ABOUT US
Us, Pitti Uomo Trade Fair, Florence, circa 2004
WHO WE ARE
2SOM studio is a design and creative consultancy founded by married design duo Alex Sommer and Laura Keller in Amsterdam in 2004 and relocated to the UK in 2010.
Coming from design and business backgrounds within the fashion and sportswear industries, and now with over 20 years of experience each, our goal from day one remains - to provide original, creative and commercial solutions to suit our clients needs.
We each have our own areas of expertise, and have been employed separately on different projects in the past, but together as a team we provide a fully rounded service, bringing in other talented professionals where necessary to execute a brief.
Alex’s Skills
Apparel, accessories, product design
Creative and artistic direction
Technical product innovation
Branding and brand identity
Packaging design
Design mentoring
Photography and post production
Concrete pouring!
Laura’s Skills
Trend analysis
Brand strategy
Product marketing
Social media content creation
Web design – Squarespace, Shopify, Amazon
Creative and factual copywriting, editing and proof reading
Project timing, personnel and cost management
Candle making!
A LITTLE HISTORY
Over the years we’ve chased joggers around Central Park in the snow in the name of market research, stood in multiple city centres around the world trying to capture the zeitgeist in words and on film to publish in trend magazines and on social media and have walked literally thousands of miles around trade shows discovering all the latest innovations in fabric and design.
We’ve almost been trampled to death by an over excited crowd of fashionistas at a Las Vegas trade show when Snoop Dog performed an impromptu gig, we’ve drunk beer and discussed practical underwear design with Ross Kemp in Barcelona (or was it Berlin?) and have designed many sportswear apparel collections for big name brands.
We’ve stood in board rooms and design rooms forecasting trends and presenting brand and product marketing strategies, we’ve visited London universities to teach and inspire the next generation of designers and trend consultants – we’ve even helped to write a fashion buying and brand management degree course – and have spent more than a decade running a biannual trend publication for the denim, casual and sportswear markets.
Most recently we have taken a side step from the fashion industry to create an award-winning sustainable homeware brand, under the guises of Mr Concrete & Mrs Wax and breathed creative life and vision into a new natural pet grooming brand, The Pet Guru.
Or to put it another way, we’ve done quite a lot.