20th August 2017

Meet the Team: Amy Smith, Marketing Assistant

Amy joined Zetteler in February this year as our marketing assistant which basically translates to being a whizz at all things social media. Originally from Dundee, Amy studied Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art before moving to London where she spent three years as an artist assistant at the wonderfully eccentric studio of Zetteler favourites Jake and Dinos Chapman. She sang and played guitar in punk band Zoëtrøpe, once interviewed Danny Dyer in a deeply unconventional manner, and, in 2009, spent ten days living upside down as part of an Art Basel project for Carsten Höller. Oh, and she’s also in the process of setting up her own jewellery business.

Enough spoilers, over to Amy…

Hello Amy, what do you do at Zetteler?

Mostly I find, create and schedule social media content for our clients’ feeds, as well as our own, but I also drink a lot of tea and talk too much in meetings. They’re my primary objectives.

How did you end up here? (At Zetteler, I mean, not biologically)

I actually have a background in fine art rather than design, having studied Environmental Art in Glasgow and subsequently worked for a bunch of artists and galleries as well as creating my own work. When I saw Sabine was looking for someone I approached her to chat about it because I’ve known her for a while and we share so many ethical principles I was keen to see if it was something I’d be good at. The kind of skill set she needed really made sense to me, so we gave it a go - and here I am!

What skills/interests/bits of your personality make you suited to this sort of work?

At Zetteler you have to be really enthusiastic and have a sense of wonder about new ideas. I think I share the fascination with skill, process and innovation that drives the business as a whole. I also like to write. I like the challenge of creating short, concise little slithers of copy, and I have to do a lot of that.

What’s the best bit of your day?

I used to work for Jake and Dinos Chapman and I now schedule their archive on social media. It’s actually really amazing how much of their work is totally new to me and I find myself bursting out laughing at the titles of their pieces all the time. This one (a quote from Heinrich Heine) is a particular favourite of mine:

MINE IS A MOST PEACEABLE DISPOSITION. MY WISHES ARE: A HUMBLE COTTAGE WITH A THATCHED ROOF, BUT A GOOD BED, GOOD FOOD, THE FRESHEST MILK AND BUTTER, FLOWERS BEFORE MY WINDOW, AND A FEW FINE TREES BEFORE MY DOOR; AND IF GOD WANTS TO MAKE MY HAPPINESS COMPLETE, HE WILL GRANT ME THE JOY OF SEEING SOME SIX OR SEVEN OF MY ENEMIES HANGING FROM THOSE TREES. BEFORE DEATH I SHALL, MOVED IN MY HEART, FORGIVE THEM ALL THE WRONG THEY DID ME IN THEIR LIFETIME. ONE MUST, IT IS TRUE, FORGIVE ONE’S ENEMIES– BUT NOT BEFORE THEY HAVE BEEN HANGED | 2014 | Mixed Media

A detail from the Jake and Dinos work titled above.

Is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to working on in the coming months?

We’re doing this project with Yinka Ilori and Restoration Station for London Design Festival that I think is going to have some amazing results so I’m excited to see the outcome of that. Also the Water exhibition for LDF is going to be totally brilliant, that’s going to be a massive highlight for me - it’s full of mad-scientist type designers and they’re my favourite kind.

What excites you about the design scene today?

I’m really on a learning curve with the contemporary design scene but what’s struck me as great is that so much of the innovation is in sustainable, environmentally progressive projects. I think emerging designers definitely see that not only is this a really exciting field but also that it’s absolutely essential to our survival.

Do you have a favourite designer/ studio/ brand/ general creative force?

Right now I’m totally in love with the work of Teresa Ferreiro. She does these brilliant sticker packs and I’m obsessed. I want her to create a sticker album so I can justify buying them all. She does this great sexy Bart and I mean, look at him, just look at him…

Teresa Ferreiro's Bart Simpson

What do you do in your life outside Zetteler?

I only work part-time at Zetteler as I’m currently setting up my own wee jewellery business in the other half of my life. I attribute my love of working on tiny objects to my time working on all those vast dioramas in the Jake and Dinos studio, plus I started collecting minerals a while back and just needed some sort of justification for it. I get really moody if I’m not doing something creative these days. I don’t know what the exact psychology is behind that but if you’re feeling blue I highly recommend trying to make something tangible, it’s a proper brain massage.

If you have one, what’s your current pet hate?

Photographs of jewellery on plants.

Some of Amy's jewellery work in progress.

Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Break overwhelming projects into tiny little pieces. Absolutely tiny. You’re not building a house, you’re just picking up this brick over here…

Most inspiring thing you’ve ever seen?

I like the saying “It’s not what you do, it’s what it does to you”, so although I’ve seen some really breathtaking stuff, like Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls) or the bottom of the Indian ocean, I probably get most inspired from things like watching spiders build their webs in the garden or something else totally hippyish like that. I’ve accepted I’m doomed to be a mad old hippy, it’s just a matter of time now.

Specialist subject on Mastermind?

I don’t really think of myself as a specialist in anything, but I did get a bit obsessed with Samuel Pepys for a while a few years ago. Maybe I’ll brush up on my Pepys so I have an answer for this.

Favourite place to go in London?

It has to be the V&A, I worked there years ago as a gallery assistant and it was painfully boring, but it hasn’t dented my love for the place. I could spend hours looking at all the mad keys in the drawers of the ironwork galleries or at that crazy, big, regal tapestry in the half-light of the tapestries room. It’s such a fantastical place and I’m really excited that they’re building one in Dundee, where I’m from. My favourite object used to be the smaller of the two jade cups in the South-East Asian gallery. It looks so delicate, like it’s actually made of petals, I always want to take a bite out of it.

First thing you do in the morning?

Push my cat off my face.

Shah Jahan's wine cup, one of the ancient jade cups at the V&A that you are, inexplicably, not allowed to take a bite out of.

Have more questions for Amy? Email her on amy@zetteler.co.uk or give her a call on +44 (0)20 3735 5855.

Want to meet more members of the Zetteler team? Well, you can! Jodi Moss is Zetteler's PR Manager, Emily Ward is the Marketing Manager and last but not least, Sabine Zetteler, the founder & director of Zetteler.