The art of physical craft is something we should celebrate and preserve, especially in an increasingly digital, AI-prominent era. There’s a certain joy to be had in the tangibility of making things, a labour of love that’s not just rewarding, but a symbol of human interaction. Matt Wingfield is somebody who fully champions this ethos, working diligently from his Brighton-based studio to create an array of wonderful, striking objects. From his vibrantly hued screenprints to his artfully constructed displays, everything Matt does is a celebration of upholding creative craftsmanship.

In light of that, we sat down with Matt to delve deep into his creative practice, joining him in his studio to document the process of him creating our window displays for Christmas 2025.

Can you tell us a bit about your creative background and what led you to opening your own studio?

I always wanted to make stuff, I suppose, in really simple terms. Graphic design is a brilliant subject, it combines and links lots of different areas of design, so you’ve got fashion, product, film and TV — they’re all linked to graphic design. Of course, a lot of them are quite two-dimensional, particularly in our generation where a lot of images are on screen and not physical. I’ve always liked print making — I really like silkscreen printing with colour, mixing colour and painting, there’s a sort of tangible feeling to that. Entering the commercial world, I thought “how would I find my point of difference?”, and that turned out to be making the sort of stuff I was drawing.

Can you talk us through the creative approach behind the window you’ve designed and produced for Whistles?

I’ve got a really good relationship with Whistles, and I’ve been very grateful to the brand over the years. It’s a fashion brand that admires craft and making and the associated things that go with it. So I’ve got a good relationship with Kate who’s the Head of Brand Creative there, and because of that she would come to me with a formed idea, or an idea of something. So she shared with me a totem, which was like a stacked image of geometric shapes, and once she showed me it, I immediately understood. They looked modern, made up of geometric shapes, which aligns with the design-led ethos of Whistles. So from there, we have a formed likeness of it, but then it’s down to me to bring my craft to it in manufacturing it, ensuring it looks bespoke made for Whistles, unlike anything you’d find elsewhere.

With your work, you use a variety of different materials and textures. Can you talk about what materials you used for the Christmas windows and any special treatments you have applied?

We’re very craft based. So my wife and I own the business, and then I’m fortunate enough to be able to bring in other folks from time to time, when it comes to the manufacturing process. So the materials and the process are really important — how we physically make things. There are other ways to manufacture these items, mechanical processes — for example, cutting it digitally from polystyrene. But we like the fact we’ve brought a sculpture-like approach to this one, so we’re physically making it. We believe in craft, there’s a sort of folk element to it with homemade, homespun objects. As a studio, we offer that. I think brands like Whistles, and other brands we’ve worked with in the past, have realised we can bring that kind of feel that they believe in, so British craft. In terms of materials, we try to recycle as much as we can, so we reuse some of the wood in a lot of the objects. The material is about texture, colour and surface, which are all important things for fashion.

Looking back throughout the years, what project would you say has been a real highlight for you?

One of the early ones, it’s quite a random one, but I was at the Royal College, and back in the day there was a brand called Tie Rack. For the British Olympic team at the Atlanta Games, they wanted a womenswear scarf designing, so they launched a competition. I won that, and they ended up printing it and the Olympic team wore it round their necks walking in at the Atlanta Games. For me, this really vindicated a lot of the time throughout art school, where my dad, all of a sudden, understood what it was I was doing — it was tangible.

Brighton and Hove has long had a thriving artistic community. How important has this community been towards shaping your creative output?

Brighton and Hove’s a great town – it’s obviously very nice to live by the sea, I’d highly recommend it. It’s a town full of creatives, in all stages of their careers. It’s got a brilliant art school, and also a lot of people who have moved here from London. I often think of it a bit like London by sea, and I’ve always kind of enjoyed that. In Brighton, there are lots of freelance creative people available, so I can employ them, but I’ve also taught graphic design and illustration at the university, so I’ve employed quite a few of the kids from there, some of whom have gone on to do really well in other businesses, which I’ve been very proud of. The first ones that spring to mind are Will and Alex at It’s Nice That, which is a great design blog, very well thought of — and they came through my studio. So I’ve been very fortunate to have some really bright sparks come through here, and I kind of hung onto them for a couple of years. But I’ve really enjoyed being an employer — I don’t always do that, I often work alone in designing and drawing, but when we manufacture we get people in. Brighton and Hove is really key to that — there’s definitely a freedom down here, a liberalism and an intelligence to visual arts, which is a big part of why I’m down here.