"I just feel really passionate about where I live"

What Steven asked Natalie Tyler and Matilda Flood, directors of the newly formed Medwayish Community Interest Company.

Medwayish is a Community Interest Company working with a talented community of local artists, makers, and creatives to design and sell products that tell the stories of our towns and people. Steven met new directors, Natalie Tyler and Matilda Flood, at Beantown in Rochester to talk about the project, what brought Natalie to Medway, what creative projects they are taking part in, and why they got involved with Medwayish in the first place.

Note: In the interests of full disclosure, Medwayish began as a side project of Local Authority, and both Steven and Ed remain as directors of the new Community Interest Company.

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Natalie Tyler and Matilda Flood.

How would you explain what Medwayish is?
Natalie: Medwayish supports local artists to create products that celebrate where we live, in Medway.
Matilda: Wow. I was trying to explain what Medwayish was to some of my friends at this gig on Monday, I'm sure they were still confused by the end of it.

Why have you got involved?
Natalie: I would say because Steven Keevil pressured me to, but no, that's not the official answer. The broader picture is I'm doing lots of things to try and reconnect with local community after having a lot of travelling back and forth from Australia over the last couple of years. I think this is a really good blend of my previous experience at Redbubble and being able to connect with what's happening creatively in Medway.
Matilda: I grew up in Medway. I went to Canterbury for a couple of years to study at university. I don't know if it was just because studying during covid that I didn't get to see the full creative community of Canterbury. Even though I wasn't far away, I still felt homesick and really lucky to grow up in a creative community inside of Medway, so I probably have a slightly different perspective. I just feel really passionate about where I live and want to champion my fellow creatives and those shared experiences and Medway history that's not really spoken about. I would like it to be shared more.

Why do you think you were asked to be involved?
Natalie: I think probably due to working with a global artist community on creating products and also a bit of a unique perspective of understanding the customer side and commercial side and considerations, and also what the artists want to be doing and how they sort of maintain their creative integrity while thinking about the more commercial aspects.
Matilda: I guess having previously worked with Medwayish is one of the things. I get the gist of how it's supposed to work and what a successful campaign can be like. Also, as an illustrator trying to develop their own career and understanding what I would be looking for as an artist. Working with a company or a CIC, I feel I can bring a slightly different perspective as one of the directors. What I would expect if I were to work with Medwayish.

You were involved with the Chatham Pocket sticker.
Natalie: Yes.

How would you describe it?
Natalie: I had to do some googling (laughs). I had an idea of what the history of that phrase may be, but I verified and made sure I learnt the cultural significance. I tried not to think about what it might mean tying my professional profile to such a design, but it was so much fun. I think that's one thing that I really like about Medwayish is that it's got that element of fun in some of the products and a way of celebrating Medway through those. I don't know how to explain it, but it's…
Irreverent?
Natalie: It's about finding those in-jokes or references that are shared, but it's not about being disparaging.

You were involved with the Sanger Circus Kickstarter. How did you find that experience?
Matilda: It was great and really interesting. The Sanger Circus project was actually part of my dissertation at uni, and at the time, I loved doing it. I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere afterwards. I was really excited for it to continue to have a life. I loved the story, and it feels nice to be a part of that community that's feeding into that specific history. The actual process was pretty straightforward. It helped that I already had the artwork. We already knew the story, and we knew who we were targeting making those products. It's just really nice to see it as an actual thing, on a tea towel and in people's homes. It’s not your everyday tea towel. I like to think the design was tasteful enough that you would kind of do a double-take. It is not anything too gory or horrendous on someone's kitchen side.