometimes individually. Sometimes I just have a stupid idea which I scrawl on a piece of paper and Laura somehow translates it into a product that actually makes sense.
Do you find that your personal relationship influences your creative work? How do you strike a balance between the two?
Jack: We’ve been together for 13 years, this is now Paper Plane’s 10th year, and I’d say we’re still working that out!
Laura: We’ve taken inspiration from things we both enjoy – from food to TV shows and even our late dog, to come up with ideas for cards or other products. We always wanted our cards to be honest and relatable, so we know that if it’s something we relate to then hopefully others will, too.
What 3 pieces of advice do you have for other couples looking to collaborate in the creative industry?
Laura: Don’t do it!! Joking aside, while it can sometimes be hard to leave your personal issues at home and not bring them to work, it also really helps to work with someone who is on your wavelength and is equally invested in the success of the business.
Do you have similar aspirations as a couple in your creative careers?
Jack: We just love working for ourselves. I like the freedom and flexibility it brings, and think they outweigh the downsides like lack of paid holiday or sick days! So that’s enough motivation for me to keep thinking of new ideas to keep the business going. Please don’t make me get a proper job!
What inspires and motivates you both creatively?
Laura: I spend a lot of time looking at all forms of design, whether I’m watching TV, scrolling through social media or just while I’m out and about. Mostly I’m inspired by things I’m drawn to in real life. Houseplants, cooking, craft, fashion – and I get mini obsessions about certain colours or patterns. All sorts of things are in the back of my mind when we’re coming up with ideas for new designs.
What is your creator pet peeve?
Jack: Unoriginality. There will always be trends and people will always have similar ideas independently of one another, but just taking someone else’s words, design, or both combined, and using them yourself is unacceptable.
How do you manage creative burnout?
Jack: Walking together, even just around town or local housing estates is a great way to clear your mind and get some air and exercise.
Laura: And we often come up with new ideas without even trying, just by walking and chatting.
If your creative partnership had a theme song, what would it be and why?
Jack: Obviously something super cheesy like ‘Happy Together’ by The Turtles. Either that or ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ by Fine Young Cannibals.
Laura: How about “Hit The Road, Jack’?
What is your favourite card you’ve designed?
Jack: We have a birthday card that is an illustration of a card on a mantelpiece and the words above say ‘Because you can’t stand a Facebook post on the mantelpiece’. I just really like the sentiment behind it. We came up with it when we tried to work out how Don Draper from Mad Men would sell a birthday card.
Laura: It’s hard to choose one. I really enjoyed drawing our Grid range and they have really honest words with genuine feeling. Any cards about unshaven legs, shitty old office carpets or sharing your partner’s bathwater are going to be relatable for a lot of people.
A huge thank you to Adam & Bethan, Tia & Paul, Micky & Olivia and Jack & Laura for letting us have a little peek into their fantastic businesses and relationship.
Do you think you could put up with your other half 24/7, for work, sleep and play? As long as they left the toilet seat down, we think we’d be okay with that.
That’s all from us today. Oh, while you’re here, why not check out Bishop Please, Pink Peach Illustrate, Studio Boketto and Paper Plane’s fabulous collection of cards? There’s something for everyone in there!
Team thortful
