Make Works is one year old!

 To celebrate one year since we launched the Make Works site here are ten epic things that we've done!

1. Launched Makeworks.co.uk

3000 miles, 70 films, 10000 photographs, 30 illustrations and 1000s of lines of code later, we launched make.works!

2. Got into Seedcamp

After taking part in mini-seedcamp in Edinburgh, Make Works got through to Seedcamp London and ended up being chosen to be in the startup accelerator Seedcamp Academy! From office hours to academy sessions and networking socials, Seedcamp taught us a lot and helped us have a lot of crucial conversations about what we were building. Ultimately, it made us realise that we're committed to growing organically, and keeping our core services free of charge for as long as we can.

3. Finally started matchmaking: Maker Speed Dater

Fi first talked about using Make Works to matchmake designers/artists/architects with makers and factories back in 2012 so it was definitely time to give it a whirl! January saw the first of our Maker Speed Dater events. It was a great evening and we had some fantastic feedback from the attendees so it certainly won't be the end of Fi's forays into matchmaking. 

4. Got Hi-vis

After nearly 100 factory visits we decided it was time to get ourselves some safety gear.

5. Had a whole evening dedicated to workwear

On 22nd January we were joined at The Glasgow School of Art by an audience of 250 people to hear our evening talk in partnership with A Feral Studio about Workwear. Comprising of designers, researchers and manufacturers, each of our three speakers gave a twenty minute presentation about how Workwear influences their practice. Our speakers were Sadie Hough, The Comradettes and Dawson Denim. 

6. Got tattoos

Temporary that is! After hearing lots of people raving about Vana's illustrations that we used on the site we decided to turn them into temporary tattoos to hand out at events.

7. Fi stopped working in her living room

We missed Glasgow too much, so now we've got a new Make Works HQ in Glasgow Central Chambers.  

8. Lottie arrived

Lottie joined Make Works to head up Operations. She's the reason Make Works functions everyday. 

9. We spread the Make Works mantra far and wide 

Since launch day, Fi has been lucky enough to visit Dubai, Poland, Russia, South Africa and the USA! As well as hunting around leather factories and coal mines, she's had some fantastic conversations with groups looking to start their own Make Works. You can read more about Fi's travels here

10. We went on a mini tour up north

Though we have been very busy we couldn't resist another tour with Edinburgh Film Company. Back in February we spent a week on the road visiting Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. We added some fantastic new companies to Make Works.

Thank you to everyone who has helped and grafted over the last year to make Make Works work.