In October 2025 Innovate UK Business Growth  very kindly hosted a brunch event for NI creatives in our Hill St studios. At this exclusive session we heard from Innovate UK directly, who explained that they can look broadly for creatives at funding and support from different sources as well as provide one-on-one support. We also heard from two of their most exciting creative companies with Rebecca Walsh from Big Motive  and Phil Weirand May Cheung from Flax and Teal sharing their innovation journeys from early-stage to scaling success!

Here are some of our top takeaways from those companies!

01. Reach out to organisations like Innovate UK and other creative and business support organisations to see what support or opportunities may be available. Even if you aren’t sure if you are eligible

02. Before applying for opportunities, ask yourself “Is it worth my time applying?” but also don’t be afraid to put yourself forward for opportunities

03. Reflect on your processes and use technology to automate as many as possible to save you time and energy

04. For international projects make sure that you understand cultural similarities and differences to successfully deliver projects

05. If you are growing your creative business make sure you really understand your company culture and values, so you know who to hire to fit that culture.

Bank Holiday Weekend creative reading inspiration! Make the most of the good weather we are hopefully going to get and do some reading for your creative business! 

- - BLICK CREATIVE RESOURCES - BOOK INSPIRATION - DO FLY BY GAVIN STRANGE - - 

Do Fly was recommended as a constant source of inspiration by Ian Pitt Creative Director of @mehimandherdesign who did a brilliant creative talk for us in 2025.

For more information and to buy a copy visit: https://thedobook.co/products/do-fly-find-your-way-make-a-living-be-your-best-self?Format=Paperback also available on Kindle if you want to read it straight away.

Lovely visit yesterday afternoon to the always beautiful Stormont Estate for the Ulster University Enterprise Placement Year Celebration Event.

Thanks Jackie Smyth  for the event invite and for inviting us to be a small part of the programme with our Retail Ready Fieldtrip last October

It was inspiring to hear from a variety of placement year participants including Maja Szotkiewicz founder of @majukooo Majakooo, Josh McAvoy co-founder of Aura Studios, April Rose founder of @aprilrosemarketing and Josh McCamley and Zach Johnston co-founders of Mad Moon Studios and also to see other creatives including @laurenkelsoillustrator and Grainne Mullan co-founder of @kitschsistersbelfast exhibiting their work

It was a great programme to be part of and wonderful to see the progress and confidence of all the participants

Meet The Resident: Lorna McFall User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX) Designer within the Video Games Industry

In our latest Meet The Resident we get to know one of our new residents at our Hill Street Studios, Lorna McFall a User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX) Designer within the Video Games Industry.

Read the full interview on the blog on our website ✨️

Some of the things we are organising at Blick in May!

Blick Creative Talk – Maureen Selina Laverty Product and Fashion Designer
Event Date: Tuesday 5th May
Event Time: 7.00pm - 8.00pm
Location: Blick Shared Studios, 46 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LB
Cost: Free

Rapid Feedback for Makers - one-on-one industry feedback ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT
Event Date: Wednesday 6th May
Event Time: 11:00am-4:00pm
Location: Belfast School of Art Shop, 25-51 York St, Belfast BT15 1ED
Cost: Free

Womenfolk X Kitsch Sisters Creative Practice Commitment Workshop: Embroidered & Printed Tote Bag
Event Date: Wednesday 6th May
Event Time: 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Location: Blick Shared Studios, 46 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LB
Cost: £20

Design Stories: Motion Graphic Showcase & Poster Exhibition. Session 1 & Session 2
Event Date: Thursday 7th May
Event Time: 9.00pm - 10.00pm
Location: Belfast Stories (Bank of Ireland Building) 92 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 2GU
Cost: Free

Seaside Books Intermediate Weekly Poetry Workshop
Event Date: Tuesday 12th May
Event Time: 6.30ppm - 8.00pm
Location: Blick Shared Studios, 65 Great Northern Street, Belfast, BT9 7FL
Cost: £40

More info on the events page of our website: https://blickstudios.org/events/

Ahead of her creative talk for us as part of @belfastdesignwk next Tuesday evening @maureenselinalaverty has done this brilliant interview for us on her path to becoming a designer, her recent move back to Northern Ireland from Norway and the differences she has noticed between working as a designer in both countries.

You can read the interview on the blog on our website or book a ticket for her talk on the events page of our website or on the Belfast Design Week website

www.belfastdesignweek.com

Our third and final blog sharing insights from the Retail Ready Fieldtrip for Ulster University Enterprise Placement Year Students we hosted in October 2025.

We previously shared some of our best insights from the day from Linzi and Emma, today we are sharing those from Rachel McIlgorm founder of @storyboxni  a Belfast based ethical gifting company offering curated, sustainable gifts from small and social impact businesses across the UK and Ireland through corporate gifting initiatives and a gift shop based n Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast.

01. Email and introduce yourself. Rachel suggested for retailers such as hers which are social enterprises and interested in the ethics of their suppliers you should send an email and introduce yourself and share your story and why your product would fit their shop.

02. Invest in good quality images of your products

03. Make sure you know your pricing. Account for retailers margins and include details of your pricing when contacting retailers.

04. Don’t be afraid to follow up if you don’t get a response from a retailer.

05. Use your story to market your product. Make your story personal and use it throughout your marketing and branding to differentiate your product.

Rachel is also very kindly taking part in our Rapid Feedback for Makers event on Wednesday 6th May as part of Belfast Design Week

During this event 8 emerging makers and designers will have the opportunity to meet with and get one-on-one feedback from 4 independent design and retail professionals Rachel, Catherine McGinnis co-founder of Maven, Celeste Macormac Owens Retail Co-ordinator Belfast School Of Art Shop and Kate McILhagger-Ng KMN Creative Consulting – formerly Head of Product Development at Made.com.

