Voice on the high street: Crazy Pig Designs

Name: Crazy Pig Designs
Location: Covent Garden, London
Year established: 1992
Number of staff: 8
Website: www.crazypigdesigns.com

 

What is the history of the company?

We started Crazy Pig Designs in Covent Garden in 1992. Previously I had worked for 10 years in Carnaby Street at The Great Frog. I was a designer there and I made of lot of the famous designs like the skull rings worn by Metallica and Iron Maiden, a lot of those of bands at the time. But it wasn’t my store, so after 10 years my wife and I opened up Crazy Pig Designs and have been around for almost 26 years.

Has your passion for music influenced the way you design your jewellery?

As a guitar player I was not keen on buying jewellery from HS Samuel. I was also into comic books and movies and I had this imagery in my head that I wanted a skull ring, or a snake, or dragon, and that I could actually design and create it from scratch myself.

How have you managed to keep the business going?

Since we started we have expanded massively to a lot of other countries, and a lot of people know who we are and daily, I get enquiries for wedding rings and engagement rings. We get a lot of request for custom made one of pieces, so I am not chasing work, work is chasing me.

How do you stand out from the competition?

People regularly ask me have you heard of these other competitor shops, and I say no I haven’t because I don’t really care what anybody else does. I don’t check out other companies, I just do what I want to do and hopefully that should be enough for people to like it.

What has been your biggest achievement?

Surviving 25 years in Covent Garden! Since then I have seen all the shops in the same street change time and and time again. Shops come and go every couple of years. However, we remain solid, we are not moving anywhere and we have just signed a new lease for another 10 years. Another achievement would be our company opening up a shop in Tokyo in November 2017.

What are your goals for 2018?

I always have a list of things to do every day and I am trying to create at least one or two new designs every month. 4 March is our 26th anniversary, and for that I am going to introduce at least a dozen, one-off custom-made jewellery, to be sold as limited edition pieces.