Paul Lewis Design

E-commerce, craftsmanship and Santa Cruz Guitars

Written by PLD Monday, 05 September 2011 00:00

I’ve just retuned from a trip to California during which I managed to visit the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Some of you might know that Santa Cruz make some of the finest 6 stringed instruments on the planet - the fruit of years of experience and many months of dedicated labour, skill, passion and craftsmanship.

Santy Cruz Guitars

I happen to own one of them... a 12 fret D. It’s a big bodied steel strung guitar that plays with the delicacy of a classical lute or the power of a freight train - mahogany back and sides and a sitka spruce top. The founder, Richard Hoover was out that day and my son Cassian and I were given a great tour by Carolyn.

Santa Cruz Guitar Bodies

It all starts with good wood. We witnessed how solid blocks of Honduran mahogany, Indian rosewood, Koa and Spruce were carefully selected and kiln dried for months before being assigned to various models. Santa Cruz customers can choose their own combinations of woods, neck shapes and finish to build their perfect bespoke musical partner.

Big Moose works the frets

The business employs around 15 craftsmen. Some have been there for 20 years, all with a high degree of personal job satisfaction and huge pride in their work they do and the product they create. It’s the sort of company I like to deal with.

Lacquer Colours

This highly skilled craft workshop resonated with me on several levels. First, I like the family atmosphere, it was small, intimate, personal and nurturing. Second, I related to the artistic, creative ethos - aesthetic, imaginative, cultured. Third, they worked with their hands, ears, eyes and even sense of smell - it was not a production line. Finally, and most importantly - they cared about what they made and wanted each individual guitar to be the best possible.

It’s the type of business we are trying to build here.... call it a digital craft workshop... small enough for everyone to be personally involved, but experienced enough to turn out high quality work for clients who appreciate it. We don't work with wood and hide glue and lacquer...but with pixels and code and creative imagination and e-commerce experience. But I like to think that at the heart of what we do, we are not so different.

It all about motivation. For me, success is a mixture of a variety of elements. We will never be just a dry commercial agency thinking only of the bottom line. Our workshop is a place where design, commerce, creativity, technology, innovation and style all meet, mix and get along well together. And as long as we continue to attract clients that share the same mix of values, we will continue to love creating the work we do.

PLD Wins ECMOD Design Award

Written by PLD Monday, 11 April 2011 00:00

We are delighted that our design for "Bombay Duck" won the "Best Website Makeover" award at the ECMOD DIRECT COMMERCE AWARDS 2011 last week.

PLD Wins ECMOD Award

It was a terrific night at the Lancaster London Hotel. Thanks to all who voted. Our creative team worked closely with founders Laura and Steph Bates to capture the vitality, colour and exhuberance of the sub-continent that had inspired them to go in search of unique products. The sites visual character is distilled from a cross cultural blend of both Indian style and English eccentricity.

PLD Wins Ecmod Award

"Paul Lewis Design understood our brief and effectively interpreted it resulting in a unique design and set of templates in line with our brand - we have a design that we are very happy with and more importantly, we have received lots of positive feedback from our customers"

Laura Bates MD Bombay Duck

Paul Lewis Design moves to SOHO

Written by PLD Monday, 11 April 2011 00:00

At long last we have moved into our new studio in Soho. We're in a classic, arty space, in a slightly grimy Soho mews that just reeks of character. The local atmosphere is is vibrant and eclectic. We're close to the great London retail areas of Oxford St, Regent St, Carnaby St and Covent Garden.

Berwick St Soho

Yet as soon as you turn off the bustle of Oxford St into Berwick St, you are instantly in a different world of old fashioned tailors, film production companies, market stalls, cafes, restaurants and more recently, new media agencies.

Darblay St Jewellers

For an e-commerce creative agency it's the perfect location to help us keep up with what's happening on the hight st, and also the luxury, fashion and niche brands in and around the area. Theres a lot more to explore and discover. The address is 1 Wardour Mews, Soho, (just off Darblay St next to the Breakfast Club Cafe).

The Breakfast Club Soho

No, that's not me on my way to a pitch!

Wardour Mews

1 Wardour Mews

Do pop by any time you are nearby for a coffee and a chat.

PLD Welcomes ARAM STORE

Written by PLD Wednesday, 22 December 2010 00:00

We are thrilled to have been asked to design and build the new online store for ARAM the eponymous, iconic, furniture retailer.

ARAM STORE

Zeev Aram opened his first showroom in the King's Road in 1964, when modern furniture design was almost non-existant in the UK. He introduced work by Castiglioni, Breuer, and Le Corbusier - available to the public for the first time to put into their own homes. The public reacted with mixed feelings, often bemused by the cool, european architectural glass and steel designs. But for 33 year old Zeev it was a dream come true. "The important thing is that there was a reaction" he says. "I was afraid that people would just walk past". But a revolution in public taste was happening and Zeev found himself at the forefront of it. In 1973 Aram moved the business to a large showroom in Covent Garden which they still occupy.

The new site will be designed to reflect the raw, pared back industrial aesthetic of the Covent Garden store. There will be a significant social element befitting the huge online interest in the work of the modernist masters. It will be built on the Magento platform.

ARAM STORE 2 COVENT GARDEN

Outline Editions Gallery Opening

Written by PLD Sunday, 14 November 2010 00:00

Thursday night saw a trip to "Outline Editions" new pop-up gallery opening in Berwick St. The show, put together by Camilla and Bill Tuckey, features work from some of the UK's leading graphic design talent including Kate Moross, Anthony Burrill and Supermundane. We took a shine to Burrill's two featured works and got ourselves a print of each. But whether they get to be put up at home or in the studio is still being fought over!

Outline Editions "Into the Forest" - 94 Berwick St, London W1f0QF - 11November - 31st January