20 years of Garudio Studiage
This year (2024) marks the 20th year of the creation of Garudio Studiage, we can’t quite believe it! Here is a short history of how it all came about…
It all started out after Laura was offered the opportunity to buy a screen printing bed and equipment from an ex RCA tutor, (Laura had been experimenting with screen printed anodised aluminum) and she asked Chris if he wanted in on it too as he was a screen printer. It was too good an opportunity to pass by, but they then had to find somewhere to house it all. At the time Chris and Anna lived next door to Laura and Hannah in Camberwell, and Chris and Anna’s landlord ‘Jimmy’ said they could make use of his garage, which was next door to their house for free. It was cold; inhabited by various foxes; a cat had kittens on the screen bed then wouldn't let anyone near it, but it was free, and they began to make screen prints. It was very exciting to have access to our own equipment, that could be used whenever we wanted and not have to worry about other people needing to use it, or what kind of things we printed on!
The original garage where Garudio Studiage started out; Chris’ iconic handmade from gaffer tape logo, outside CIP House approx 2005
We made use of the garage for about a year, which became unofficially known as the Garudio Studiage, as it was both a garage and a studio. But the cold and lack of space (sharing with cars and various other mechanical items) began to grate… the final straw came when we discovered there was carbon monoxide pumping into the garage! So the search for a more ‘palatable’ studio began.
Back in 2005 there were no social media and we had patchy internet access, so it mainly consisted of Chris and Laura wandering round the various studio type places in south London we heard about on the grape vine to see what was around. One such visit turned out to be a space owned by the model from the famous Athenna Man and Baby poster… it was deemed unsuitable. We were aware of studios in the CIP house complex (now the Bussey building) as Chris had visited an old screen printing tutor there and we had been to an exhibition in his space, so Chris and Laura went to see what was on offer there. There was a suitable ground floor unit available, and it was next to a big wash out sink, making an ideal space. The rent was cheap and Anna (who had been using a bedroom to paint in) and Hannah moved in as well to help cover the rent.
To be in keeping with the general look of the space, sharing with various kebab warehouses and the like, Chris made a sign of our name out of gaffer tape - a testament to gaffer tape that it still exists today! This was mainly a homage to our old garage space, but we began to use it more and more as a reference to our work.The sign went on to develop into our logo - now blazened over everything we do.
Inside unit BGN, The Bussey Building approx 2007
Initially the plan was just to share a studio space, but gradually we began working on projects together. We took part in a couple of selling events organised by the Illustration collective Peepshow, and we began to realise people actually wanted to buy the things we had been making for fun! The first official event we took part in under the name of Garudio Studiage was with Beyond the Valley’s (who had started selling some of our early products) Wunderville project, part of London Design Week (as it was known then) back in 2006. We used our various skills to create the Magical Hybrid Menagerie - a game of chance and memory, in a basement in Marshall Street.
Magical Hybrid Menagerie - the first joint Garudio Studiage project in 2006
We had visited the V&A’s brilliant Village Fete a couple of times (where artists and designers came up with stalls and games along the vein of a traditional village fete), and we really wanted to take part ourselves. Somehow we managed to blag our way in, and in 2007 we created the Garudio Studiage Gorgeously Greasy Grill, where you could win a ‘Ham Bag’ or a ‘Wildlife of London tea towel’, two of our very early products. Tatty Devine were also taking part, and they, along with Peepshow, were big influences on our fledgling creative business - helping us realise that we could actually sell and make some money from the things we made, and be a business as well as freinds!
The Gorgeously Greasy Grill 2007; Who’s in the Hutch 2008; Wheel of Misfortune 2009
We went on to take part in the Village Fete 2 more times, and we were also invited to design a hat for the V&A’s Easter Bonnet Parade, one of a series of events surrounding their exhibition Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones. We also enjoyed orgainsing exhibitions and events, and another breakthrough moment came when we put on ‘180 things I hate about you’ in 2007, an exhibition of screen printed dart boards where we invited other artists and designers to create artwork of things they didn't like, and Chris printed them on to dart boards. This exhibition attracted a lot of press, including being featured in ‘Cool Hunting’.
