WAYNE HEMINGWAY TALKS:
Wayne does talks on housing, design, sustainability, entrepreneurial & marketing subjects and his career history…the Red or Dead and the building of The Vintage Festival events and brand are truly remarkable warts and all stories.
Entrepreneurial Start Up’s and Creative Industries Education:
Wayne’s truly is a rags to riches story. From a market stall to building internationally renowned brands the story is uplifting, inspirational and often very funny! Just to say thanks for a great lecture last week – feedback has been very positive. My favourite from the twitter feeds is:
“In a way, even though the talk today was not about career advice, it was actually the best career advice speech I have ever heard”
Brand Building, Marketing and Leadership:
Wayne explores the contrasts and synergies between building Red or Dead in the 80s, before the internet and building the Vintage brand using social networking/digital marketing.
Wayne’s background:
Wayne Hemingway was born in 1961 in the typical seaside town, Morecambe. Maybe not the most appropriate surroundings for one of Britain’s most acclaimed designers, but then Wayne never has been very appropriate anyway.
Wayne’s earliest memories are of his mum and Nan dressing him up as Elvis, a Beatle or Tarzan and being paraded up and down Morecambe pier (evidence available!) or being held aloft in a wrestling ring by his Red Indian father, Billy Two Rivers. These early child-modelling stints went some way towards influencing the youth who was forever experimenting with styles and cultures and reinventing himself whenever the next big “thing” came along. Northern Soul was discovered at the tender age of 13, then Disco, Punk, New Romantic and Rockabilly !! The list goes on.
After spending most of his childhood being “dragged” up in Blackburn, the young and multicultural Hemingway left school with 10 O-Levels and 4 A-Levels. In 1979 he went on to undertake another “inappropriate” move for a future fashion designer by gaining a Degree in Geography and Town Planning at University College, London.
The move that sealed Wayne’s fate was taken to fuel funds for the band that he then played in (he says that he’s burned the evidence but we know where it is!). One day he decided to empty his wardrobe and that of his childhood sweetheart (now wife Gerardine) and took the contents to sell on Camden Market. The realization that money could be made from fashion suddenly dawned.
With Gerardine, Wayne built Red or Dead into a label that received global acclaim resulting in winning the prestigious British Fashion Council’s Streetstyle Designer of the Year Award for an unprecedented 3 consecutive years in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
After 21 consecutive seasons on the catwalk at London Fashion Week, Wayne and Gerardine sold Red or Dead in a multi million cash sale.
In 1999, having sold Red or Dead they set up Hemingway Design, which specializes in affordable and social design. The highest profile project is, The Staiths South Bank, a 800 property mass market housing project on Tyneside for Taylor Wimpey Homes where Hemingway Design are involved from the master planning, the architecture through to the landscaping and marketing of this ground breaking project. Over 500 homes are now lived in and The Staiths has won a series of high profile awards including Housing Design Awards (best large project) and Building Magazine’s “Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project” as well as a Building For Life and the highest rating of any large scale scheme in the CABE National Housing audit.
Hemingway Design is now a multi disciplinary design agency led by two generations of the Hemingway family and a wider team of talented designers.
They have worked with West Lancs Council and English Partnerships on a 12 month project to create a new vision and then a masterplan for 60’s new town Skelmersdale .Working with Copeland Borough Council and the North West Development Agency, Hemingway Design worked on a vision for Whitehaven.
Hemingway Design’s other projects have included the highly acclaimed new club for the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall, IOD at 123, consultancies, The 4 Walls range of wall coverings for Graham and Brown, Technology, “Wet”, a tile range for British Ceramic Tiles and product , packaging and graphic design.(Current and recent clients include Coca Cola, John Lewis Partnership, B & Q, Sainsbury’s, Sky TV, Sony, The Royal Mail, Cafe Direct, Hush Puppies, Antler, G Plan and The Caravan Club). A range of sustainable sheds and water butts (what are they shaped like? you guessed it – bottoms!!) can be viewed at www.shackup.co.uk
Hemingway Design are currently working with McDonald’s on a long term sustainability project, the first phase of which will see new staff uniforms launched for the 2012 Olympics.
Other projects include books (his coffee table art book “Just Above the Mantelpiece” was published by Booth Clibborn Editions in 2000 and Mass Market Classics was published by Rotovision in 2003) .
Wayne is the chair of the South East Design Forum and on the Design Council Trustee Board and the Design Council CABE Committee.
He got an MBE in June 2006 Queens Birthday List, is a Professor in The Built Environment Department of Northumbria University, a Doctor of Design at Wolverhampton, Lancaster and Stafford and a Fellow of Blackburn College (Just call him Prof Doc, Doc, Doc Wayne Hemingway MA, BSc Esquire). 2009 saw some great initiatives launched.
The “Starter for Ten” programme in Gateshead is “doing the right thing” for creative start ups, and the KioskiosK creative kiosk concept has launched in conjunction with the Design Museum’s Super Contemporary Exhibition and the London Leaders programme (www.londonsdc.org). The Window Of Opportunity garden exhibit at Chelsea Flower Show 2009 won a silver medal and Hemingway Design has led one of the most quirky regeneration projects in the UK ..the venture with Bournemouth Council won the Best Regeneration Scheme at the LGC Awards in 2010..the Boscombe Overstrand
Oh yes and Wayne and his son Jack turned The Tate into a silent disco !!
Wayne and the team put on a major new cultural event in August 2010, the wonderful Vintage Festival ..full explanation about this celebration of music, fashion , film , art , design and food at www.vintagefestival.co.uk Did this change the face of summer festivals? You bet it did and it continues to scoop up awards. The Vintage Festival in 2011 took place London at Southbank Centre as part of the 60th Anniversary of The Festival of Britain and in 2012 Vintage takes up residence at its new home, the inspirational Boughton House .
The team have been asked to co curate the official party for The Queens Diamond Jubilee in June 2012 in Battersea Park, watch this space for something special.
A range of Vintage branded products were launched in summer 2011 including a Vintage paint range with Crown Paints at Homebase, wallpapers with Graham & Brown, greetings cards with Hallmark and murals with Surface View
He is a writer for architectural and housing publications as well as a judge of international design competitions including the regeneration of Byker in Newcastle and Salford in Greater Manchester and the Stirling Prize, Europan and a TV design commentator.
Wayne does talks on housing, urban design, education and the creative sector and is a host of creative industries related awards events.
He does a bit of charity work for the likes of Noise Festival, The Princes Trust (where he was the inaugural Chairman of an initiative to enable disadvantaged young people to work within the fashion industry, Shelter, Oxfam and Traid.
A recent business is an educational design resource “The Land of Lost Content” which is a world first and has to be seen to be believed www.edu.lolc.co.uk . Keep a look out for a range of LOLC products including with www.surfaceview.co.uk. It’s all based on the Land of Lost Content museum in Shropshire which The Hemingway’s co own with renowned collector Stella Mitchell www.lolc.org.uk
Wayne has got a massive vinyl collection. He started collecting at Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca in the 70’s and has thousands of 70’s and 80’s dance, disco, funk, northern soul and crossover records. He DJ’ed when he was a teenager and now rocks da house for fun at charity events .
Wayne loves his family and Blackburn Rovers