Self Renovation

Interview by Kate Starkey and Cate Hamilton. Portraits by Jenny Stewart.

The Window Magazine is excited to be travelling the Cotswolds in search of inspiring stories of parents who have overcome adversity to create magic in our area. In our inaugural edition we're delighted to interview Natasha Willmore, Gretton-based mum of one, business owner at design agency Culpepper and Co., and half of the brains and talent behind the upcoming Recipes to Remember charity cookbook, created in aid of Maggie's, the cancer charity.

Natasha, tell us about the day you left the world of traditional employment.

I'd been working as a creative graphic designer for an agency for twelve years. I was running a team, producing 500 design items each month, working to deadlines, and it was here that I met my husband Mark. Mark told me, 'Tash, you’re great at what you do but you're working too many hours – you could do this for yourself.' Eventually he supported me to take the plunge to leave and restart as a self-employed designer. My team took the news so well. This was in 2005.

On the day I left work I'd known Mark for a year and we'd been married for just thirteen weeks. That evening – just before Christmas, about 6pm on a filthy rainy night – I walked out of work to go for evening drinks with my friends. A group of four of us were crossing the Bath Road where traffic was stacked due to late-night Christmas shopping and rush hour. A car to my right pulled out of stationary traffic, looked behind him but not in front, and put his foot down. I was the first one in the line of my four friends and the only one that he hit. All four of us were crossing – all four of us were not wrong to cross at that time.

So life changed in an instant. How serious was the accident?

My injuries were pretty catastrophic. I was in hospital for a few months and I had to come to terms with the fact that I would need to learn to walk again. Fortunately, Mark had been in the middle of renovating our first home together and was able to make a few adaptations so that my bed could be set up downstairs.

And financially? The timing of this presumably couldn't have been worse for you both?

Mark was also self-employed doing building work and obviously I'd just waved goodbye to employment and hadn't even begun the process of setting up my business. So initially we lived off credit cards while Mark visited me in hospital and eventually brought me home (still ferrying between endless hospital appointments) and got me better again.

We couldn't go on much longer without me earning a living, so from my bed I got my laptop and phone out and started contacting all of the potential clients who had said, 'I really want to work with you, Tash, and when you are ready give me a ring.' But of course I had to explain to them that though I was ready to work I couldn't get to them and they had to come to me and be happy to work alongside my bed. The answer unanimously seemed to be yes – even from some clients who I had never met before!

Having worked in an agency for such a long time, I had an amazing network of wonderful freelancers who were happy for me to call on them for help and I'd say to new clients, 'I'm not very well. I can't walk. But I do have a great colleague who can visit you and get this moving.'

And what about the psychological effects of the accident? It must have affected your emotional wellbeing?

I had to have cognitive behavioural therapy for some time to help me recover from the shock and the post-traumatic stress. One of my biggest problems was that I couldn't process information as well as before. I knew what I wanted to happen but I couldn't join the dots in how to get there. I couldn't read a book for months and months after the accident. Not being able to walk leaves you so vulnerable. I'd cry when being pushed in my wheelchair as I hated not being in control.

But the flip side is that the accident empowered me. I couldn't let my family and my future life with Mark and everything that I had ahead of me fall away. I just couldn't. So off I went! In time I'd go with colleagues to clients – taking the chair and the sticks. I'd take the brief on the job and be enthusiastic and people would forget that I couldn’t walk. Then back at home I'd share the work out amongst my network of freelancer friends. It was an amazing collaborative experience and that's how I built Culpepper and Company.

It was initially always going to be just me – just Natasha Culpepper, freelance designer – but this unexpected life event meant that actually it was about a team of people who supported me through this incredibly difficult period. James, my wonderful illustrator; a fantastic friend, Norman, who is a designer; photographers like Phil from Shadowplay and so many more. They've all supported me from the very beginning and things have just grown and grown and grown from there.

Natasha and her husband, Mark.

How long did it take for you to start living remnants of your old life?

My accident happened just before Christmas. For Christmas Mark bought me a trip to Madrid the following Easter. Of course I told him there was no way I'd be able to go but he'd bought the trip as an incentive and there was no way he was going to accept my excuses. 'At Easter you’ll be getting on a plane and going to Madrid,' he'd say – so matterof-factly! Of course the wheelchair and the sticks came along too but we haven't let the accident stop us from living a full life.

When life-changing incidents happen you realise how precious life is, and alongside the business there was no hanging about. We were going to have a family as quickly as we could as life is just too short not to have made that decision. So I was still using my wheelchair when I became pregnant with our daughter Maisie (now twelve).

