Interview Sophie Bold & Laura Pye of Strange Case Collective

Today, we are happy to showcase and share with you the work, designs, stories of the creative group Strange Case Collective. Started by friends and partners Sophie Bold and Laura Pye, they concentrate their efforts on set design, styling & props. You will love their ideas, creative thoughts and magnificent work; we were happy to find they had a space open in their schedule to talk to us today.

Who is Strange Case Collective? What made you start the company?

Sophie: Hello Business Boom, thanks for having us. Strange Case Collective is made up of Laura and me. Back in 2011 a good friend of ours asked me if I could provide the event design for a Threshold event they were holding. It was Jekyll and Hyde themed and the official after party for Light Night Liverpool. I couldn’t do it alone so I called Laura and a mutual friend Jen to help and we haven’t looked back since.

Laura: Hi business boom, yeah we started Strange Case collective after Sophie asked me if I could help out on the Threshold event. We discovered that we worked really well as a team and decided to make it a regular thing.

S: We now have the help of our lovely team and love working alongside them all.

You have close ties with Paper Twin Productions amongst other companies in Liverpool. How would you describe the current creative scene in Liverpool & which people should we all be watching out for?

S: Liverpool is a great city to live and work in. There is an amazing creative community and without the support of other companies and creatives it would have been a lot harder starting up. There is always something going on and everyone is always willing to get stuck in and collaborate. As you have mentioned we work closely with PTP, providing regular art department for all their productions and we use their sister company Paper Twin Photography for all our photography needs. There are so many great businesses and people to look out for such as; House of Sharkey – Lucy works closely with us and creates beautiful one of fashion pieces. The Button Boutique – ran by Gemma. She is your go to for all things girly and creative. She runs great events and craft workshops. The amazing So Coco Rouge, incredibly talented make -up artists and Lauras Little Bakery for incredible cakes and cupcakes. There is a definite female theme here… Hopefully Laura suggests some men.

L: hahaha I think I may be able to. We are so lucky to be in a city with a great creative community. There is also Lisa Yates- she is such a talented illustrator and animator. Not forgetting Ian Blundell, our very own graphic designer. His work is amazing. These people have been a great support to us.

What was your education route to where you are today with SCC?

L: Sophie and I actually met at University. We both studied BA (hons) Theatre, Performance and Event Design at Birmingham City University, where we learnt a variety of different skills and techniques that we use today within the business.

S: It was a great course and we learnt so much from it. It was really good for work experience and we got to create art work for Download Festival, Lattitude and many other companies. I always knew I wanted to work within 3d design and this course taught us skills that could be applied to many different areas, which is great as in today’s work climate. We don’t need to stick to one specific area. We can get involved in the design of theatre, film, TV, event and weddings.

We see you’ve recently launched a new website, what kind of work goes into that for a company like yours and can you offer any advice for anyone looking to start their own business site?

S: Our website has been a labour of love for a couple of months now. We built our website ourselves using IMcreator. We knew from day one how we wanted it to look and this site builder was a great way for us to do so. We are friends with quite a few web designers and we understand the code generated from web builders isn’t perfect, but we couldn’t be happier with how it looks and have had amazing feedback since launching.

What jobs and projects have been your favourite to date for the SCC?

L: What I love about what we do is every project is different so we can get our teeth into a variety of things. It’s so hard to think what a personal favourite has been. Last Christmas we worked with Halewood youth theatre on a performance of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Working with them was amazing. The youth theatre came into our studio and we did workshops to create the props for the performance and parts of the scenery. It was a lovely project just before Christmas, got us definitely in the Christmassy mood.

S: Oooh I loved that one too, we have gone on to work with Altru Dramas youth theatres a lot. They are an incredible group of young people. Like Laura has said it’s really hard to pick a specific project. I loved working with Paper Twin on the new Edge Hill University Commercial. In the space of a week we got to trash a student flat like a party, dress a living room for Christmas and got chased by the famous Edge Hill ducks. I also love working our Photo Corners. We took the idea of photo booths and give them a more personal Strange Case touch. We have been doing them for over a year now and they are so popular. All aspects are handmade and personalised which makes it really fun.

We remember last year you were involved with the visit of Kate Middleton at the Brink, how was that experience?

S: Oooh how could we forget to mention this in the above question? This was an amazing experience. The Brink approached us a week before her arrival and we couldn’t say no. We created over 100 handmade decorations and our work was seen all over the world. We made an individual personalised decoration for HRH, that was given to her on her lunch break and she loved it. Incredible way to spend Valentine’s day.

Laura: That was an amazing opportunity. Never ever going to forget that Valentine’s day.

What are the biggest positives in owning and running your own company? Would you encourage other graduates to follow the same route?

S: The main positive is getting to do what you love every day with your best friend. I can’t imagine running SCC without Laura and wouldn’t change the last year and a half for anything. It has been really hard and it takes a lot of work, but when you see the reaction to your work or get positive feedback it makes it all completely worth it. I would recommend any graduate gives it a go, if they have the determination to do it and the skills, they would be silly not to.

L: I second what Sophie says. It has been really hard sometimes but all that goes away when you see the reactions to your work. I also wouldn’t have changed anything from this past year and a half and also can’t see SCC without Sophie. She’s boss.