Chris’ dartboard from 180 Things I hate About You; Mad Hatters parade with our Flat Cap in the centre, V & A 2009.
One of our most popular ‘inventions’ was the Lucky Skip, a flat pack, slightly smaller than real life skip that Chris hand made. It started out as a way to clear out the studio of bits and bobs we no longer needed, such as props for previous projects, seconds of products and prints we had made and general ‘stuff’ we had bought as a joke but had no actual purpose! We then wrapped all these items up in hand screen printed paper, put them all in the skip and people paid a pound for a dip - it went down extremely well in its first iteration with East London printmakers summer festival, and went on to appear at Hackney Wick festival, the South bank centre, the Barbican, and many more - the pinnacle being the V&A’s Late Peckham Takeover in 2013. Not bad for an idea conceived in a pub in Peckham on a Friday night! It became a victim of its own success, it was a lot of work to collate objects, print the paper, wrap them up etc, not to mention we ran out of stuff and we had to start buying objects to put in it, which was counter to the original idea. The skip remains quietly tucked away in our studio, but should the right event occur, it can always come out again!
A few shots of the Lucky skip - when it had just been made; in action at the South Bank; a lucky dipper in action.
As well as taking part in and organising events we had an online shop where we sold the products we made. One of the early ones was the screen printed flat pets that Chris had come up with to feature in the exhibition ‘Acrylic Kitten’ we had organised in 2008 at Ada Street Gallery in Hackney, featuring cat based works by artist and designers. The very first flat pet kittens were flocked - if you own one of these it is very exclusive!
Acrylic Kitten installation shot; the original flat pet kittens, which were flocked.
After taking part in an open call for local artists to create window displays for Peckham based shops, we met Emily Druif of Peckham Space (now Peckham Platform) and we were commissioned to put on an interactive exhibition in their gallery space in Peckham Square in 2011, for which we created A Nation of ShopKeepers. While this exhibition was on, the London Riots occurred and the temporary wall of post-it notes declaring love for Peckham begun by Peckham Shed theatre appeared, and we were asked to help turn it into a permanent feature. The following year the Peckham Peace Wall was launched.
A Nation of Shop keepers installation shot; The Peace Wall in Peckham Square.
Chris had also produced a limited edition screen print to sell alongside the Peace Wall to raise money for local youth charities. It was being printed by London Print Studio and one day Chris was visiting them to take the artwork, and happened to be carrying some flat pets as well as he needed to post them for an online order. While he was there the owner John asked what was in his bag, Chris showed him, and he asked if he could buy one for his friend who would love them.
The friend turned out to be Bill Godber of Turnaround publisher services, who were a massive distributor of books, and were looking to diversify into gifts. They started distributing our products wholesale, and this led to a bit of a shift in our business. We registered as a limited company in 2013 and began to focus more on making products than events. We have since been stocked in the likes of Selfridges, Waterstones, The British Library, Paul Smith, The South London Gallery, the Museum of London and the V&A as well as lots of small boutiques and other galleries and museums.
Just a few of the shops we have been in - We Built This City on Carnaby Street; The Banksy exhibition on Regent Street; The Museum of London.
A couple of years later Laura and Hannah took a step back as Laura concentrated on her main business, Just Trade, and Hannah became a mother.
In 2019 Chris and Anna moved the studio to Second Floor Studios in Deptford, after many years in the Bussey Building, and to date, they remain there still creating best selling products!
Photos of the early years, especially featuring us, are few and far between, but we have managed to scrape together a few highlights…..
All four of us with Stephen Jones receiving our Mad hatter award at the V &A in 2009; Chris and Anna at the London Illustration Fair 2023 (photo by London Illustration Fair)
