Interior Design, Music, Art

Greg McGee, co-director of According to McGee, director of New Visuality, and BBC Judge (Best House in Town) sits down with emerging Interior Designer Ella Young and discusses over a black coffee and a latte (thanks Bluebird Bakery!) what advice he would give to people starting in the Creative Industries. 

Ella: What would be your recommendations for someone without much experience if they wanted to expand their network and start building work within this field?

When I started in the creative industries in 2005 the term ‘networking’ was jocularly known as ‘NotWorking’, the assumption being that expanding one’s own network simply meant attending an event, having three glasses of fizz too many, make wildly ambitious plans to collaborate with similarly inebriated people, and then do absolutely nothing to follow these plans up. When business dries up you soon realise that all of the above is fine, if that’s how you work, but you have to underpin the plans with rigour. Meet up for coffee or lunch the following day and harness some practical plans, a timescale, more contacts, a moderate projection of income in a possible business plan. Learn names, keep in touch, and call them instead of messaging. One thing I’ve found with creative people is that with sensitivity there may come accompanied a certain prickliness. Circumnavigate that by being your most personable self. 

Greg McGee at York's According to McGee. 

Ella: How do independent creators/businesses vs. mainstream studios/labels approach design differently, and how does this impact the work practices for their employees?

Independence in anything creative usually means a lot more wriggle room. I co-directed an independent gallery, According to McGee, and I currently run an award winning visual arts charity. I have also collaborated with huge conglomerates and internationally celebrated art fairs.

We called our gallery According to McGee, because that’s us, we are the McGees, and Ails (wife and business partner) and I have a lot of respect for our own opinions. As far as we’re concerned, there’s nothing more provocative or galvanising than nature, so a thrillingly executed landscape or seascape that reflects that is, in our opinion, more edifying, more commercially viable, and in less danger of becoming dated than, say, a sweet print of a field with poppies and frolicking lambs, or even of a caricature of Trump with a nuclear bomb in a pair of orange hands. Second guessing a whole industry is the main objective of a mainstream studio or label and living in the future, regardless of established opinion, is or should be, the main business of an independent. 

The discrepancy naturally impacts the workers. Working for a big label is safer and can be wonderfully fulfilling, but there’s always the hissing of what’s missing, the search for the zeitgeist before it becomes the zeitgeist. 

Ella: What makes a design portfolio stand out within the industry (with a focus on the Music/Film route)?

There’s a lot of noise out there, there’s a lot of people who both want and need to become established in what is a thrilling industry, so the basic, brutal fact is you have to find a way for your voice to be heard above theirs. ‘To thine own self be true’ - distill what it is that makes you so crucial to the job that needs doing, spend just as much energy on making your portfolio a thing of desirable beauty, and if that means liaising with a Design Agency or talented friends, then do so. There are people out there who want to give you a job, not because they like you, but because you will make their own jobs easier. Reach them by standing out by being you.

I personally was contacted by the BBC to appear on their ‘Best House in Town’ as a judge. They saw my music video and they thought it was funny.

Greg McGee’s first - and only - pop video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt0FfSHQPlw

After my interview with them, I was told that they liked the fearlessness and idiosyncrasy of my answers to their questions about feng shui. They asked me about wallpaper vs minimalism, and I answered ‘tulips. You can’t have enough tulips. Go glamsterdam and have a chaise longue at hand for swooning guests’. Personally, and this definitely doesn’t work for everybody, my natural habitat is opulence. Opulence in glamrock, with Baz Lurhmann films, in bedrooms. Design should be rich and layered. I like my creative experience to be like a KISS concert, or visiting the Sagrada Familia. Subtlety is overrated. I'm Catholic. The Pope's prada wardrobe is shy and retiring as far as I'm concerned. It’s that idiosyncratic identity they liked. 

Greg McGee in full flight on BBC’s Best House in Town https://x.com/marcomos/status/1099942807354200065

Ella: Are there any events, online communities or places you would recommend in order to meet like-minded people or network with individuals/companies in this field?

Every city is different. Socialising in the right place with the right people is crucial. There’s a groundswell that comes with collaborative, complementary conversations with funny, attractive people, and surrounding yourself with friends to whom you aspire is better than vibing with people who have their dealer on speed dial. I know in York there are some superb platforms, there’s York Creative, and ACollective, there’s Node, all frequented by creative people with their own ideas and contacts. You will find a whole lot of new associates, some of whom may become your friends, right there.

Some more needlessly polysyllabic words of wisdom from Greg McGee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PdJoUge0xE

Ella Young is a student at Northumbria University Newcastle entering her final year in Interior Design. You can find her LinkedIn attached below: