Gather: Turn Up For The Books

Emerging from the North of England, and nominated in 1993 by Why Not Associates as the most up and coming British graphic designer in Creative Review magazine’s annual ‘Creative Future’s’ awards, Chris Ashworth achieved design notoriety in the late 1990s at Ray Gun magazine, the influential LA-based ‘bible of music and style’. His early schooling in the rigours and principles of Swiss graphic design fused with the gritty vernacular of the street came together to create the sounds of the 90s in visual print form.

He has since worked with pop culture bands and brands from New Order, Michael Stipe (REM), Robbie Robertson and Bush to Nike, Diesel and Adobe as well as spending over 20 years as a Creative Director running in-house creative studios at Microsoft, Nokia and Getty Images.

He recently launched thisisme.art with his partner Nicola which sells high end apparel and one-of-a-kind original art featuring his unique handmade creative approach.

Sauman Wong is a versatile designer with a strong background in publication design.

Currently a Senior Design Director at MUBI she focuses on brand and motion design with a keen interest in experimenting formats and mediums.

Jamie Ellul – Supple Studio
Jamie Ellul is the founder and creative director of Supple Studio, a small Bath-based design and branding agency that
thinks big. He’s a multi award-winning member of D&AD and a seasoned book designer, having created books for Thames & Hudson, BBC Books and Royal Mail. Jamie previously worked at several of London’s most-lauded creative studios, including hat-trick, The Partners and Magpie Studio — the latter set up with friends from art college. An accomplished bass player and a member of upcoming bands The Super Colours and The Mystery Callers, he’d happily trade all his success in the world of design for a recording contract.

Jim K Davies
Jim K Davies is one of the UK’s most highly awarded copywriters. He works with design agencies and brands to help them tell their stories. A former Guardian journalist, he’s written for design publications the world over — from Domus in Italy, to Idea in Japan, to Print in the US. Author of The Book of Guinness Advertising and several acclaimed books
on philatelic design, Jim is a huge funk and soul fan. Two of the happiest (and most drunken) weeks of his life were spent as an intern at gone-but-not-forgotten music paper Melody Maker.

Danah Abdulla is a designer, educator and researcher interested in new narratives and practices in design that push the disciplinary boundaries and definitions of the subject. She is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Anti/Post/Decolonial Histories, Theories, Praxes at the Decolonising the Arts Institute at the University of the Arts London (UAL). Previously, she was the Head of Graphic Design at Camberwell, Chelsea, and Wimbledon Colleges of Art, UAL.

Danah is a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform, and founded Kalimat Magazine. Her research focuses on decolonising design, possibilities of design education, design culture(s) with a focus on the Arab region, the politics of design, publishing, and social design. She is the author of Designerly Ways of Knowing: A Working Inventory of Things a Designer Should Know (Onomatopee, 2022), and Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region (Bloomsbury, 2025).