Thirteen Years Later

Back in 2013, right at the beginning of my career, I found myself working with a small group of independent furniture designers and makers in Edinburgh. I’d come from an art degree but had taken an interest in design, particularly furniture, and began to carve out a career path within that world.

One of those designers was Namon Gaston, and even then, with my small amount of knowledge and context, it felt like being given a window into something quietly exceptional.

We spent time visiting furniture shows together, London Design Week, Clerkenwell, Stockholm and Milan, seeing some of the finest contemporary brands in the world. I remember quite clearly thinking that his work stood comfortably alongside it, maybe even above it. Not louder, not showier, just ‘better’ in a quiet, self-assured kind of way.

At that point, like many designers early in their career, there was still a sense of needing approval from the bigger names, the established houses, the manufacturers. Now however, his work feels settled in itself. It no longer needs to prove anything.

Why revisit the website?

Thirteen years is a long time. For a career, for a body of work, and definitely for a website.

The original site did its job well. It was pared back and understated. But over time, Namon’s work had evolved, matured into something more refined, more confident, and the website needed to catch up.

I wouldn’t say this exercise was about reinventing anything. It was about doing justice to what was already there.

The Challenge

The real challenge with this project wasn’t design or structure, it was restraint. How do you write about work that doesn’t need explaining?

How do you avoid over writing, over selling, or slipping into that try-hard territory that design can easily fall into?

We kept coming back to the idea that the writing shouldn’t try to compete with the work. It should sit alongside it, support it, occasionally guide the viewer, but never get in the way.

We kept the descriptions grounded and honest. There was no need to embellish or overstate; the work already had a quiet strength, and the writing just needed to reflect that.

There was one piece of copy in particular, that behind the scenes was called ‘The Encounter’, that we went back and forth on. The copy reads more like a poem than traditional descriptive copy, and for a while we weren’t sure if it was too much. Too performative.

In the end, we kept it, but importantly, we treated it differently. As something to be experienced rather than simply read. It sits as a rolling scroll on the home page of the site, visually distinct from the rest of the content. Less copy, more moment.

Visual Language

Visually, the approach was about evolution, not overhaul.

The original site had a simplicity that worked, so we kept that foundation, but pushed it towards something more contemporary. Cleaner, sharper, more editorial in style.

The aim was always to let the photography do the talking. No heavy backdrops, no unnecessary design flourishes. Just space, rhythm, and careful composition.

I found myself thinking a lot about design magazines while working on it. That balance of consistency and variation. A recognisable structure across pages, but enough flexibility within them to respond to each individual piece.

The sequencing of images became important too. Location shots, studio moments, wide angles, close details, all arranged in a way that feels organic, but is actually very considered.

We also kept the navigation deliberately shallow. Fewer clicks, more immediate access to the work. It felt important that people could explore freely, without having to dig for it.

Full circle

There’s something quite special about working with someone at the very beginning of your career, and then again over a decade later.

You both change, the work changes. But if you’re lucky, the trust stays the same.

This project felt like a bit of a full-circle moment. A chance to revisit something we started years ago, but approach it with a completely different level of experience, confidence, and clarity.

It’s been a privilege to work on something where the job is simply to not get in the way of something excellent.

What Namon said:

“Working with Jess has always been a pleasure, she created my first beautiful website back in 2013 and recently we decided that she should take on the words and design for a new and more up-to-date site. Jess completely understands how to represent my work and has crafted a new website that I truly feel proud of.”