Duration: We’ve been working as designers for the last nine years, but we launched Side by Side three years ago.

Location: Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Key creatives: Oliver Booth and Dave Greasley. We studied together from the age of eleven to 20, both attending the Sheffield College. After spending five years working for other studios, we reunited to create Side by Side. 

Artistic influences: We like working at the intersection of design and craft. People who get off the computer to make things inspire us. We enjoy trying out and testing different creative substrates to find original, unexplored approaches. 

Favorite project: Usually, we’re most proud of the last thing we’ve done—we’re our own worst critics! Our project designing a workshop and mentoring center fronted by an apothecary for the charity Grimm & Co. stands out as a studio favorite. We enjoyed complete creative freedom and were involved with every part of the project, from concept to products to interior design to exterior sign writing—we even got to decide how the store would sound and smell! Most importantly, Grimm & Co. helps inspire young people to become the storytellers of tomorrow—a very rewarding cause. 

Work environment: A spacious, well-designed space enables us to create our best work. Large, open tables—which we use for sketching, painting, creating and photographing—fill our renovated warehouse in Sheffield, and all of our furniture is handmade from reclaimed materials. 

Approach: We have a “4+1”-day work week, meaning that every week, we devote four days to client work and one day a week to self-initiated projects. This approach allows time for creativity just for its own sake, and we learn a lot of techniques that end up steering future projects. 

Philosophy: We enjoy being part of the wave of new designers. Gone are the days of suits and buzzwords. We refreshingly strike our stake in the ground as antibullshit, anti-agency and antifluff designers. Last year, we put on an exhibition named after our internal mantra: Just Do Good Shit. If we do good work, good things seem to happen. Call it commercial karma.