When lockdown boredom struck, architect Richard Bennet turned to illustrating the city he loves the best
Richard Bennett and Jade King, partners in life and now in business, have become somewhat accidental ceramicists and retailers as a result of Richard’s need to stay busy during lockdown.
“Richard’s practice is always busy but then so is he," Jade says. "His work didn’t really slow down during lockdown, but everything else did and he was looking for something else to do. He spent a lot of time walking around Manchester and of course it was very quiet. That's hour a day we were granted actually allowed him to really take it in, to stop and look and appreciate. He started taking photographs of all the architecture, and this progressed to drawings and it all just evolved into the illustrations we have now.”
‘What we have now’ is a rather wonderful collection of lettered ceramic tiles highlighting some of Manchester’s most loved (by those who truly know the city) aspects. While M may be for Manchester, A is for Affleck’s Palace, N is for Northern Quarter, C is for Cotton, etc. Each tile has a beautiful hand-drawn illustration, a visual representation of the letter, and it’s almost impossible to decide which you love best.
“We get that a lot,” Jade laughs. “People love them all, and then have to decide whether to buy a letter that has some relevance – their name’s first initial, etc – or a subject that resonates.”
For scientists, there’s Graphene, for engineers there’s Rocket, for historians there’s Suffragettes – the collection encapsulates all the incredible elements of past and present Manchester that makes this city so loved. If you’re really stuck, perhaps the Bee is the tile for you.
“I was in Manchester a couple of weeks ago and I overheard one young woman ask another - ‘what’s the bee all about? It’s on bins and everywhere.’ Her friend didn’t really know, she thought it all happened after Ariana Grande had a bee tattoo after the arena bombing. I had to step in and explain how far its history dates back, I couldn’t help myself, but it’s such an iconic symbol of everything Manchester stands for I needed them to understand. Luckily they didn’t mind and were actually really interested.’
Jade’s background is in retail travel, and before lockdown was the regional manager for a high street chain, which might explain why Richard’s lockdown hobby progressed from pastime to profession in quick succession.
“Everything changed for me,” she says. “It all stopped. We’d chat about the different buildings and about the people. We’re both born and bred Manchester and passionate about the buildings and the heritage and the culture, and as we talked we realised it was about so much more than the buildings Richard was drawing. Manchester may have a proud history, but it also has a rich present. We had started a small collection of tile designs, and the idea to create an alphabet for Manchester just grew out of that. It’s not a complete 24 letter alphabet, we aren’t forcing the concept, but there are tiles for most of the letters and we’re getting there.”
Regardless of how brilliant Richard’s illustrations might be, it’s still a big step to take them from hobby to small business, especially as he still works full time in his architects practice.
“We both have an interest in homeware and ceramics, and we just tested the idea a little bit by having some of the illustrations fired onto tiles, by a company in Stoke, and taking them to a local market, in Ancoats. The reception was brilliant, and we thought – there's something in this. We were getting approached for commissions and collaborations and I started researching where else we could go with and that’s when I really started taking it seriously.
“Richard’s attention to detail that goes into the illustrations is the attention to detail that goes into everything he does. If he’s going to do something, and if we’re going to do something, we go the whole hog.”
The tiles are quite beautiful. They’re large and heavy and feel luxurious to hold – a beautiful and unusual gift for a great friend, or yourself. Considerable thought has clearly gone into each aspect of the design and packaging, and it’s no surprise the business quickly began to grow.
“At first we just did local markets around Manchester, but we soon found that wasn’t sustainable in terms of our time and effort, we were losing all our weekends, and I looked for alternatives. We got pop-ups over Christmas in John Lewis in 2021 and 2022, and they invited back over Jubilee and asked us to do something exclusive for Jubilee, which sold out on day one. It was quite a steep learning curve, but it did drive a lot of online orders and repeat buyers.”
It also led to an approach from the Whitworth Art Gallery, a Manchester icon already represented in their collection.
“We have done an exclusive W tile for the Whitworth, and they carry our Manchester tile collection,” Jade says, “and then the buyer for the Whitworth is also the buyer for Manchester Museum, and they’ve just completed a massive renovation and asked us to create an entire collection bespoke for them, inspired by the various collections and exhibits they have there.”
The Sculpts tiles can now be found in cultural spaces all over Manchester, from Manchester Art Gallery and John Rylands Library to the National Football Museum, the Pankhurst Centre and out to Quarry Bank in Styal.
“To be stocked by the National Trust is just incredible. We haven’t been going that long and it’s easy to forget just how far we have come in such a short time.”
Fittingly, as each of their designs tells a single chapter in the history of Manchester, they have written a book, Manchester by The Sculpts, detailing the inspiration behind each of their tiles and celebrating the evolution of the city from the first great city of the industrial age to the present day.
The base tiles are hand rolled in Stoke, but Jade and Richard now have their own kiln they use for firing the designs onto the tiles.
“It’s about attention to detail and quality control,” Jade says. “The illustrations are so detailed the firing can affect the end result, so doing it ourselves helps us translate works on paper and on the tile. We can test and enhance and redraw to create the very best designs. And it helps us respond really quickly to demand, if a customer suddenly wants a special order.”
So what’s next for this duo, who are not only reflecting Manchester’s heritage and culture, but adding to it too?
“We’re launching a new collection this month, based around citrus vulgaris, which was inspired by the work we did for Manchester Museum and their herbarium, and we’ve just opened a shop in Sale, on Stanley Square. It’s such a lovely community around there and as Richard grew up in Sale, it makes it even more special for us.”
