#IWD2021: Creative Women Profile - Lynsey Thompson
04 March 2021 by Michelle
To celebrate International Women's Day on 8th March 2021, we're doing a series of feature interviews with pioneering and trailblazing women working in creative fields, with a connection to Lancashire. Meet Lynsey Thompson, Managing Director of Wash Studio and Co-Founder of The Artistry House.
International Women's Day has occurred for well over a century with the first gathering held in 1911. The theme for International Women's Day 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge. It's a global call to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness against bias, and encourage us all to take action for equality, so that we can forge a gender-equal world.
You can find links to all our feature interviews for #IWD2021 here.
Lynsey Thompson was born in Lancashire and has been based here most of her life. She's been involved with Wash design studio for 11 years, and has been MD for the past three. More recently, together with Andy Walmsley of Wash, she co-founded the Artistry House.
As Lynsey shares, family bonds and strong relationships are a core driver behind how she works.
Lynsey, how long have you been doing this work and how long has your new company - the Artistry House - been running?
The Artistry House was set up in 2016 and was borne out of a passion for buildings and interior design.
It's a property based on Winckley Square which houses a number of tenanted studios for creative businesses, meeting and event spaces, an art gallery, and an interior design studio. Wash Studio is based here too.
I’ve had a love of property from a young age, having renovated my own homes to move up the property ladder, but the Artistry House was my first commercial project.
Since starting up, we've designed the interiors for Rise in Preston and the Hy Hotel in Lytham St Annes. We have other ongoing projects, including one in Preston with the Heaton Group.
What inspired or motivated you to do the work you do? Have you always done what you currently do?
I have worked as an account manager within creative agencies since leaving university, going from an above the line advertising agency, to a marketing consultancy business and then setting up as a freelance consultant when I was 29. I’ve always worked in owner-managed businesses and this inspired me to work for myself.
For me, success isn’t just about career, it’s about your own personal goals and mine have always been rooted in my family.
As a freelancer, Wash Studio, was my first ongoing client and I fell in love with the team’s passion for creativity. As I got more involved in the business I could see how this talent could span in any direction and having worked with many clients creating brands, felt it was time to create my own.
My own design passion is interiors and I wanted it to be part of my every day, so this combined with a need for Wash to move studios inspired the idea for the Artistry House.
What do you love about being a creative and/or working in creative industries?
My favourite thing about working in this industry is meeting and working with amazingly talented people, and seeing how projects come to life through that collaboration.
We always push the boundaries on a project and make every project individual. This is enabled by thinking beyond our own skill-set and looking at how we can stretch each and every brief.
I believe that face to face collaboration is key to creativity and am looking forward to times when we can bring people back into the house.
How have the events of the last 12 months affected your way of working? (e.g. Black Lives Matter, Covid, Brexit, etc). How have you pivoted or adjusted the way that you work? Any positives that have come out of it?
The biggest impact on the business in the last 12 months has been Covid.
As a small studio team we have been lucky enough to be able to work from home and having the Artistry house has also provided us with safe, separate studio spaces which we can use as needed.
Our events calendar has been massively put on hold which has been a real shame, as a creative community was really beginning to build in Preston. We did host an exhibition for artist Norman Long, throughout October 2020, changing the format to private viewings and showcasing the work through film on digital channels.
As with most businesses, we now deliver much more digitally through video calls. I’m sure that this will become a bigger part of how we communicate on projects going forwards, inevitably saving time and hopefully giving us greater client reach.
However I believe that face to face collaboration is key to creativity and am looking forward to times when we can bring people back into the house.
The theme for IWD2021 is #ChooseToChallenge. How are you helping to forge a gender equal world? What issues are you choosing to challenge in a creative way this year?
I went to an all girls high school and this was a real positive for me. I can honestly say that I never saw my gender as a hurdle growing up; I just believed that you can be anything that you want to be.
Obviously as you go through life you see how you can be treated differently as a woman, but I have always chosen to challenge assumptions and judgement, pushing forwards on my own path. This belief runs through our business and we ensure that we treat everyone equally and respectfully whether male or female.
As a working mum of three it’s really important for me to challenge gender bias for the next generation. There is still a lot of stigma around mums who choose to work and they often take the load when it comes to the home and childcare, something that has been publicised heavily throughout the pandemic.
As we open up the Artistry House, I am keen to run more events which enable conversations around this and support men and women to have more supportive partnerships at home and at work.
Obviously as you go through life you see how you can be treated differently as a woman, but I have always chosen to challenge assumptions and judgement, pushing forwards on my own path. This belief runs through our business and we ensure that we treat everyone equally and respectfully whether male or female.
Any advice for women launching a creative career / starting out in creative industries?
You are very lucky if you know exactly what you want to be from a young age, so my advice to someone starting out in the creative industries would be to be broad in what you do. Our team is so strong due to their breadth of skills.
Try everything, listen and learn as you never know where a path may take you.
How has working or spending time in Lancashire or the North shaped or informed what you do today?
I believe that working in Lancashire has enabled me to have a successful career, whilst still enjoying my family, my biggest passion. If I’d stayed working in the cities I think it would have been much harder to create the flexibility that I have with work.
Moving back to Lancashire lowered our costs and travel time and therefore allowed me to start up a business of my own which worked around my children.
For me, success isn’t just about career, it’s about your own personal goals and mine have always been rooted in my family.
Follow the Artistry House on Instagram and Facebook.
Look out for more profiles featuring creative women from or connected to the county in articles throughout this week on our news page.
About International Women's Day - March 8, 2021
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality. internationalwomensday.com
