Meet Kate & Jack Lennie | Independent Publisher / Designers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kate & Jack Lennie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate & Jack, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Jack: Kate and I run, own, eat, sleep, breathe ‘We Are Makers’. Kate works on it full time (often seven days a week), and I work on it in the evenings and weekends around my full-time job. We both graduated from Product Design with a BDes Hons at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland in 2015, where we met.

We have always made things and have had independent businesses since graduating, which we will discuss later. We now publish the ‘We Are Makers’ bi-annual publication that showcases makers stories from across the globe. We’ve also most recently produced our first episode of our docuseries “An Honest Representation of the Modern Maker.”

Kate:

When we graduated, Jack and I had an idea for a book or magazine that would showcase the designers and makers in Scotland as we couldn’t find anything like it at the time, but at that stage it was only an idea we had over dinner one evening.

My story: before working on this publication, I have turned my hands to quite a few different projects over the years. After leaving university, I started my own business, designing and making kids furniture from my parent’s family farm. I successfully secured a Prince’s Trust loan to help me start up the company and purchased a second-hand CNC machine to produce my pieces. Although my small business did not work out as I had hoped (this was not due to the lack of effort, passion, and commitment I had to it), I’m not afraid to admit that it was hard to promote a small business at that time. I took the skills I had learned running a CNC machine & making my furniture and secured a job at ‘Unto this last’ in London. It was a huge change moving to London from Scotland’s countryside; however, it improved my confidence as a person and opened up new opportunities, including working on the film Hobbs and Shaw & Fast and Furious 9 in their Special Effects department. I ran the plasma machine producing their metal parts for the rigs for the film. Cutting this story short, I wanted to move back home to Scotland and create my own products again, however, the same issue arose where I didn’t have the platform or reach I wanted / needed to grow. This is where our idea of a book or magazine came around again. We just knew it was something we needed to do, so we did it.

From everything I have learned and done over the years, I’m proud of what I have achieved, and I am delighted that I am now helping other makers showcase and promote their work and tell their stories on a global scale.

Jack:

Through all this, I was and still am working full time as a design engineer running a design team that has worked on titles such as Wonder woman, Justice League, Fantastic Beasts, Fast and Furious, Jurassic world and so on. However, despite the exciting nature of my work and the growth of Kate’s business, we still noticed first-hand how difficult it was for makers to get seen. So Kate set off to work to get ‘We Are Makers’ off the ground. I worked every hour under the sun. We poured much of our house deposit into ‘We Are Makers’ to fund the first print run, advertising, proofreader, graphic design, web design, packaging and every other expense that came with the launch of this publication. Still, even with the risks, we trusted the process and knew the list of people leaving the 9-5 / PAYE career path to break out on their own is only growing, and a platform like this would be very valuable.

It’s also important to say that we are glad we didn’t launch in 2015 when we had the idea; we didn’t have the experience, savings pot, or professionalism as we do now.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Kate: I mentioned how we got here in the first question and the journey to where we are today. So, I want to talk about how we started the publication because we had absolutely no idea how to produce a magazine/publication – where do you even begin?

We had already looked at the market to see if there was anything similar, and I guess there are a few that have similarities where they are supporting makers however, I don’t think there is anything quite like ‘We Are Makers’

This publication is about the makers, their process, their lives and why they do what they do. Free of advertising, the publication is a curation of stories reflecting our mission to support the people behind handmade products. Leafing through the pages is an education in the beauty of craftsmanship and what it means to own a unique piece made by hand.

My first job in our process was to set up an Instagram page and a basic website explaining our idea to see if I could drum up some interest. I spent a few weeks messaging makers and creatives with our concept, and I think it took me a few months until I started to create a list of makers we could feature in our first edition. At this stage, it was all new to me, so the process wasn’t as streamlined as it is today. Once I had a good number of makers and creatives on board, my next step was to decide whether I take on the design and everything else myself, but I knew I might be taking on a little too much.

The big discussion for us at the very start was how we approached it; start by doing the best job we could do ourselves or put everything we had financially into it and get a print designer and copywriter from the get-go. We choose the latter because you only get one chance at making a first impression. It has proven to work based on the feedback we get from our customers. So, I suppose our advice for anyone creating anything is that you only get one chance to make a first impression, so do whatever you need to make it a good one.

(I want to mention that our goal was not and still is not to make money. At the start, many makers and creatives either didn’t get back to me or were hesitant because it seemed too good to be true for someone to offer space in a printed publication for free!)

