Meet the customer: Mellor&Smith
Mellor&Smith are an award-winning creative agency (and long-time DeskBeers customer) based in Southwark, South London. Founded in 2009 by Mr. Paul Mellor and Mr. James Smith, the team has gone on to produce work for the likes of that other M&S outfit “Marks & Spencer”, the iconic Neighbourhood Watch brand and even flat-pack furniture magnates IKEA.
Dropping in on the brand new Mellor&Smith studio on Southwark Street one Friday afternoon, I was greeted by Max and Cookie who kindly agreed to me pestering them for a bit. Max is a designer and Cookie, among other things, runs the company’s events program (more on which later). Having been made immediately welcome and with a beer in hand, we sat down to chat.
The first thing I wanted to know about was the somewhat “shocking” branding dotted around the studio. Both in terms of colour (hot pink) and language Mellor&Smith’s strapline certainly helps them stand out, and in more ways than one.
“The idea is that by taking risks, you’ll be the one that stands out” ~ Max Cannon
Taking risks has become something of a mantra for the company of late. It’s the thread that strings together everything the company does.
“It’s about standing out and going against the grain a little bit. I think everybody in the creative industry at the minute is putting out boring… wallpaper… shit. And we want to be different to that.” ~ Cookie Tabinor
This philosophy of risk taking has become such a campaign point that it has spawned a series of increasingly elaborate events.
“TFR”, as it’s affectionately known around the office, is a semi-regular event aimed at the London design community. Bringing in notorious risk-takers from various backgrounds, not just design, the idea is to expose the community in London to an inspirational array of stories and ideas with a view to promoting the “risky” way of thinking.
From humble beginnings in the event space upstairs at the Bunch of Grapes in Borough, through an exuberant mega-event at the Pulse venue in Southwark, TFR seems to have found a home at The Vaults Theatre near Waterloo.
Returning to The Vaults for a second time on Wednesday 9th of May, this latest instalment of TFR will feature talks from Cindy Gallop, the self-styled “Michael Bay of business” and former Chief Exec of the renowned advertising agency BBH, as well as investigative journalist Ellie Flynn who seems to have found herself in some “proper risky” situations in the name of documentary filmmaking. Some chap called Paul Mellor will be the compere for the evening. There are a limited number of tickets available. Get along if it sounds like your kind of thing.
DeskBeers
Of course, Mellor&Smith being a long standing customer of ours, I was also keen to ask Max and Cookie about how DeskBeers fits into things.
“We just thought it was a cool idea. Friday afternoon… sometimes you just need a beer!” ~ Max Cannon
Progressing from having the beers delivered and loaded into the fridge,the DeskBeers process at Mellor&Smith has become a bit more… sophisticated.
MelloBrew, the company Slack app, deals out a notification at 4:30 on a Friday informing the team that it’s #deskbeersoclock, and nominates one of the team to do the legwork and get the beers from the fridge.
I asked what’s caused the team to stick around for such a long time, and the answer is pleasingly simple:
“We like having different beers, it’s fun — we open the box and see what we got this week” — Cookie Tabinor
Which is kinda exactly what we set out to achieve. Mission accomplished.
Cheers, to Mellor&Smith for being such an excellent supporter of DeskBeers for such a long time (seriously, they have maintained a subscription since the very earliest days of DeskBeers). Thanks in particular to Cookie and Max who took time out of organising the next TFR event to talk me through everything.
If you’d like to try out the DeskBeers platform, use the code WHENPAULMELLORASKS to get 25% off your first Regular Delivery.
Look out for more stories from our customers over the next few weeks and months. If you’d like us to come visit you, drop us a line — hello@deskbeers.com
Cheers! 🍻
