DEYA Brewing Company
Founded by Theo Freyne in 2016, and based in their Cheltenham brewery since 2016, DEYA have quickly made a name for themselves for their superior offering of beers, lagers and ales. Design is integral to what DEYA do, from their brilliantly zany website and Instagram to their distinctive beer cans, all overseen by their artist Thom Hobson, so they were a natural fit to kick off Local Business. Here Theo shares his insights.
“A lot of what we do design-wise is very customer facing; cans in people’s hands, T-shirts and everything else. Merchandise is a key part of our business and very important to our brand and brand recognition. We try to offer something more than just logo T-shirts or generic merchandise, and we try to think outside of our industry, and the typical styles of brewery merchandise and apparel too.”
We try to think outside of our industry
“Our in-house artist Thom Hobson’s work is really suited to this kind of project, so I was really excited by this opportunity. Taking the focus away from beer for this is really nice, and from my perspective, giving a platform for us to showcase Thom’s work is a key part of our business. His work is our brand and any extensions of that help us to build depth to what we do.”
Carbo Wines
An endeavour born out of lockdown, Brighton’s Carbo Wines have found a quick following for their expertly curated selection of natural wines. Their T-shirt, designed by friend of a friend Jamie Muck, an illustrator whose work spans everything from tees to tattoos, bears their apt slogan: “natural wines and good times.”
“We’re one of many ‘lockdown’ start-ups, and it’s fair to say we’ve faced all manner of highs and lows in the past year. Carbo was conceived as a passion project for three best friends who love natural wine, and we still can’t believe that we’ll be leaving this lockdown as a fully fledged nationwide retailer! Following our launch last year, our business has constantly had to adapt, not just to survive but also stay relevant in the face of ever-changing circumstances. We’ve been really blown away by people’s support, even as we learnt a ton of important lessons during our early months!”
“Supporting local business has never been more important. We’re not only talking about Carbo Wines: our highstreet shops, restaurants and small traders and producers have never had it so hard. We were really happy to be part of a campaign that draws attention to this fact. Going local helps reduce your environmental impact, creates local jobs and means you are investing in your community, wherever that may be.”
Our business has constantly had to adapt
“These T-shirts, and the funds that they have raised, will really help us to expand into the event space as some normality resumes. We can’t wait to show some love back to all the Carbo faithful customers that have got us this far. Not to mention we will be gassed to see people spreading the word about our core values: natural wines and good times!”
Stuffed
The brainchild of Riccardo Codacci-Pisanelli, fresh pasta purveyor Stuffed was on course to kick off last March, right as the U.K.’s lockdown came into full force. Ever-dynamic, they’ve managed to make the best of the past year, with a stall in Hackney’s Netil Market through summer. Their tee drew on their “eat good pasta, have a good time” mantra, and was made in collaboration with illustrator Marnie Cox.
“We’ve been wanting to do merch for a while but just haven’t had the time or money, so this was a great way to get that done even when things have been so tight. Add that to being mixed with the other great local businesses on the tab, it was a no-brainer!”
“This past year has been full of ups and downs for us. March 2020 was meant to be the start of my first season as a street-food trader and was set to be a great one. That, obviously, got cancelled and left me wondering what to do and how to keep the business going.
“After managing to set up a small local pasta delivery service, I applied for a vacancy at Netil Market and got it! By the time we moved in at the end of last summer, things were pretty open and we did really well. Being in a permanent, outdoor spot in Hackney has been a great move – we’ve met and served so many lovely people and couldn’t be happier to be part of the buzzing food scene at Netil Market.
“People really have come out to support and get behind small businesses, it’s been amazing to witness first-hand. There was a massive learning curve as everything was very new to me but the subsequent lockdowns, whilst really difficult financially, actually gave us time to get up to speed with everything and set some great foundations for the good times ahead.”
“This campaign gave us something positive and fun to work on and shout about in what was a pretty tough February. The proceeds from it will go towards repaying the team for shifts that would have been available without lockdown and helping us build out our rooftop, which we cannot wait to open after April 12th!”
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