MEET THE TEAM

Lyssa Rutherford
Design & Creative Director

Work history in a nutshell:
I have over 25 years of art directing, running, and creating magazines from scratch, for all different industries, sizes, styles and audiences, as well as in branding, and managing the design departments of various businesses and publishing companies. My two most notable roles so far have been eight years art directing Kiteworld, the biggest-selling kitesurfing publication in the world, and launching and running Pretty Litter Magazine – a visually explosive arts, lifestyle and culture magazine, that featured artists, fashion, photography, music, festivals and creative entrepreneurs from all over the world. Just recently I decided it was high time I started my own agency, which has been a very long time coming…

What’s the best thing about your job?
I was born with an innate need to ‘create’ and to ‘build’. And brought up by a parent in the publishing world I was drawn to that sphere from a very young age. At college it was a toss-up between graphic design and fine art, as I loved painting and the physicality of making things, but eventually I felt a more commercial route would be more sustainable. So I’ve always been an artist and a creator, in whatever medium the project required, and later it became apparent that I was a natural at managing creative projects and finding talented individuals to work together on specific jobs. But aside to enjoying ‘creating’, I get a huge amount of satisfaction from helping others with important things to share with the world, to realise their visions.

Favourite three magazines of all time:

The first has got to be Just Seventeen – it was my first glimpse into the magical world of magazines at the age of six, when my step dad who worked in publishing in London would bring me home copies fresh off the press. It was awe at first sight and I haven’t looked back since. Such an exciting peek into the unknown years ahead of me as a young child. We didn’t have social media then – or the internet – and I wasn’t allowed to watch much TV so magazines were ‘the thing’, and I guess they still are for me. The second has to be Pretty Litter. I vowed to start my own magazine by the time I was thirty, and in 2011 it happened. I was working at Kiteworld at the time, and after a year of planning I rented a small space in their office, got a handful of writers and photographers together, gave us three months to fund and produce our first issue, and that was how it initially happened. We had no idea how incredibly well-recieved it would be. It took off and took on a life of its own. And while I was still art directing Kiteworld, I was running, designing and editing Pretty Litter. Art directing and styling and sometimes shooting fashion shoots, interviewing and photographing bands, covering all the top music and arts festivals. It was an immense amount of work, I was essentially doing three or four full time jobs simultaneously. I didn’t sleep much but it was brilliant fun. And it showed me that I could manage the work of several magazines at once. The third, and this is going to sound cheesy, but, it’s whatever magazine I’m working on at the time. Because I love them all, and put my everything into any project I’m working on. It’s just how I’m built. Kiteworld has to be a (big) bonus one, as it was my first big art directing job and the team there taught me so much about running magazines. My time there has a very special place in my heart.

Favourite three films of all time:
Withnail and I for the immense comical pleasure, Back to the Future (1) because it’s the coolest and most fun film ever to have graced the planet, and Rosemary’s Baby – an absolutely iconic thriller, from such an iconic time. But there are so many more… Film is definitely another big love of mine.

Top travel destinations visited so far: 
Venice for the stunning architecture, ambience and history – it’s truly like being in a novel. Kenya, is also like being in a novel but a completely different kind, with out of this world, stunning vistas. I could live on safari… And Thailand. It was my first taste of the world outside of the Mediterranean. I was eighteen when we went and it really opened my eyes to other ways of life. The food is obviously incredible too…

Georgia Lewis
Editor & Writer

Work history in a nutshell:
I started my journey in Australia, my homeland, working for most of the major publishing companies there, as an editor, journalist and copywriter. Then I worked in the Middle East for five years, and now the UK where I’ve settled. In that time, I’ve edited and written for consumer and client magazines, been a newspaper section deputy editor for The National in the UAE, put together many reports and white papers, and written about everything from travel to technology, cars to conservation, sex to supply chains, and everything in between for a range of global publications, including The Independent, Daily Mail, FHM and The Times.

What’s the best thing about your job?
I get paid to work with wonderful words and stunning pictures. And I get to meet interesting people. And doing what I do has been a passport to travel the world.

Favourite three magazines of all time:

I will always love Marie Claire for a plane ride, while Private Eye and The Economist challenge me in a good way.

Favourite travel destinations visited so far:
Oman was always my chilled out happy place when I lived in the Middle East. I need to see more of Japan after two incredible visits. My heart (and stomach) belongs to Greece, especially the beautiful islands of Crete and Corfu. 

Rob Beattie
Editor & Writer

Work history in a nutshell:
Over 40 years experience in publishing – first in magazines as a writer and editor, and then in books as an author. In that time I’ve been in the trenches at EMAP (culminating in the editorship of PC User) Ziff Davis (as the launch editor of Computer Life, the first lifestyle computer magazine), and Forward Publishing as editor of IBM’s pan-European customer magazine, Helpware. I also moonlighted for Q and EMPIRE and had regular columns in the London Evening Standard and Daily Express, as well as less frequent gigs on The Guardian, Telegraph and Mail on Sunday. More recently, I’ve written over twenty books on stuff that I love – fishing, camping, hiking, D-I-Y, kids’ science projects and card tricks.

What’s the best thing about your job?
The variety. One day you’re writing about how television is piped into the home, the next about sinkholes, the next about the cave paintings at Lascaux, or how to navigate dense woods by starlight, how Bombay Sapphire gin was created, the history of the oilskin coat; not to mention how to escape if you’ve fallen through the ice on a frozen lake…

Top three magazines of all time:

1. Q, the music magazine which changed the face of how live and recorded music was reviewed forever.
2. Waterlog – the magazine that proved there was more to fishing than catching fish.
3. The Observer magazine – for its sheer breadth and depth, for never talking down to the reader, and for a constant stream of surprising content.

Top three films of all time:

1. The French Connection (1971) first for the masterly central performance of the late Gene Hackman and second, for the way it made New York in winter a character in its own right.
2. Field of Dreams (1989) – EMPIRE described it best: “that rarest of things, a male weepie.”
3. Midnight Run (1988) – Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin bicker their way across America in a movie that’s rip-roaring, funny and has real heart; a once-a-year watch.

Top countries visited so far:

1. Scotland, but particularly Perthshire and Aberdeenshire – mainly for the people who live (or lived) there.
2. Crete for the sun and the unfailingly warm welcome of the Cretans (don’t call them Greeks).
3. The Republic of Ireland for the fishing and the fact that the bar is – almost – always open.

Sarah Lawrence
Illustrator & Designer

Work history in a nutshell:
I’ve been telling stories through pictures for as long as I remember, so naturally I decided to study art and design, graduating in illustration and design over 20 years ago. I first started working in children’s books for Autumn Publishing, and then went onto Rotovision (Quarto Publishing), Egmont UK and then Collaborate, illustrating and designing all kinds of print and digital books, magazines and other media, across all formats for all different audiences. I have illustrated hundreds of books and editorial pages over the years and have designed beautiful covers that catch the attention of readers around the globe. Some of my book clients include Bloomsbury, Scholastic, DK, Hachette, Oxford University Press and Auzou.

What’s the best thing about your job?
I love that no two jobs are ever the same, whether I’m illustrating or designing, and I take enormous pride in every project.

Favourite three books of all time:

Nimona by N.J Stevenson, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.

Favourite three magazines of all time:

Anorak, The Phoenix, and National Geographic. 

Favourite travel destinations visited so far:
Whistler, Canada, for its beautiful snowy mountains to play on. Amsterdam, for sightseeing on bikes and boats, and beautiful museums. Rome, for the food, history and art.