And did your health have an impact on the pregnancy?

I was very ill during my pregnancy and again was stuck in bed for a lot of the time. Once again the team stepped up to keep the business wheels turning. We became a collective of creatives who could all work flexibly and who all respect one another's needs as working mums, dads, and actually just as people who want to live as well as work.

We've always worked around hours that we want to. If I want to work 7pm until 2am tonight so I can play in the garden all day tomorrow, that's okay and the same applies to the team. As long as the work is delivered on time, on budget, it's beautiful, and surprises and delights our clients, then does it matter when it's done? I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to juggle life this way and I have never hidden the fact that I'm a mum from a client and neither has my husband. We are parents first – we worked really hard for that and it's beautiful.

Cacklebean Eggs boxes, designed by Natasha.

We get the impression that the beauty of living is something you don't take for granted and is something you've injected into your business. Would you agree?

In order to deliver creative work you have to know your client's business as well as they do. You have to live it, put on your muddy boots and get stuck in and get to know them, understand their brief and give them that little bit extra that will surprise and delight. It's not just about logos and websites, it's about finding out the essence of what they want and delivering that extra level of loveliness to inspire that person to push on with their business or project. Cacklebean Eggs (a client) are the perfect example of this – a couple with a young child who were committed to farming and producing the very best eggs. Helping them with their packaging was about designing something stunning that would take their wonderful product to the next level and inspire them to pitch it to some amazing retailers. That project was brief gold!

And now? Do you still see your accident as a terrible part of your life or do you think it has shaped the way that you live?

My accident has taught me that there is no space for negativity in my life. It drags you down into a place that is dark and has no use. The driver of the car was found to be uninsured and I did receive a small amount of compensation eventually. We spent it by taking a few months to travel with Maisie, who was then three. We visited Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, and again the team stepped in to keep the business operating. We did it just because that time and those memories were priceless. I created a journal of the trip with a map and all of the photos of all the things we did – the first place she swam in the ocean, where she first put her shoes on all by herself!

And the impact it had on the way that you developed your business and turned it into a collective – what a wonderful way to channel your positivity!

I'm with people for the journey. The people I meet are my friends and so many amazing projects have come about as a result of collaborations.

Can you give us an example?

Through Phil from Shadowplay I met his wonderful wife Kelly and we've been friends since our children were small. I'd been madly admiring her interior design from the sidelines and slowly we started working together bringing branding and interior design on creative collaborations that really take that brand to the next level. The Find (Cheltenham's much-loved coffee house and restaurant) is the biggest example of how we've worked together. David who owns The Find began this project with great passion and a great vision and it was our job to help him name it and create the whole experience of a customer visiting. It's been fantastic to work with him and we continue to do so.

The takeaway coffee cups that Natasha designed for The Find, in Cheltenham.

And of course this was just the start of a beautiful working relationship between you and Kelly?

It was. The next exciting project for Kelly and me is the Maggie's Recipes to Remember cookbook. I coerced Kelly into coming with me to an event at Maggie's in Cheltenham and of course as soon as she walked through the door she loved everything about it. Maggie's is a cancer support charity open to absolutely everybody who has been touched by cancer (so friends and family as well as people who are going through it), offering around-the-kitchen-table support across all aspects of living. It's all about not being in a clinical hospital environment and being supported and cared for in a beautifully designed space.

The book is inspired by my stepfather's recent cancer journey and is a collection of more than sixty memory-inducing recipes, some from national celebrities and some from local people of interest who are supporters of Maggie's. The book was launched at Cheltenham Literature Festival 2018 and every penny of profit will go to the charity. We're determined to raise a minimum of £10,000 through the project. Gabby Logan, Jeremy Vine, Raymond Blanc, Tom Kerridge, Dr Sarah Jarvis – there have been some amazing contributors. We're eating lots of food while we do all the photography! Soups, cakes – so many delicious dishes!

It's been a huge undertaking! Sixty recipes to cook and photograph, and a whole book to put together around our day jobs. It's been a magical experience. It's going to be stunning and the stories are absolutely charming. And how can readers buy the book?

The book is available to order online, and stocked locally in lots of amazing retailers.

It's an incredible project and you must be so proud of the finished product. A great cause that we're sure many of our readers will want to support. Thanks for sharing your story, Tash, and may your business and family continue to thrive.

www.maggiescookbook.com

www.culpepperandcompany.co.uk

Cover of Recipes to Remember, www.maggiescookbook.com