I first came across Chris & Rob from ‘With Love’ on social media in 2016.
I followed them as they worked towards taking a road trip around Britain to find makers that produced things with a passion and purpose. I loved the film that they made about the people they met along the way, so when I saw that they wanted to crowdfund a book about it, I felt that I had to contribute.
I don’t know if you’ve ever supported a venture through crowdfunding but typically the originators offer rewards in exchange for financial contributions. If they hit their target amount, they’re able to launch their project.
Since the book was to showcase makers, a lot of the rewards were supplied by the people they’d met. I looked at the first options in the £50-£100 range, then looked to see what you would receive if you contributed £100-200. It kept going. £300-£400. £400-£500. And more.
There were a lot of beautiful things to choose from. A hand-crafted wooden surfboard. A blown piece of glassware. But the numbers just kept getting bigger. I wondered what I would find when the scrolling eventually stopped. Purely out of interest, of course. There was no way I was going to be spending hundreds of pounds.
The ultimate reward turned out to be a day of Chris and Rob’s time. There was no further description.
What did it mean? What were they really offering to do?
It didn’t really matter as I wasn’t going to be spending hundreds of pounds.
I knew by this time that Rob was a great photographer and that Chris had a real eye for art direction and branding. Over the next few days I pondered, theoretically, what I might have them do for us. Would they be interested in working with a small firm of architects? Would we be considered cool enough by the boys from cosmopolitan Manchester?
It didn’t really matter as I wasn’t going to be spending hundreds of pounds.
The film they’d already made was really beautiful. What if they could do a film for us? Something that illustrated the kind of things that we do and the kind of people that we are. Something that would sit well on the new website that we’d been planning. Would that fit with what they were offering and could they do it in a day?
It didn’t really matter as the new website hadn’t been organised and, anyway, I wasn’t going to be spending hundreds of pounds.
But I couldn’t help myself, and so I emailed them to find out if they’d be interested in doing something with us.
To my surprise they seemed really excited, a meeting was arranged and we got on really well. And, yes, of course, I ended up spending hundreds of pounds!
They subsequently met their target and the book was published. Titled ‘The Background of Britain’, it was just as compelling as the film.
That just left the matter of our film to be sorted. Something that we sat on until this summer when the Raise Supper Club felt like the right opportunity for Rob & Chris to work their magic.
Stop Press
Check back to the With Love website next week when the new version will be launched.