An Interview with Ian Pitt Founder and Creative Director of Me,Him&Her Design Studio
Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your design studio Me,Him&Her?
My name is Ian. I’m originally from London, but I’ve been living and working in Belfast for the past two and a half years. I’ve been working as a designer for nearly 30 years (time flies!!). I started designing within the retail sector and then co-founded my own studio, Me,Him& Her, in 2007.
As a studio, we’ve always worked across a wide range of media, including digital, print, and physical. We’ve designed identities for retailers, charities, artists, and galleries; signage for restaurants and workspaces; and packaging for artisan delis and craft beer makers.
We’re a small team that loves collaborating with other creatives and specialists to deliver projects with both creative and commercial impact. Our client list is incredibly diverse, ranging from well-established multinational brands to SMEs and startups.
Since moving to Belfast, the studio now has two addresses. While we continue to work for our existing clients in London, we’re also starting to connect with some fantastic new clients here.
What inspired you to become a designer and how did you first get started?
I always loved art, but I was never great at it – but from an early age I liked the idea of doing something creative as a career.
When I was about 10, my dad took me to a design studio one weekend. He worked in sales for the computer company ICL and had to proof a new brochure. Back then, they still made the brochures by hand, gluing together pages as paste-ups (I’m so old, I know!). I can still remember the cover – it was black with a painted orange neon electrical pulse running across it. I think that really set me on a path – that was tangible vision of creative role that stuck with me.
I hope they don’t still do this, but at school I remember getting asked a random set of questions which then spat out a job they thought you should do. It was like a weird fortune-telling careers adviser. The ‘crystal ball of employment’ said I should be a car mechanic at the local Ford garage. Luckily for me and car mechanics, a teacher pointed me towards Graphic Design instead.
So, I went to art college for a quick foundation year to make sure the art world wasn’t missing out on anything. Then, I went on to a graphic design degree. I was really lucky to get a job right after graduating, working as a designer for Marks and Spencer. That was a brilliant place to start out.
I was surrounded by a really supportive team of people who gave me plenty of time to learn and grow as a designer. Plus, I had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented creative professionals. The role was in the Store Display studio, where we were responsible for designing all the window promotions and in-store POS. This experience started my passion for designing in spaces and environments, and creating brand experiences in a three-dimensional context.
What made you decide to start your own design studio?
I had worked as a designer for two big retail brands (M&S and French Connection) that I absolutely adored, but by 2006, I was itching to explore other sectors. I felt a bit stuck, you know? There are only so many sale campaigns you can come up with. So, I decided to take a leap of faith and try something new.
My initial plan was to go freelance and see where it took me. I’m sure that would have been a total disaster, but luckily, my boss at the time was feeling the same way. We had always worked really well together, and he’s still the most creative person I’ve ever worked with – infuriating at times – but always brilliant.
In 2007, we decided to start our own agency – Me,Him&Her. The name was something of a response to the Ad agencies we’d dealt with over the years that all sounded like law firms, all name checking the egos of the founding partners.
As the name suggests there was supposed to have been three of us, hence the ‘Her,’ but it didn’t quite work out. We were so in love with the name that we kept going as a slightly misnamed partnership for a while until we were finally joined by a couple of ‘Her(s).’
Has your business changed at all since you started back in 2007? Have your priorities changed?
The business has never stopped changing. I would say at the beginning we were very much making it up as we went along. I don’t think we really had a plan beyond enjoying our newfound creative freedom, creating the best work we could, and paying the bills. We had a mantra of ‘Loving your work’ which we had on all our stationery and comms – I still use that to this day – it really matters that I do love all the work we produce – as a priority for me and the business that has remained constant.
We started out focused on the retail sector – that’s what we knew and we had a great portfolio of work within that to attract clients – and we were really successful at it.
A year or so in, I got introduced to a young architecture firm, spacelab_ (now award-winning), and collaborated with them to design some graphic interiors in a workspace for a client of theirs. That opened up a whole new sector for us and created an enduring creative friendship with spacelab_.
I think when we started out I was really naive about what having your own business was going to be like. We grew pretty quickly. Our first studio was a pop-up we designed. A brilliant photographer and friend Martin Wonnacott was generous enough to let us build it within his photographic studio. Our address was the ‘The Set in the Corner’ and that’s exactly what it was – a bonkers timber-framed office, built like an exhibition stand looking like something you see on a film set. It had space for 3 of us to work and a storage area at the back. Brilliant.
A couple of years in, we realised we needed more space and staff. We rented another studio above the unit of a print supplier we worked with. That was a big change – as soon as we had more people, I felt overwhelmed. We weren’t designers anymore; we were directors. I was designing less and less, spending more time in client meetings, trying to find new work to keep our new team busy and managing people.
I think we got caught up in the idea of what a design studio should be, not what we wanted it to be. We continued to be successful, but I wanted to enjoy it entirely.
