Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
I had the pleasure to interview Jane Hutchison in April 2017. She is the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Hello Love Studio and Founder of The Hello Beautiful Foundation – an impressive personality. We talked about collaboration, innovation, creativity and of course about the Hello Love Space – a journey of unforeseen restrictions, improvisation, and unexpected opportunities. The doors of the Hello Love Space on 64 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London are open since a couple of months. So what is it about? The Hello Love Space educates about health, well-being and offers a non-toxic lifestyle in order to raise cancer awareness and prevent illness.
Jane’s personal confrontation with breast cancer was the beginning of the idea to raise awareness and use her design skills for a social purpose. Her own curiosity was the drive to gain as much knowledge as possible about cancer, alternative therapies, and self-healing exercises. Jane mentions that as soon as the cancer treatment is over patients are on their own. This is usually when many people struggle. The open space is running in collaboration with artists, brands and health activists to support a non-toxic way of life. The illness prevention centre is a charity and based on a unique concept. On board with Jane is Kevin Helton, Co-Founder at Hello Love Studio, as well as external partners who support the strong duo. Only great collaborations could make the opening of the Hello Love Space happen.
Photograph by Stephanie Batliner: Hello Love Space, 64 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London
Photograph by Stephanie Batliner: Hello Love Space, beautiful artwork and creative atmosphere
With the illness prevention space, the team found a gap with much creative potential. Health service is an actual topic which will become even more relevant in the future. Especially, areas like health coaching and digital health to empower patients are trending. Jane and Kevin created one of the first spaces for illness prevention in London which offers support at any level for mind, body, and soul. I was interested in how the duo works together and how they made this innovative concept a reality. Helping each other and learning new skills is a natural way of their working process. If the team identifies missing expertise during the process, they either rapidly acquired the required skill or looked for external support. Working as a small team does support an agile workflow and allows flexibility. Small businesses are able to feel their own pulse (Belsky, no date). The strong ability of awareness is a crucial asset.
It could be argued that more creative freedom does not automatically lead to more innovation since the creative mind requires time. Jane and Kevin started working on this project part-time which meant that it took them longer to reach their goal but also gave them more financial security and allowed enough time for their creative minds to find the most simple and valuable solution. In combination with that, a healthy portion of fear might be necessary to show that we are on track to create something great. In order to be innovative, allowing risks and accepting mistakes is part of the journey. Innovation is usually the summary of interactions of people who were willing to exchange ideas openly. Innovations are based on knowledge transfer and lifted by collaborative work (Sull, 2015). The Hello Love Space was created with an innovative approach premised on decisions which ensured a realistic level to create value. It is a wonderful example to show how collaborative creativity can result in a valuable and innovative outcome.
Photograph by Stephanie Batliner: Hello Love Space, lovely place to learn about health and have a cup of tea or fruit juice
Interviewing Jane was not only interesting but also a lot of fun. It was an opportunity for me to meet amazing designers and entrepreneurs like Jane and Kevin. In addition, I could gain new knowledge about a healthy lifestyle and drink a delicious, non-toxic tea. This is by far one of the best things about being a designer. I also think I found a new passion: Designing for health.
More about that later …
PS: Don’t miss out on this amazing fundraiser event on July 6th
Reference list:
Belsky, S. (no date). David vs Goliath: Why Small Businesses Exceed Expectations. Adobe – Empowering the creative community. Available at: http://www.99u.com/articles/6957/david-vs-goliath-why-small-businesses-exceed-expectations (Accessed: 18 April 2017).
Sull, D. (2015) The simple rules of disciplined innovation. McKinsey Quarterly. Available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-simple-rules-of-disciplined-innovation (Accessed: 13 April 2017).
The Hello Beautiful Foundation (2017). Hello Beautiful — The Breast Movement. Available at: http://www.hellobeautiful.org (Accessed: 9 April 2017).
straightforward 