Ben Dawson

After the launch on Friday, we took a trip out to visit Ben Dawson, in Musselburgh. We went to catch up with Ben before we head off on the trip, and to collect some offcuts of leather to re-upholster the front two seats of the van, which is being done courtesy of local Glasgow designer, Eleanor Young at Fun Makes Good.  The majority of the material is Made in Scotland, from suppliers such as Andrew Muirhead and as you can see we were pretty excited to get our hands on it!

Ben is one of our design ambassadors, as he stands for exceptional quality in design and manufacture, and a notion of craftsmanship in Scotland that is difficult to find. He has an incredible eye for noticing minute details in the work, and having worked in the industry since 1983 has a wealth of knowledge about the values and practicalities of making things here. We admire him too for having experienced first hand the strength required to keep going through the challenges that making things in Britain presents. It is also down to Ben that Fi was inspired to go on and study design, after spending a week on the factory floor when she was about 16. We should mention too that he is actually the owner of 'Rhubarb', and has been helping us out getting to grips with her VW quirks and mechanics along the way.

Ben will be sharing his ideas about why we should keep making things', with us in due course, and we look forward to hearing it.

Ben Dawson Design | www.bendawson.com

Photographs | Ross Fraser McLean.