Partner Article

Design company making waves

A Sunderland-based design company has been commissioned to cast glass representations of some of stretches of the North East coast. Glass artists Jessamy Kelly and Joanne Mitchell, from Juo, captured parts of beaches at North Berwick and Whitley Bay, before returning to their studio at Sunderland’s National Glass Centre to hand-craft the finished wall mounted panels for local galleries.

Jessamy said: “The designs come directly from nature inspired by the play of light and shadow on a coastal landscape, subtly seen through the interplay of light & dark shadows.”

Jessamy launched Juo with business partner Joanne in early 2006, after they had won the University of Sunderland’s Blueprint Business Planning Award. Together they offer a varied selection glass products including giftware, wall panels, signage and corporate awards.

The business has recently been accepted onto the generate stage of Designing Demand, the national Design Council initiative to help SMEs make more effective use of design.

The programme aims to help and support businesses in using design to improve performance, with plans to reach 6,500 businesses nationwide by 2010, creating 4,120 jobs in the process.

Willie Herdman, Special Projects Manager at the North East Business and Innovation Centre, which is running the programme in the region, said: “Many of the companies who have attended the workshops are greatly anticipating the beginning of Generate, as it is this phase which can allow SMEs to get up to five days’ free, expert one-to-one support from a Design Associate. “We are delighted to have such a bright and innovative company as Juo on board for this exciting next stage.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .