Five Minutes With... Vicki Leach

Jul 16, 2021|

• Gente de Bisley

We speak to Vicki Leach, Design Director at Deadgood about what she wanted to be growing up and her career in Design.

Tell us about your role at Deadgood…

I am the Design Director at Deadgood and my role involves leading the design team. We’ve got quite a small team, I’ve a Junior below me and usually we have interns that come in as well - though we haven’t had any the last year with the pandemic, which is a real shame for both the graduates and us.

My role brings new products in to go under the Deadgood umbrella. We design products in-house but also work with external designers, the best of British, to come up with ideas or we will approach them with a brief. My role is managing that process of bringing products through to production. I will also look at product development, new strategies and fix any problems along the production line to help things run smooth.

How long have you worked at Deadgood?

I’ve been at Deadgood for 10 years now. I came in as the guys’ first employee. It was all hands-on-deck at that point, helping in all areas such as sales, production, press. But now I focus on my area of expertise in production, design, and development. I came in as a Junior and have grown into my position. I’ve grown with the guys and they are like a family to me, like brothers.

What did you want to be when you were younger?

I’ve always been creative and drawn to the arts and drama. When I was younger, I wanted to be an animator after years of going to Disneyland and being able to go behind the scenes. I toyed with it at the age of 16/17 but from GCSEs onwards, I found myself leading into design. I just loved DT and putting things together.

Did you always want to work in design?

My grandad was a joiner by trade, so growing up I was always in his van going round workspaces and builders’ merchants, collecting things to build with. I loved going in his van with him! I had a fascination with his workshop, watching him building things, and I guess that carried through when I went into school through DT workshops and things like that. I made a table in my early teens in my garage. I must have had the fascination with furniture back then, but I just didn’t know it would lead to a career in design. I was inspired!

What does your normal day look like? (pre and post pandemic!)

It’s not really changed that much for me. I was in London five years ago but felt I’d had enough of the London lifestyle wanted to move away. I spoke to the guys and they were open to me working remotely but in a co-working space, as they had experienced working on their own before and felt they needed that environment around them to focus.

Being at home now throughout the pandemic has been similar so I guess that hasn’t hindered me really, though it might be different for the rest of the team who usually work in the office or showroom spaces.

I actually think my way of working has improved. As a team we’ve found different ways of working which has benefited us. We all join in together to share ideas and inspirations. We’ve started using platforms to share all our information on too which means everything is now in one place.

Working from home has been fine, we’ve got a ridiculously sized dining table, so it’s been okay!

How do you think the pandemic has changed the way we think about the workplace? What do you think the future holds?

I think there was a bit of a shift to flexible working before. Breakout spaces were starting to become more popular. I think a lot of companies will now allow employees to be at home or in the office when they want. I think traditional work setups with rows of desk won’t be as much of a thing anymore, I don’t think there will be the demand there. The workspace will have to entice people in. Areas will have to be flexible for days when the whole team is in, but also for days when you have clusters of people dotted around working. I think it’ll be more of a Hub.

I think that’s where we are going now and what our thought processes are, with a keen eye on sustainability as well. It’s bound to change and we do still need to see people for collaboration and our mental health as well.