"Hush Hush' High Street Filming

This weeks blog was written fresh in the moment of all that happened on Tuesday morning the 23rd May 2023.

"I'm excited to be up early to get ready for a secret collaboration, well-known high street name, who have been at the Designs in Mind studios filming over Monday and Tuesday for a collaborative product launch."

Two whole full days of filming, art workshops and interviews with our staff and members. It's been so exciting and fabulous to be part of".

Our members' designs are going to be appearing in a high street store across the UK in this collaboration with a very well known brand. Our logo, which is our name, will appear on the labels of various products.

This is a really exciting time for us as an organisation. We recently opened our shop onto the local high street too! We are here to change the face of Mental Health support by having a shop and studio that is geared up with Samaritans-trained staff, who can offer a listening ear on your Oswestry high street.

During the two days, the staff from our secret collaboration have been present in our building, turning our studio into a film set, where our members and staff are showcasing workshops, being interviewed about their individual part in the creation of the designs that have been chosen.

During the thrilling hum of excitement and enthusiasm everyone was discussing the joy this collaborative project had brought to our studio.

Everyone's so proud that they have been part of this process.

I arrived in the studio at 9.15am, looking around I see cameras, bright lights, film crews, beautiful designs that I'm not yet able to share photographs of! This is pre launch filming and kept 'hush, hush' until an official high street launch date. Watch this space for more news to come.

A camera was placed above the table for a bird's eye view filming of our workshops!

When chatting to a few members, I took a few quotes to share in the moment, Nicky G said "It's really exciting! This collaboration really elevates our name as were working with such a well-known brand."

We had a few interesting comments as the mornings activities played out; the first activity involved five of us speed painting onto a glass panel, as we were filmed.

One of the members painting said about the paint: "Ooo, its nice and runny!" which I found out later was me! In all the excitement I wasn't as present as I thought.

Mia said "It was quite stimulating to make a mess with no consequences and to see how everyone worked together."

We then had a group of us putting down pre-

cut shapes onto a tabletop within a masked out line. Again, this was a fast-paced throw down. We often take our sweet time with planning our creations in the workshops during a usual studio day, so these fast paced ideas were a little out of our comfort zones yet highly pleasing too!

Adam said "It felt quite hectic, yet satisfying."

Chris, who got too place the first large piece onto the table, said: "I enjoyed it. The flowers I first placed, got lost under all the other pieces."

For me personally, I enjoyed seeing us all take part in fresh ideas. My favourite takeaway of the day was to discover a splash of paint on my left shoe: a really lovely, unexpected design that will forever be a joyful memento of the day.