Studio Griggs’ Stephanie Griggs on grounding creative thinking in commercial needs

Steph, always lovely to catch up! In exciting news, you’ve launched your own creative studio in Studio Griggs! Why was now the right time to make the move?
Likewise – always a pleasure! I’ve been in the brand licensing industry for over a decade now and have absolutely loved working in-house the whole of that time. The variety of my roles over the years has meant that the learning literally hasn’t stopped! Even though I was more than content with what I was doing, I’ve got a little fire inside that keeps me seeking new challenges and is intent on pushing me out of my comfort zone.

After a few ‘life’s too short’ moments earlier this year, including losing a close family member to cancer, I realised that the path with the most room for growth and chance to hone my craft was venturing out on my own… I heard a phrase recently about pushing yourself to jump into the cold dark water because that’s where the most interesting swimming happens – that feels like a good summary!

“Creative needs a commercial why, and commercial needs a creative how.”

Additionally, last year I was invited to join the advisory board for the female-led, Leeds-based, immersive world builders Lord Whitney, alongside some other incredible women. Joining a new creative community has been incredibly inspiring and I feel so excited to have created a new outlet to be able to pour this into!

What sorts of services does Studio Griggs offer clients?
I’m somewhat obsessed with creative problem solving – and that’s at the heart of what I offer! My experience from previous in-house roles as Brand Manager, Licensing & Design Director and Creative Director have really given me the vantage of seeing the 360 picture of brand operations. I really want to help bridge these, often siloed, areas together by employing bigger-picture design and creative thinking – all firmly grounded in commercial needs.

I’ve had the pleasure of developing some globally adored stories and I love getting into the crux of a brand’s DNA, bringing emotional depth to the way it’s creatively presented to an audience, be that child or adult. This could be via a variety of bespoke outputs; a product or publishing range, a brand partnership concept, bespoke asset strategy, brand deck or guidelines… Or the development of new IP from the ground up. I can work as a bolt-on independent, build and lead a team or both – depending on how a project develops.

As one example, in the case of a brand needing a new style guide, I would ideally come in at the stage just before this was determined, to run a ‘creative audit’ of sorts. This would be to ensure any investment in new assets is strategically sound and going to work as hard as possible from a business POV.

Yes, I imagine a fresh external perspective on these kinds of things can often prove to be vital.
Sometimes it takes an external perspective to look at a bigger picture and see the resolution to a problem. As the saying goes, a (creative) problem shared is a (creative) problem halved! That’s really what my ideal client would come with; a problem that I can solve.

Are there any potential clients or brands you’d love to work with?
Well, my children are two and four now, so I’m seeing the joy of the industry through their eyes too, which is a fantastic point of view to have. I’d love to work with some of their favourite brands – in part to buy me some cool points, but also to be able to use life and home experience, as well as industry experience, to inform the creative output.

Speaking of creative output, how do you fuel your creativity?
Fuelling creativity is quite formulaic for me. I’ve tried and tested what works for me over the years and I’ve found that, unsurprisingly, the kindling tends to be the project or problem I’m working on. If I’m excited about something, ideas will subconsciously circulate in the background as I go about my daily life. I’ll kick them around for a while until they’re formed enough to develop further – whilst whittling out the damp squibs!

I usually build out the promising little sparks by getting out the house and giving myself some thinking space. This could be literally sitting on a park bench with a notebook and pen, or going to the library or a gallery space that is purposefully quiet and distraction free. It’s amazing how your brain wakes up when it’s out of your home environment… Too many times I’ve sat at my desk with my laptop open, waiting for an idea to miraculously leap on to the screen – and they rarely do!

I also love chatting to close friends for a bit of inspiration too. You never know what jewels of wisdom you’ll get from a conversation. A lot of them are in creative industries too – embroidery, art, immersive experiences, design, ceramics and escape rooms. It’s like tapping into an in-built community of creative fuel!

I’ve just finished working on a fun, strategic brand identity project as my first Studio Griggs project and this has been a great way to trial my process.

Prior to launching Studio Griggs, you were a popular member of the Roald Dahl Story Company team. How did your time there shape your approach to what you’re doing now?
It massively shaped what I want to do with Studio Griggs! Both present day and seven-year-old me couldn’t be more chuffed about my journey there. Such an incredible cache of stories meant things were never boring and, as you can imagine, it feels like my eight years there had lots of chapters to it.