Get more info and sign up on the Belfast Design Week website www.belfastdesignweek.com

-- OUR IMPACT--

Blick is a social enterprise, we put profits made from our services into supporting creatives in NI, we are currently busy working on Belfast Design Week but here is a summary of some of our social impact from 2024 -2025. You can also find more info on our past impact on our website

https://blickstudios.org/the-team/our-impact/

-- OUR STUDIOS--

When we started Blick back in 2008, our ambition was to create beautiful but affordable spaces in great locations in Belfast for creatives to work in productively and creatively alongside other like-minded creatives.

We started with just one building, our Malone Studios in South Belfast, then took on two others in the Cathedral Quarter, our Hill Street studios and Cotton Court studios. In 2024 we had to leave our beautiful Malone studios, but were super fortunate to find our gorgeous new Great Northern Street studios instead. All our studios provide a mix of private studio spaces and shared workspace with dedicated desks and storage.

- - HILL ST - -

Our Hill St studios are our biggest providing workspace to over 25 creatives within an open plan loft space with high ceilings and original features close to Belfast School of Art right in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter. Our Hill St studios can also be used as a virtual office for creatives who want a professional city centre address for their business.

- - COTTON COURT - -

Our Cotton Court studios are our most affordable studios providing both shared and private workspace to over 10 creatives in a building full of different creatives in the Cathedral Quarter.

- - GREAT NORTHERN STREET - -

Our Great Northern Street studios provide shared and private workspace to over 15 creatives and are located just off the Lisburn Road in a modern glass fronted building nestled between traditional red brick Belfast terrace houses.

Our spaces all offer dedicated desks with storage or private studio space with prices from £130 per month. All our prices include rent, rates, utilities and broadband. Our spaces are all designed to be professional, but welcoming creative environments.

Taking a space at Blick is more than just a physical space; it`s about meeting and working alongside like-minded people, collaborating, learning, and sharing experiences. Our Cotton Court and Great Northern Street Studios are both fully occupied at the moment, but we do have a couple of spaces available in our Hill St studios, get in touch if you would like more info

https://blickstudios.org/contact/

- - BLICK CREATIVE TALK: Maureen Laverty Product and Fashion Designer - -

Join us on 5th May for our next Creative Talk with Blick Resident @maureenselinalaverty as part of @belfastdesignwk

ABOUT MAUREEN:

Maureen is a product and fashion designer, and inclusive design researcher. She works on a variety of design meets disability projects. At the heart of her practice is the relationships that she builds with people’s diverse lived experiences. She believes in co-creating knowledge collaboratively to empower people to have ownership over how design can improve their quality of life. She carries this ethos into product development through embodied ethnography and participatory prototyping with those who resonate with the design solutions in their everyday life.

In the last year Maureen has relocated back to Belfast after almost a decade working with inclusive participatory design methods in Norway. Currently she lectures part-time at NCAD in Dublin within their Department of Design for Body & Environment. She guides students through human-centred design practices and speculative future fashion systems that care for each other and our environment.

ABOUT HER TALK:

Maureen will talk about her practice-based PhD research that explored the sensory experience of clothing with neurodivergent communities. Clothing is traditionally conceived as a two-dimensional static visual statement; a conception that is at odds with the dynamic actions it mediates in our everyday lives. The outputs of such a practice are garments that restrict and fight against the body, causing sensory overload and discomfort. This is a universal experience, but particularly heightened for neurodivergent individuals. Maureen will share the results of an extensive ethnographic study on how clothing sensations are experienced by her research participants. She will then discuss alternative design processes that prioritise the tactile, sonic, and kinaesthetic senses.

EVENT DETAILS:
DATE: Tues 5th May
TIME: 7pm
VENUE: Blick Hill St

Book through the events page of our website or www.belfastdesignweek.com

Throughout the month of March on behalf of the Rural Community Network, in the beautiful Hill of The O`Neill & Ranfurly House Dungannon we had the best time facilitating a series of 4 training sessions to support participants to have more confidence when organising rural heritage events. 

Big thanks to Emma Mc Aleer from Rural Community Network for inviting us to facilitate this course and to all the great participants for coming along. 

It was such a lovely and welcoming group of people and very inspiring for us to find out about some of the amazing things happening in rural areas of NI. 

We came away with lots of ideas and inspiration for the future for work projects and day trips to explore places such as Lough Neagh, Coalisland, the Sperrins and Portadown.

Our second blog sharing insights from the Retail Ready Fieldtrip for Ulster University Enterprise Placement Year Students we hosted in October 2025. We previously shared some of our best insights from the day from Linzi Rooney, here we are sharing those from Emma Johnston founder of @hunterpaperco  a letterpress stationery brand and stationery store located in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

01. Create products with a function. Emma suggested creating products that have a function to increase your sales and stockists.

02. Focus on your packaging. Emma echoed Linzi’s thoughts on our last retail ready blog about the value of packaging when creating a successful product for retail.

03. Visit tradeshows for merchandising tips to set your products apart from others.

04. Consider sending physical samples to potential retailers so they can properly experience your product and your commitment to your creative business.

05. Emma suggested Faire https://www.faire.com/en-gb/ was a great resource for researching competitors pricing.

You can read the full blog on our website link below and in profile
https://blickstudios.org/blog/retail-ready-insights-for-creatives-from-emma-jackson-founder-of-hunter-paper-co/