HUMOUR & WIT
How did an architect and a creative director end up making mirrors together?
I met Jen at her wedding reception. I then did some work for her on her other business, Damn Good Looking, and it was a great fit. [WD]
We both worked alone on our businesses and it seemed like a great idea to work with someone for a change. As we come from very different realms of the design world, bringing those skills together was a nobrainer. [JB]
What different skills do you each bring to the party?
Jen is an architect and with that comes her brilliant and practical brain. Without her, none of our mirrors would even stand up. I drive her crazy by thinking up complicated and terrifying designs and then she has to work out how to make them. [WD]
Wendy is amazing at the branding and communications side of things. While we have different skills, part of what has been so much fun is the overlap where we work together on whatever needs designing. [JB]
Why mirrors?
Mirror as a material is really interesting to us. It’s a functional product found in everybody’s home — we want to take something that has existed in the same way for so long and turn it into art. [WD]
The best thing about working with mirrors? They are practical and functional but also beautiful, thanks to their capacity for reflection. I love the odd glimpses and weird angles you get from them. [JB] And the worst?
Cleaning, packaging and shipping. [JB]
What’s the story behind the name?
Our philosophy is that you need to embrace the bad and go with it, as sometimes good ideas come from bad ones. So Stay Evil Kids is our advice to children everywhere [laughs]! [WD]
You have great names for your collections too. First there were Dirty Mirrors and now Death Becomes Her. Tell us more
Our new collection is mostly made up of natural stone: granite, marble and quartz. Granite is typically used for headstones on graves, which inspired the name Death Becomes Her (from the cult comedy with Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep). Dirty Mirrors came up when we were talking about the things your mirror reflects when you are up to no good; the things you do when you think you are alone. What if you had a mirror that captured some of that personality and character? What would it look like? [WD]
The best place you’ve seen one of your mirrors?
In New York — a highlight for me. [WD]
A product you’d love to work on one day? Lighting, the potential of combining reflections with a light source. [JB] Whatever it is, it needs to be tiny and easy to make and ship. Made from impossibly solid material and make us lots of money. Any ideas? [WD]
Architect Jennifer Bradley and creative director Wendy Dixon created Stay Evil Kids, a conceptual art and product design studio. We find out about their new venture and the release of two beautiful collections of mirrors