“I’m somewhat obsessed with creative problem solving – it’s at the heart of what I offer!”

I was brought in as Licensing and Design Manager back in 2015. At that time, there were less than 10 of us in the company. My role was to lead the entire 360 of the Roald Dahl licensing programme. That included growing revenue, licensing and commercial deals alongside DRi – our agent at the time – product development, creative concept development, style guide and asset development – and everything in between! I was also the only designer, so I also worked across other areas of the business designing on some great briefs.

Wearing many hats is something that I revel in – and something that I did back when I was at Mr. Men Little Miss too. It provides rewardingly sharp learning curves.

You became Creative Director there in 2020. Did that role add new strings to your bow?
Yes, I came back from mat leave in 2020 as Creative Director, focusing solely on what the Roald Dahl brand looks like across its many outputs: marketing, publishing, theatre, film and content, licensing and publishing.

You were busy!
Ha! It could be anything from the Roald Dahl brand identity, to style guides, book cover designs, visual identities, brand guidelines, logos and branded materials, partnerships, product and publishing concepts… And of course working closely with Sir Quentin Blake’s illustrations and team – which was such an honour!

Because of this journey, half of my brain is commercial and strategy driven, while the other half is creative and visual-led. Those two halves like to work hand-in-hand and I’ve been told that’s my ‘gold’ – so I’ll take that!

Absolutely. You were also there during the Netflix acquisition in 2021. How was that?
It was an amazing moment as our teams began collaborating on the incredible slate of Roald Dahl content that we’ll see gracing our screens over the coming years. I’m particularly excited about the Twits animated film coming out in 2025, written and directed by Phil Johnston.

Yes, that looks great. And is there a project from your time there that highlights how creative the licensing industry can be?
Gosh, so many… The one that stands out to me is the Extraordinary Explorers collaboration between Roald Dahl, the Natural History Museum and M&S that first launched in 2020. It’s a great example of how a small seed of an idea – born out of a chat over a cup of tea – can turn into a multi-seasonal, multi-category range that hundreds of thousands of children in the UK own something from.

I had always felt that there was an opportunity to elevate Roald Dahl’s well-loved animal characters in the licensing sphere but hadn’t quite found the right angle – until chatting to Maxine from Natural History Museum. We began plotting the concept of pairing them with the Museum’s incredible science-led animal facts.

We pitched to the superb M&S creative team and the rest was history. With a lot of hard work from the licensing and design teams for all three parties, of course! To me, that shows the magic of the industry and the power of what can happen when a group of like-minded collaborators across different teams and businesses align. I still regularly come across kids – including my own – proudly sporting pieces from the range. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Steph, this has been great. One last question: what set you on the path to work in the licensing industry’s creative space?
My first memorable encounter with design and character art was my early teenage obsession with Tim Burton’s darkly humorous Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories. I created my first ‘portfolio’ from that, redrawing characters like Stick Boy & Match Girl, Stain Boy, Brie Boy & The Girl With Many Eyes.

It inspired 16-year-old me to do work experience at a graphic design and print studio in Leeds. I spent the week messing about on the first generation of Photoshop, playing pranks and making cups of tea. Clearly this made an impact, as I went on to do an Art Foundation degree followed by a degree in Design and Art Direction.

My foray into the licensing industry happened by accident, but looking back I think it was meant to be… I was offered two job roles at exactly the same time, both in the industry – one as a designer for an apparel licensee and one as a brand coordinator for Mr Men Little Miss. Talk about buses!

I decided to go with my gut – Mr. Men Little Miss. I mean what could be cooler than working with the stories that you grew up with? Sanrio really took a punt on me in that role and I’ll be eternally thankful to Lisa Macdonald and Alison Green who hired me and patiently taught me the licensing ropes. They saw what I didn’t – that although I wasn’t destined for a life as a designer, design will always be a part of what I do.

It was that fork in the path of my career that led to me developing skills in both creative and commercial aspects of the industry, side by side. To me, they follow each other in a never-ending loop; creative needs a commercial why, and commercial needs a creative how. This thinking is present in everything I do.

A great place to end on. Huge thanks again Stephanie. And anyone wanting to know more about Studio Griggs should head to www.studiogriggs.com.