It took us quite some time to find the right people to bring this publication together. We did, and they are still working with us as we prepare to put together edition five! Our designer Tyrone and proofreader Lisa have made this job of creating the publication a breeze. They understand our vision, they understand us and they are extremely good at what they do!

So, we have the makers, and we have someone to design this publication and someone to proofread; who’s going to print it?

We came across a company in England called Pure Print, who has been incredible from day one. They work with giant companies, and they work with new start-ups, like us. They held our hands throughout the process and put our minds at ease.

Bringing this all together was both incredible and extremely nerve-wracking. We were representing the makers, and we wanted to make sure we did them proud. It was also nerve-wracking because we had spent a considerable amount of money on this project (the money came from our savings that we were saving to buy a house)

In September 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, we received our first printed edition through the door, and I can’t quite explain the feeling. For our first edition, we did a ‘pre-order, so we already had people from all over the world waiting on their copies to arrive.

The first edition was beautiful! As this was the first time we’ve ever had anything printed, I didn’t know what it would look and feel like, other than having examples of other magazines with the same paper. As we are both designers, the look and feel were very important. We wanted it to be something that would end up being a collectable, a coffee table book that could be passed around and enjoyed.

I can say with extreme pride that we had a very successful first edition with such lovely feedback and comments from both the makers and customers across the globe!

It’s not been an easy process; there’s been an enormous amount of learning. It’s not just creating a product; we were also trying to create a brand. There’s been hard days and great days. We are now two years in, and although we have come a long way in streamlining the process, we are still learning every day, and you won’t keep growing if you stop.

Another thing we have learnt is you can’t do it all yourself. At the start of our publication journey and creating edition two, I was packaging, shipping, dealing with emails, marketing and everything else that comes with a small business. We now have a fulfilment service who take care of all our orders, and most recently we have started working with a marketing company who is a small business themselves. They will help us produce content and take care of the marketing side of the business when and where we can’t.

My last piece of advice is to KEEP GOING! Grow organically, be you, and show your passion for your business. It will take time. Being two years + into the business, we still feel like we have a long way to go to be where we want to be.

Keep progressing. Another fantastic project we released earlier this year was the first episode of our documentary, ‘An Honest Representation of the Modern Maker.’ Jack and I have many plans and ideas, and we can’t wait to keep growing and hoping we can share more of our journey when we hit edition ten!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Where do I start?!

If I had a friend visiting, I would defiantly explore a few areas.

That would be Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling.

However, since Edinburgh recently got the number one city in the world and where Jack and I’s journey began, I will share a few places we’d visit.

In Scotland, we don’t get the best weather, so it can be a hit and a miss; however, you don’t come to Scotland for the weather! There is a lot to do on both a sunny and a rainy day.

One of the obvious things to do would be Edinburgh Castle as it’s a spectacular castle with an incredible view. Followed by the Royal Mile. There’s plenty to see, eat and do here, including ‘Mary’s Kings Close’, which is a tour of a town underground (it’s fascinating to hear about the old town and its history, but it can be slightly spooky!) If you are into spooky things, the ghost walk and ghost bus tour are a must!

If we were to grab lunch in Edinburgh, we would like to return to the golf tavern based in Bruntsfield links. It’s where Jack and I and a group of university friends used to go for some pub grub and a pint! It has a great atmosphere and good food.

After exploring the streets of Edinburgh, we’d finish by seeing a film at the independent cinema, the ‘Dominion’ (https://www.dominioncinema.co.uk), Watch a movie in luxury on a sofa with table service where you can get food and drinks including cocktails and champagne!

Edinburgh is undoubtedly a bustling city with things to see and do at every turn, and it’s a city I would recommend visiting if you haven’t already.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Kate: Jack and I met at university in 2011, and for the past 11 years, I feel we’ve been each other’s inspiration and support system. When people start university, the whole experience is new and learning to adjust to this new way of learning can be quite daunting, Having each other to guide and support through this experience was amazing. We are very different in how we think and have different design interests. For example, Jack designed and built a motorbike called ‘Tinker’ for his final project, and I created a piece of children’s furniture for classrooms. Both of us have different strengths and it’s always been a great contrast. Fast forward 11 years, now married, we still continue to support each other as we build our small business together.

We also want to shoutout to our parents, who have been a massive support to us throughout our lives, and we appreciate their continued support today!

Website: https://wearemakers.shop/

Instagram: @weare_makers

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-lennie-71abab80/

Twitter: @weare_makers

Facebook: @weare_makers

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGUxJuX6F4We2ks7fnzEsvQ

Image Credits
Robbie Tighe