It’s the kind of life that many a designer dreams of, producing screenprints and handcrafted products from a studio by the sea. But as Bobby and Kate Evans explain, growing the business has not been easy – it has been a gradual process, requiring patience, a commitment to making great products and a willingness to invest in new designs with no guarantee that they’ll sell. Here, the pair discuss the importance of taking things slow, how they’ve grown the business and how they manage the many financial pressures that come with running a store.

Creative Review: When did you launch Telegramme? And what were you doing before?
Bobby: I had been running Telegramme since 2008, primarily as a commercial illustration and design studio with a store selling screenprints on the side. When Kate joined in 2014, we set about rebranding the business as Telegramme Paper Co. to give more prominence to the products we were designing. Our screenprints had always been well-received and we were excited about creating designs that we wanted for our walls and couldn’t find, so we thought there must be a market for them, and decided to give that side of the business more love and attention.