Creativity and Strategic Thinking are not mutually exclusive - they are intrinsically linked

For several years following my degree, I had a foot in two camps. One, in BRPR & Channel Marketing and the second was Detta Textiles, both under the umbrella of Raeside Creatives Ltd. BRPR & Channel Marketing was my established career path as marketing consultant to directors and marketing managers of global tech organisations across the world for over 13 years. In particular in the graphic arts, imaging and wide format digital print sector. I worked with organisations such as HP, Roland, iiyama, Onyx Graphics, Tecna Display (and many more) to help them establish a reseller / distribution channel and then help that channel market their products and services. It’s a path that has served me well and a job I loved. Channel Marketing is a very different beast to other specialisms in marketing as it really does require solid grounding in Strategic, Field, Product, Digital and Event Marketing so that these can be combined to create integrated marketing campaigns.

When the world’s wide format digital print manufacturers decided to develop digital solutions for textile printing I realised that very few (if any at the time) PR, Communications and Marketing consultancies in this sector understood textiles properly. If I could learn about textiles from the ground up, then maybe that would give me an edge and it would feed my hunger for learning. Having always had a penchant for crafts, sewing, knitting and all things creative I found myself applying for the Textile Design degree course at Derby University, and, having not been in a university environment for over 20 years I was suddenly at the gates with a student card ready to start my first day of a full time BA Hons degree.

Did I do this with a new career in mind? No. I thought, if I can help my customers navigate the emerging technology of digital textile printing and gain a thorough understanding of the processes, nuances and markets then happy days. It fed my need for creativity and learning and if I ended up being good a designer, well then, there’s a bonus.

Throughout my degree, I continued my marketing consultancy, advising clients and customers and delivering marketing and communications campaigns, organising press events and attending all the main trade shows like FESPA, DRUPA and Sign & Digital UK. Nothing changed about my marketing consultancy, I just added a whopping 30 hours of lectures and practical work to my working week, but this was doing something that I came to love – textile design and in particular, industrial knitting.

For the first year of my course, I didn’t tell a soul in the industry I was working in. Working remotely for over a decade had taught me to be agile, flexible and swift when it came to answering emails, calls and delivering work so I was confident that I could do this and not compromise my work, or my degree. Why didn’t I tell anyone in that first year? To be honest, I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to question my work ethic or my standards. I needn’t have worried; the fact that there wasn’t a drop in service was testament to the hours and dedication I put in to BOTH passions – marketing and learning.

In the second year I started to let people know. In 2012 I met digital textile print manufacturer MTEX at FESPA – a European wide format print show - that year in Barcelona. HP had just launched their new digital wide format latex ink wallpaper printer. Things in the interiors world were moving towards digital, my prediction was right. I started to talk to manufacturers about traditional textile printing and the merging of a traditional industry with a digital one. It was noticed. I had already built up a solid reputation in the industry as an innovative and dynamic marketer and so people wanted to talk with me about this emerging digital textile industry, how to approach the market and who would actually buy these printers. Instead of slowing down, my marketing consultancy grew and I employed an expert freelance copywriter to help me with the traditional side of the industry, while I took on the digital textile print and imaging side.

At the end of year 2 in my degree, I was on track for a 2:1 but tantalisingly close to a 1st. So close that I determined nothing was going to stop me gaining a 1st class honours degree. So I upped my game once again and got stuck in to producing more and more textile pieces, developing my craft and honing my writing to reflect an academic rather than a PR/Communications tone for my dissertation. It was during this time that I realised that the knitting and digital print designs I was producing were extremely commercial, there was mileage in creating a small heritage craft brand resulting from this work and so when I finally graduated in 2014 – with a 1st – I set up Detta Textiles in a small studio and started to run this alongside my marketing consultancy, and Raeside Creatives Ltd was born.

The initial Detta project ran its’ natural course and I closed the doors on that particular iteration in 2019. I met some amazing people, talented crafts people and professionals dedicated to keeping quality crafts alive in both Britain and Ireland. In the 5 years I was working on Detta I achieved everything I set out to do on the first day for a craft business – recognition for product range I had created from scratch.

I received an award from the Heritage Craft Association, was personally invited by the Princes Trust to take part in their annual Christmas events at Clarence House and Highgrove where a percentage of the profits go to the Prince Charles’ charities. I exhibited at major trade exhibitions in London, New York, Dublin and Harrogate and was awarded space in the “Best of Irish” craft exhibition in Dublin Castle. I gave a talk at the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and gave a key note speech at the HP Innovation centre in Barcelona alongside the CEO of Jondo (a hugely successful worldwide digital print company) as well as giving talks at European digital textile exhibitions in Germany and the UK about how wide format digital print companies can engage with designers to grow their businesses.

The need to be creative and to continually learn and expand my knowledge was what drove me to the ultimate challenge of tackling a Bachelors degree, while running a business (and bringing up a young son). To be an expert in my field and to help others become experts in theirs. How did I manage such success in such a short space of time?

Thank you kind reader for your patience, it was very cathartic writing this piece - and if no-one reads it I honestly don’t mind. I needed to get this out into the ether for myself, if no-one else. And here it is for anyone to read should they be so inclined – it will explain why, when you google Berni Raeside-Bell you will find a creative textile designer AND a strategic channe; marketer. Who says you can't have two careers? :-)