Something From Us

Their paths had coincidentally crossed from student days on, but this was a meeting of minds – an agreement that as well as working as a commercial practice, Something from Us should also be using creativity to benefit broader society, as ‘a tool for good’. “We’d been searching for projects to be involved with like that,” says Mark, “and Dott came along at the right time for us.”

As a result, the two principals at Something from Us have worked as Senior Design Producers for Dott Cornwall on the research project ‘From Cornwall with Love’, seeking ways of increasing the visibility and availability of Cornish produce and products locally, nationally and internationally.  
Tom says: “We are passionate about this project.  Food, and the role that it plays – from the influence on local economies to its emotional effect – has been a running theme through both our commercial and less commercial work, from restaurant design to food promotion, and we’ve enjoyed applying our creativity to this.”

They demonstrated their flair with the centrepiece of the co-design stage of the project - a 'Mirrored Dinner'. With the help of Neil Tinson Studio, Something from Us organised simultaneous dinners at the Rustler Yacht’s boatyard in Falmouth and H. Forman's Smoked Salmon Factory in London, 300 miles away. From one, Cornish producers and promoters were able to talk to buyers and retailers at the other via live video feed between the two venues, as they all tucked in to a four course meal of Cornish produce. It provided a novel and rare opportunity to canvas opinion from both ends of the retail and wholesale chain, revealing both interesting similarities and differences in thinking.

Actually, that reflects quite neatly the relationship behind Something from Us itself. Tom’s destiny was pretty much set from the moment he could grasp a crayon, while Mark only decided that he could make a living at this after taking the first steps towards a career in law.

Tom Tobia, brought up in North London, drew compulsively as a toddler and knew he wanted to be a designer by the time he hit his teens. He studied Interior Architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University, but in many ways his real education began shortly after graduation when he met Claire Hartten through the Design Council. A design researcher sustainable food activist, she became a big influence and mentor. Tom, now 27, says: “She really opened my eyes; I left uni with a vague grounding in commercial design, but she blew the whole thing apart and made me realise that you didn’t have to use that kind of thinking just for designing restaurants or whatever – it could be applied to so much more.” She encouraged him to get involved in social design projects focussing on citizenship – and fostered that interest in food.   
He freelanced for a short while before really cutting his teeth working at the D&AD awards body. “I met a lot of interesting and influential designers there, and that gave me a good understanding of what was needed to succeed.”
Tom had won a travel bursary in a student design competition, and at 21 ‘dropped out’ to spend it back-packing through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru for six months.
When he returned to the UK in 2006, he moved to Hackney and spent two years at a commercial agency working on interior and exhibition design. He also bumped into a fellow designer living a couple of streets away, who he’d met before while visiting an old school friend studying at University College Falmouth….

Mark Irlam grew up in Guildford, and was taking a law degree before realising that his future lay in design. “I hadn’t really understood that you could do design as a career choice. I’d always been interested in making bits and pieces around the house and DIY, getting involved with the practical side of things, and I did craft design and technology at school, but always alongside more academic subjects. I saw it more as a bit of fun.
“Then, fundamentally, I got bored with sitting in a library reading books once I discovered the arts courses available.”
Mark switched to a foundation year at the former Guildhall University in London and then headed west to UCF in Cornwall for the ‘3D Design for Sustainability’ course. It required a radically different discipline to the law study and Mark revelled in it. “I was learning a lot about myself; they let you explore your creativity and guided with a very light touch, then it was up to you to grow as a person and a designer.”
Now aged 29, he developed an interest in furniture and homeware during the course; following graduation he found work in an architectural agency in London, but soon hankered to set up his own furniture design company. “I figured why work for somebody else when it is my creativity that is driving this. I slowly started to establish myself and showed a small collection of lighting and seating at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2006.” He also bumped into a fellow designer living a couple of streets away, who he’d met before through a mutual friend while studying at University College Falmouth…

The pair worked together on a couple of small projects, and Mark says: “It kind of developed out of that, the meeting in the pub and the decision that we wanted to use our creativity for both commercial purposes and designing solutions which would benefit society.”

They launched ‘Something from Us’ in 2008. Tom says: “My ethos is to keep work as varied as possible. In terms of design style, we try – where appropriate – to make everything we do as playful as possible. Life should be fun; environments and brands should also be fun.”
Mark adds: “We are two quite different people and very opinionated as well, so we can clash at times – I guess you’d call it creative tension! But we always get to a compromise resolution, so it works.”
The company has a strong commercial portfolio ranging from restaurant interiors to graphic brand identity. Its largest social project to date has flown under the Dott flag. “We were aware of Dott ’07, and when the Cornwall version came up we really wanted to be involved – partly because of my links with Falmouth, but also because it chimed exactly with those aims we discussed in our original meeting in the pub, about where we wanted to take our design skills, and the sectors we could apply them in,” says Mark. And when they were accepted onto the designers’ roster, the ‘From Cornwall with Love’ promotion project was a natural fit.

“The Dott methodology, and the idea behind it is great, although by its nature it is fraught with challenges for all sorts of reasons – not least because it is so difficult to explain to people,” says Tom. “But we are really pleased with what we have been able to achieve working with the design team and most importantly, stakeholders, producers and makers in Cornwall.”