Product strategy for Porta Romana. Previously Product Director, then Managing Director, of The New Craftsmen.
Most craft-led brands have more ideas than architecture. The range grows by opportunity – a piece here, a commission there – until nobody can say what the collection is for, or which fifteen products are paying for the rest.
I make the range legible: what sits where, at what price, for whom, and why. The creative decisions and the commercial ones stop pulling against each other, because they are finally answering the same question.
I take collections from brief to production – writing the creative brief, developing with the makers, running the sampling until a piece is not only beautiful but repeatable, costable and deliverable. Most of the value is in knowing which compromises cost you nothing, and which ones cost you the product.
Good maker relationships are built on respect – for the person, and for the craft itself. I know how these things are made, which means I can ask the right questions, judge what is fair to ask of a workshop, and see a problem while it is still small.
I work with makers collaboratively rather than handing down a brief, and I give the same care and attention to a single commission as to a full collection. That is what holds quality and delivery steady as a business grows.
A collection can be explained, or it can be experienced. Buyers remember the second one.
I curate the programmes that put the work in front of the right room, in a setting that does it justice – exhibitions, installations, talks and collaborations.
Product strategy for a British luxury lighting and furniture brand.
Porta Romana makes lighting and furniture for some of the most beautiful interiors in the world – largely by hand, in Britain. I have worked with the team since the summer of 2025 as product strategy consultant.
Detail of this work is held under NDA. Porta Romana is named here with their agreement.
“Kathy has led an important strategic project for us, bringing deep knowledge and nuanced understanding of our industry from the end-client, interior designer and maker perspective. Proving to be very skilled at drawing information out of the many stakeholders involved, Kathy has formulated a considered point of view and plan for us all to work through, in a collaborative and engaging way throughout. She’s been a fabulous asset to our business in the time that she’s been working with us.”
Ali Milam, Managing Director, Porta Romana
Restarted the business, and rebuilt it around a new market and a smaller, stronger range.
The New Craftsmen ceased trading in 2022. I reopened it the following month as Managing Director, in partnership with the gallerist Sarah Myerscough.
It was possible because of the seven years before it. As Product Director I had shaped the ranges and built the relationships with the makers behind them – so when the business restarted, the makers came with it, and the strongest existing work carried straight over.
The original had sold across trade, private clients and online. We focused the new business on the international luxury interiors market, relaunching at Collect at Somerset House in spring 2023, followed by Artefact at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, and an exhibition at Cromwell Place for London Design Festival.
Examples of collections and commissions developed with makers, much of it at The New Craftsmen. Across furniture, lighting, glass, ceramics, leather, tile and textiles – heritage skills and new technologies, small-batch repeat production and one-off commission.
I have never believed a business has to choose between making well and selling well.
I am a business founder with experience across the private and not-for-profit sectors. When a craft business is struggling to sell, the problem is almost always in the range rather than the marketing.
I now work independently with design-led brands, retailers, makers and collectors, building commercially-driven collections that reinvent traditional techniques into contemporary work entwined with history and place.
The relationships I have with makers are the part of the work I am most proud of. They are built on respect – for the people, and for the knowledge held in their craft – and on the care and attention I give to making things well, together.
Alongside this I work as a creative business coach at Cockpit, the London craft studios, supporting around fifty makers across its two sites.
The strength clients tend to name is an empathetic leadership style – the ability to draw the best out of collaborators, staff and creatives, and to help a room of strong opinions reach a decision they all own.