We ended up splitting the original business – then I realised the original ‘non-plan’ was actually pretty good.
“Enjoy the creative freedom, create the best work you can, and pay the bills”.
I would say for the last 10 years I have now developed the right-sized studio. Me,Him&Her works with an amazing team of designers, collaborates with other creatives, specifically in the art sector, and continues to deliver projects I love.
What do you enjoy most about working for yourself?
Running your own business is an incredible feeling – you know that it’s ultimately up to you to make it a success or a failure. There’s definitely pressure that comes with that – not least the need to make money – but after almost 18 years of running my own business, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Freedom is a big thing – a lot of my friends still think I’m ‘living the dream’, doing whatever I want whenever I want. That’s definitely not true. I do have a bit more flexibility with my time than most people with ‘real jobs’ do. At the end of the day, deadlines have to be met and work has to be done, so it’s just about time management.
The biggest freedom I’ve gained as I’ve gotten older is that I can now say no to some projects. You start to get a feel for what kind of work you like and how it might turn out. And you start to care more about how a relationship with a client will develop. That matters more and more to me – I want to do work that I’m really passionate about and with people I like. It can’t always be the case, but 85% of my time is spent doing just that.
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out? Do you have any advice for creatives starting out now?
No. I work doing the job I wanted to do since the age of 10. How cool is that? I have worked with some inspirational people, for some amazing clients, and delivered work I’m really proud of – doing something I absolutely love. Being a creative is a vocation. That old maxim, unusually for what I like to call ‘tea towel’ philosophy; ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’ is actually true for me.
There are days you want to bang your head against the wall – days you think you’ll never have another idea in your life – days you’ll think you’ll never get another client – endless days you feel sick with worry and stress as you think about delivering the next piece of work – and days and days while you wait to get paid. But despite all that, having the opportunity to create something daily I think is genuinely such a privilege.
I don’t really like giving advice; what the hell do I know?
But… to be successful as a designer relies on so much more than just your visual talent. Learning about client relations. Learning out how best for you to present your work. Playing nicely with others. Taking on feedback and learning how to not throw your creative toys out of the pram if it’s bad. This is all best done with a supportive team around you to hold your hand through the multitude of mistakes you are undoubtedly going to make.
I’m going to also recommend a book: Do/Fly (Find your way, Make a living. Be your best self.) written by Gavin Strange – it’s from the stable of the Do Lectures (set up by the incredible David Hieatt, if you don’t know him or them go and find out about both) – it is for me a really inspirational read and a book I turn back to all the time when I need a creative pep talk. My favourite piece of advice (now it seems I’m on a roll of giving it!) though is the beautifully printed words of Anthony Burrill which hang in the studio.
“Work hard and be nice to people”
It might just be that simple. Sermon over.
You recently moved to Belfast from London, what inspired the move and how have you found it so far?
So, the most memorable thing that happened during my time at Marks and Spencer was that I met my wife there! She was working at M&S during her placement year from her marketing degree at the University of Ulster. After finishing her degree, she moved back and we settled down in London. After 30 years living there, we just wanted a change. We’d spoken about moving over the year prior to Covid, and actually put the offer in on the house we now live in two weeks prior to the first lockdown !! A pandemic and a full house renovation later and we were finally able to make the move in April 2022.
I’m loving living here. It wasn’t a total shock – I’d been coming back and forth for years, but now having the time to really explore Belfast and the whole of Ireland has been great. There’s a really good creative energy about the city. People think London is unfriendly – it’s not, but the warmth and generosity from everyone I’ve met here has been really lovely – thanks to everyone who has taken the time to have a pint(s) and a chat with me.
Are there any differences you have noticed between working as a designer in both cities?
Scale, I suppose. I still spend a lot of time working for clients in London, which is awesome, but I’d love to grow my work here more. 95% of my work has always come through a network of clients, colleagues, and friends I’ve known over the years in London. It’s always going to be tough building that from scratch here, but we’re making progress. This is a smaller pond to fish in, and there are already a lot of very talented studios doing great work here already.
Finally have you any exciting plans or ambitions for the future?
As anyone who has had the misfortune to listen to me banging on about this for the last two years, I would love for Me,Him&Her to open a print gallery here.
We have worked with some amazing artists and galleries in London, putting on shows and promoting work. I love wandering round Late Night Art once a month here and I’ve found some great galleries, but I miss the opening nights at somewhere like Jealous or the sort of shows we’d put on at the depot_. Nudge, by Patrick Colhoun and Hallerclarke at Riddell’s Warehouse last year was hands down the best put-together show I’ve been to in Belfast.
I’d love to have a commercial space selling accessible and affordable art. Celebrating the art of the printed, painted, and sprayed by some of the hottest UK and Irish artists, whilst also providing a space for the new and emerging. Anyone else wants to get involved, let me know. 2025 is the year I’m going to stop banging on about it and make it happen !!
