Acme Chats with Will.
We have been big fans of New Zealand design company, George and Willy since day dot. And with our new George and Willy circle sign for Acme HQ in Wellington, NZ, about to be hung up we are pretty much fan club HQ (+ you will be finally able to actually find out office!).
Last year they joined the New Zealand Specialty Coffee Association - if you're attending a NZSCA event you will now be able to find the event with help from their beautiful sign - seeing NZ companies supporting the NZ coffee industry will always make our hearts beat a little faster.
Let's just jump straight in with a big question - Will, what's your backstory?!
My friend George & I were at university together and we started making things together, all sorts of things; swings, toy helicopters, desks, lamps, clothing racks - all sorts. We kept making things instead of applying for grad roles and then moved into our parent's garage. They definitely thought we had lost the plot a wee bit. It took a little while to find our thing but we found a gap in the market. No-one was putting real love into display tools, menus and signage for businesses. It started with the Studio Roller - our wall-mounted paper roller and we went from there.
Whats your ideal Sunday?
Chilling at home with my girls; my wife Sophie and daughter Ottilie. She is 4 months old and she's pretty cool. My ideal Sunday would involve making something cool, something I have been a bit useless at lately but want to get back into. I want to make some speakers from birch plywood like these ones a company called Ojas in NYC makes.. I am excited for the winter Sundays - raining, fire cranking. The change of seasons is always something I look forward to.
What’s your preferred beverage of choice, breakfast and then at 5pm?
Always wake up to a cup of tea (with my Acme Bobby) and drink them in two hour intervals all day. I also try and drink as much water as possible but usually forget. It's amazing how much more energy you have when you are hydrated. Beers in the weekend but not really during the week. I love Fruju Grapefruit ice blocks which is a frozen drink I guess. At work we drink the Almighty cans - the blood orange one goes good.
Whats your favourite spot in NZ and then of course your second favourite!
I quite like it down in Wanaka, we moved the business down there last winter so we could ski a bit during the week which was cool. There are some pretty epic golf courses down there as well. Skiing and golf are my main sports so Wanaka is pretty perfect. Hahei is also pretty special we have a family beach house there.
On your way to your top two NZ spots, what would you be blasting from your speakers?
If you looked at my Spotify, my most played song would be 'white noise for babies' followed by The Wiggles. My music taste is vast, I quite like a bit of everything. A few tunes I have been enjoying lately are:
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Perpetuum Mobile
Mavis John - Use my Body
Billy Joel - Vienna
Khruangbin - So We Wont Forget (Khraungbin is good for working)
Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer (Ottilie's current favourite)
Shapeshifter - Summer Haze (work tune)
Neil Young - Living with War (from the show 'We Are Who We Are')
and finally, what’s your favourite way to stay creative?
Make gifts instead of buying them. One Christmas I made all my gifts and I think we ended up with a few products. It also gives you a timeline on your projects - So many projects get unfinished but if its a gift you have no choice you have to finish it.
I have always liked the quote. 'The best way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas and throw away the bad ones' Make lots of gifts. I need to get into this again to be honest. I've been slack at making things lately.
Will has kindly offered our customers a 15% off the George and Willy store - just enter the code: ACME15 when you check out.
