Collective Power: Exploring the art and allure of collecting

With David Pearson, Hugh Miller, Indiana Lawrence, Liz Mosley and The Local Type

Date: Thursday 15 January 2026
Location: St Bride Foundation and Online via Zoom

In-person times (GMT):
Doors/bar: 6.15pm
Talk starts: 7pm
Talk ends: 9.15pm
In-person tickets: £9, £12, £14

Please note: Ticket sales end at 4pm on the day of the talk. If available, tickets purchased in-person on the door will cost £16 per person. Please do call or email us to check if an event has any tickets left as you may not be admitted if we have sold out. 

Online time (GMT): 7.00–9.15pm
Online tickets: £6, £8
Please note: Ticket sales end at 4pm on the day of the talk. You will be emailed the Zoom link for the talk at 6pm on the day of the talk. We will also send the link to all in-person ticket holders in case they are unable to attend and would like to join virtually. 

From stickers and found lettering to ephemera and stories – Collective Power celebrates the creative energy behind collecting.

This evening explores how collections shape our ways of seeing, making, and understanding the world. Each speaker will share their own unique approach to collecting and what these personal archives reveal about design, culture, and creativity.

Across short 15-minute talks, our speakers will uncover what drives their collecting habits. Expect insights into how collections evolve, what they teach us, and the unexpected connections that emerge between objects, people, and stories.

Whether you’re a designer, collector, or simply someone fascinated by what others notice and keep, Collective Power invites you to reflect on the things – and ideas – that we hold onto, and why.

David Pearson is a print-based graphic designer. He has been commissioned by Wes Anderson, Christie’s, Ferrari, Luca Guadagnino, Hermès, The New York Times, Penguin Books, Sir Ridley Scott and the V&A. David has been listed as one of Britain’s Top 50 Designers by The Guardian, is a member of the prestigious international association Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and in 2015 he was appointed Royal Designer for Industry, the highest accolade for designers in the UK. He is also founder of The Book Cover Review. 

Hugh Miller is a graphic designer, art director and Partner at Pentagram’s London office. Co-founder of the London office of the international design studio BOND, Hugh has extensive experience in branding and visual identity. While at renowned studio SPIN he worked on projects such as the Whitechapel identity and for campaigns for clients including Nike and MTV. He was later embedded into the brand teams of both Nokia and Microsoft, and most recently was based within Ford’s research-focused innovation unit, Human-Centred Design. Hugh’s work has earned recognition from D&AD, the Type Directors Club and the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD). A design archive enthusiast and typography advocate, he has lectured at Kingston School of Art and the University of Greenwich, and currently serves on the board of the ISTD. His record sleeve design for SO/LO’s At the End of the World, Plant a Tree received the inaugural Freda Sack Award, which is the ISTD‘s highest honour. Hugh was recently named as one of Creative Boom’s ‘20 Most Inspiring Graphic Designers’ in 2025. Follow Hugh on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Indiana Lawrence is a British-Trinidadian freelance creative working on playful, curious expressions of ideas through experiences big and small, digital and physical, ephemeral and lasting, from concept to delivery. This work takes many forms, from exhibition design, art direction and commissioning brand visuals, screenprinting and publication design, to programming and running creative workshops. During her time studying graphic design at Central Saint Martins in London, she discovered a passion for collections in the form of 'typologies'. Fascinated by the material world and the objects that define us, stickers became a central subject – as an unassuming form of printed matter that can be accessed by anyone and used as a tool for powerful communication. Follow Indiana on Instagram. 

Liz Mosley is a Graphic Designer with over 16 years experience and now specialises in creating creative branding and websites for small business owners. She also hosts a podcast called Building Your Brand and creates content to help and support business owners who maybe can't afford to invest in their branding just yet. Her goal for her clients and audience is for them to come away with branding that they love that helps them to feel so proud and confident promoting their businesses and sharing what they do with the world. She also loves chatting about rejection and normalising some of the harder aspects of being a creative and running a business. You can find out more on her website and following her on instagram.

As graphic designers, Robbie Steer and Billy Fenton have always held a mutual love of letters and print; which led to them setting up The Local Type in 2024. Together they scour villages, towns and cities to collect historic, often overlooked typography and curate their findings into an A to Z, forming an eclectic set of characters; much like the places they visit. Their photographs are digitised to create an artwork that they screen print by hand in the locality – no two are ever the same. Each alphabet also presents a social history of the local area through type – with a list of the letters’ locations to be found on the reverse of each print. Recent type hunts have led to some unexpected discoveries. You can follow their growing collection of found type and the stories behind them on Instagram @The_LocalType.

If you have any access requirements, please contact events@sbf.org.uk ahead of the event.