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Meet The Christy Team: Head of Design Lucy Ackroyd

The Christy team is made up of a multitude of wonderfully talented people that we are incredibly proud to work with. We have put together a 'meet the Christy' team Q&A series, so that you can also meet the team and the faces behind Christy. First up, meet Lucy, our Head of Design.

Meet The Christy Team: Head of Design Lucy Ackroyd

What is your background?

I have been at Christy for 17 years now and have had great opportunities to design for just about every part of our business, so there have been plenty of fresh challenges over the years. Before that I worked for another textiles business which was part of Coats Viyella Home Furnishing. I studied Textile Design at college so it is great to have been lucky enough to work in my chosen field all these years.

What is your role at Christy?

Head of Design

Tell us about a typical day for you at Christy?

Happily for me every day is different and the job is really varied. Because we work with so many other functions in the business: Sales, Retail, Marketing, Product Development etc the work that comes in to the team is nicely mixed. There is usually a nice mix of creative stuff along with working on strategy and day to day admin. A real bonus is that we get along so well in our extended department, we work extremely closely with Product Development and we are one big happy family. We have a lot of fun and a lot of brew rounds but the rest of the team would tell you I’m not very good at getting the rounds in myself! Luckily the team are very generous and put up with me!

What’s the best thing about working at Christy?

It is genuinely the people I work with, I bet there’s not a day that goes by when we don’t make each other laugh, during lockdown we’re still doing it, it’s just that it’s now through WhatsApp and email. The second best thing is that we get to develop such lovely product, it is great quality that we would be proud to have in our own homes and that gives us all an extra degree of job satisfaction.

What is your biggest achievement so far?

Honestly, probably seeing my designs in amazing homes on the tv! I’m a huge fan of Grand Designs and George Clarke’s various programmes and my products have found their way into the properties a few times and it’s sad: I’ll be leaping off the sofa and shouting at the screen. I guess it just makes me very happy that someone has chosen something I helped to bring about.

What is your favourite Christy product and why?

I think that has to be Jaipur, our cotton velvet throws and cushions. What makes ours so special are the colours we develop, we can be really on-trend and quite brave with what we put in and the shades look amazing on the gorgeous pure cotton velvet.

What is your favourite quote/book/podcast?

I read a lot of gardening books these days and anything by the late, great Beth Chatto is a massive treat. It feels like listening to an old friend who is very kind, and patient and at the same time really inspiring.

What is your hidden talent?

It’s really geeky: knowing the botanical names of plants: Aesculus hippocastanum is a favourite (Horse chestnut) and Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion)

When you are not at Christy, what is your favourite thing to do?

Gardening, or visiting other gardens for inspiration. Or in the hours of darkness reading about gardens. And if I can’t sleep at night: thinking about gardens.

Who inspires you?

I’m really inspired by people who are doing what they can in their world to help the environment. It seems so overwhelming and such a huge issue that as individuals we feel powerless to effect any change and it’s also easy to sit back and blame politicians or world-powers for the problems we face. But then along comes a community group who have done something amazing like eradicating single use plastic in their town and you realise that we can make huge changes if we all play our part. We just have to look at what we CAN do, rather than feel defeated by what we can’t do.

If you were stranded on a desert island what would be your 3 luxury items?

A book full of gorgeous gardens, a bottle of chilled white wine and a Christy beach towel, of course!

What’s your favourite desk snack/drink?

A cup of tea and a chocy biccie, obviously – anyone who says an apple or something equally healthy is just lying ha ha.

Are you a morning person or night owl?

Well I always used to think I was a night owl, mainly because I’m definitely NOT a morning person. But nowadays I’m lucky to be up after 10pm, I think I may be a mid-afternoon person.

Join us for our Meet the Christy Team Q&A next week where we will be introducing Heather Hackett, the Christy Senior Designer.