Explore every episode of the podcast Other Ways Of Seeing

Welcome to the fourth Other Ways of Seeing conversation. Other Ways of Seeing is a project to discover the personal or not so personal art practices of people who work in the creative industries. What they make and why they make it. This conversation is with Steph. I can’t reveal her whole name as she’s chosen to talk to me anonymously. Steph is the Global Creative Director of a toy company. I mean that’s dumming it down, it’s probably the most famous toy company in the world and it’s not just for kids either. It’s brilliant at encouraging creativity.. and clearly her job is incredibly creative. And yet.. in her very little spare time she chooses to be creative in a different way. She is a comedian. She’s been writing comedy for a few years now and more recently she’s been performing.

This conversation was recorded at the end of November 2025. We talk about not quitting your day job and why.. The practice of waking up early every morning to write. The comedy writing techniques she’s learned from Logan Murray. Drinking coffee (and vodka!) though tampons.. bit sad we go into that more. The ‘crumbs of validation’ from her Instagram profile. Admitting the thing that you really truly desire. Bombing but carrying on. Being funny at work. The 90s ‘lean in’ culture. What it means to be ‘professional’. The blurring boundaries between personal and work life. Becoming more confident at stand up. Making people laugh being the best feeling in the world. The sitcom Hacks. Writing about immigration and getting negative comments. And hurricane names.

Before we get into the conversation, a quick note about sponsorship. Right at the beginning of the conversation I mention not wanting to monetise Other Ways of Seeing or look for sponsorship as this could affect who I talk to. Which of course is true but not necessarily a bad thing. I take it back! Hungryman, a super successful production company have just offered me sponsorship. I didn’t even ask for it! And it would be crazy to refuse because now I can buy some decent mics. And they have opened the doors to some ridiculously interesting conversations. So thank you Hungryman for the support and being my first ever sponsor.

Welcome to the third Other Ways of Seeing conversation. Other Ways of Seeing is a project to discover the personal or not so personal art practices of people who work in the creative industries. What they make and why they make it. This conversation is with Anthony Burrill. Ant is a super famous graphic artist, most well known for his positive aphorisms, in particular his extremely popular poster ‘Work Hard and Be Nice to People’.

We began the conversation talking about his son Jack’s final show for his fine art degree at Camberwell, working solo, collaborating with Oswin Tickler (omg I love his name), keeping on doing what you love, taking commissions, not taking commissions. You & Me & Me & You, the epic piece that’s the size of a building because it’s ON the side of a building! Work that didn’t translate so well, simplifying, trusting your intuition, a wine bar that he sent me pictures of by mistake, unfortunate places your work can end up, and the power of a single image.

Welcome to another Other Ways of Seeing conversation. Other Ways of Seeing is a project to discover the personal art practices of people who work in the creative industries. What they make and why they make it. This second conversation is with directing duo Fitch/Baker otherwise known as Matt Fitch and Chris Baker. Matt is a Creative Director at a popular independent advertising agency called Pablo, Chris is Head of New Business at Park Village, a long established London based film production company. We talk about how they met, bonding over comics, writing comics and falling out of love with comics. We discuss their highly awarded short film Backmask and how much time and money and belief it takes to get films made and out there in the world. We consider how personal projects fit around their paid work and families, and how having kids has actually helped their creative output. We chat about art and the weird stuff they like to do to inspire themselves. We also discuss not directing ads. And creating, simply for the love of it..

Sophie is a hugely successful and prolific photographer and more recently, film maker. We start at the beginning of her career in advertising as an account handler in ad agency BDDP et Fils in Paris, to Mother in London and then JWT which leads her to jack it all in to become a photographer. We talk about where her projects come from, her influences, motherhood, incredibly brave exhibitions held in her own house, and an awesome piece of advice for herself when she started out…