The design story…

A friend (and part-time cheerleader/self-promotion wingwoman) likes to tell me, “What do you get when you add Transport Consultant + Artist + Designer + Environmentalist + Cycling Enthusiast? FoldnRoll, of course!”

I don’t know that I’ve seen it that clearly, but when asked to write about how this transport consultant came to create and produce the FoldnRºll packing organiser, here’s what I think.

Let’s art at the beginning 

Ever since I was a kid I have made stuff. Sundays my parents left us to our own devices so I would make things. Pottery. Jewellery. Sewing projects. It was my happy place, where I would get so absorbed I’d step of the ‘what next’ treadmill and just do. As a pretty academic child in other ways - with parents to please and grades to get - it was peace.

This is a pendulum that’s swung backwards and forwards a few times in my life. From jobs that have been all about the thinking, planning, analysing to occupations that have been much more about doing and making. 

So young and so into painting skies…

Brain and heart, spreadsheets and art

After falling very ill in my final year at University, I was keen to cram everything in once allowed out of hospital and into the real world. So I started my career in London, with pretty much my dream job on the Campaigns Team at Amnesty International. But I had a second life, in a tiny artists’ studio on Brick Lane. And that involved painting and making things about universal experiences.

I painted pictures of the sky and created little installations of tiny mirrors and slides of the sky. I’d thought a lot about aesthetics in my final year as a philosophy student and I wanted to focus people on the beauty in the things we all share.

A few years went by and I realised that London life was such a rush that you rarely got to appreciate the things that London offered, so I sold my house to buy a barn in Yorkshire. A slightly cavalier attitude to work - the one day a week I continued remotely could not last forever - meant I had to work out what else I could do.

My first eco-focused foray

Whilst buying a flock of sheep and a herd of goats was not an obvious career move, it did give me a load of raw materials which I learned to spin. I worked with a recent knitwear graduate, Nicola Sherlock, and set up Makepiece.

We built an eco-knitwear design label that made it to London Fashion Week (and was probably quite a bit before its time). I learned a lot about production rather on the hoof - whilst we produced clever and lovely pieces which were valued by our customers. Retail was much of our income, and when our landlord sold the shop we rented, we were never able to quite make it work in different locations.

An unexpected swing again

At that point, the pendulum swung back to project planning, analysis, research and communication. I applied for a job with what is now CoMoUK and spent three years commuting to Leeds. Often on the train but sometimes I’d gear up and cycle the 30 miles each way. After all, I had probably been the only shepherd in Calderdale to check my sheep by mountain bike. Riding was one of the sources of peace in an otherwise busy life.

The idea for the Fold+Rºll formed during this period. But I didn’t start making prototypes until I’d started my own transport consultancy. The first ideas were pretty rough (masking tape and old sheets were involved). It was only once I’d thought through the drawings for the instructions that I started using any kind of finesse. I found print-on-demand companies and a friend loaned me a sewing machine. The first prototype (in raw canvas and poplin) was made. 

Bikes and luggage… one of my things

Talking bike share at Eurobike

From spreadsheet to sewing machine and back again

There are still a few steps between a prototype and production. Companies that make one-off pieces aren’t necessarily equipped for longer runs (or at least not a prices that would be affordable to the end buyer). So there was a good year of research and a few dead ends before I placed my first orders. It’s been quite a journey.

One of my early prototypes

As I write this, we’re nearing the final stage of production where the actual FoldnRºlls are being readied to ship to Singletrack for sales and distribution. In bringing a product to life and then to market, the work is sure to be ongoing. Still I’ll take a moment to feel a sense of amazement/satisfaction when we reach that milestone. Then it’ll be back to work.

One of the nice things is that I now have a sewing machine set up and I can try out new fabric combinations whenever I have a new idea. It’s a little bit of peace between the spreadsheets and the emails which are still a great part of my life.