LDN Artist & Designer

STEPH (STUFF) MARTIN

ABOUT THE STUDIO

Stuff Studio is the brainchild of Steph Martin, who’s been working in the design world for almost a decade. She started out in advertising, working with the likes of Olay, Simple, Kinder Bueno, Rimmel, Diet Coke, John Frieda, the Government & the NHS. Steph’s worked on branding design, web design, shoots for TV and print, email and print marketing, magazine illustration, packaging illustration, everything and anything social media, painted murals spanning over 7 metres... you name it, she’s got stuck into it.⁠

HEY, I’M STEPH, THE FOUNDER OF STUFF STUDIO, AN ARTIST AND DESIGNER LIVING IN LONDON.

I’ve always been a creative, since my first memories I was always getting stuck into something and getting messy, working out how it ticked. I’ve painted since I could hold a brush, and I was coding ‘guildhalls’ on Neopets (anyone else remember that?) before I even knew what coding was. I wasn’t brought up to believe art or design was a solid career choice, so I studied Marketing at Leeds, before realising I desperately wanted to be on the other side - resulting in me switching to the only creative course left, Creative Media Technology. Little did I know this would be the stepping stone to becoming the designer I am today. I studied a bit of everything in that course at Leeds - Design, Web Development, Animation, Video, Photography, 3D - which suited me just fine, as I’ve always been a jack of all trades. Something that sometimes gets knocked off as a negative, but I love being able to provide everything from A-B right through to Z for my clients. And if I don’t know how to do it, I learn or I collaborate!

My day to day consists of working as a designer, illustrator and artist. But, I have been known to dabble in animation as well as product photography – which I studied at the London School of Photography. My current artwork is a collection named ‘Reclaimed Nudes’ which you can see more background about over on my shop page. And I do all this living in London with my dog Nelly, who is my colleague, favourite thing on the planet, and a very good girl.

I love travelling, and I think it broadens creativity. My favourite places at the moment are Ibiza and Thailand, I train in Muay Thai and I always want to spend some time out there learning from the Pros. I am mightier than I maybe look.

My thinking is that collaboration, empathy, hard graft, curiosity and a great sense of humour leads to creating something epic for you every time. So, I live by that. You can see this come across in my style, which is bold, playful, fluid, expressive, and has depth. Like me!

“I am a huge advocate for women. They have such influence on me and have made me the human that I am. I’m continuously inspired by the various strong, feisty, gentle and positively incredible women who surround me, in person and on screen(s). Be it my best friends, my mum, my godmother, or the awesome women I follow on Instagram. These are the people that are the stories behind my art, or the support network of me running my own business.”

My Core Values

HUMAN FIRST #1

People easily forget that we’re all just human beings. People with emotions, mistakes, pasts, futures, ups and downs. I aim to work with clients who recognise this, and join me in working with kindness and patience - with our consumer (other human beings themselves) in mind.

COLLABORATION #2

It’s integral for us to work collaboratively on projects, in order to truly maximise the best we can do. After all, once I step down it’s down to you. It’s your brand, your company, your voice and I want to ensure it’s the thing you are most proud of. I’m the expert in design, but you are the guiding voice.

CURIOSITY #3

Staying curious is something that dwindles as we get older. I like to keep a child-like intrigue, constantly asking why, and working out why things work the way they do. Curiosity leads to some of the best learnings, laughs, results and outcomes, and doing so with an open heart and mind is not only beneficial, but also fun!

HARD GRAFT & HUMOUR #4

These days corporate hustle culture gets bad press, which is correct.. but I believe a bit of hard graft doesn’t go amiss. After all great things don’t come about from sitting on your sofa. However, we believe hard graft comes from working more efficiently and smartly. I will put bucket loads of passion into your project, along with a smile whilst doing it. But once I clock off - I’ve clocked off. Rest is necessary to come back recharged, and be able to double down and smash out that work!

CAPABILITIES