Five Minutes With... Dan Ziglam Jun 25, 2021| Bisley Leute We speak to Dan Ziglam, Co-Founder and Director at Deadgood about starting the business and how things changed during the pandemic. Tell us a little bit about Deadgood… Deadgood was born over 15 years ago and was the ‘brainchild’ of both myself and Elliot Brook. We graduated from Northumbria University after studying a 3-Dimensional Design degree. When we left university there were no opportunities to get a job so in our naivety at 21, we thought, how hard can it be to set up a furniture brand? We started in the spare bedroom and had one product design; we really have started the company from scratch. The ethos has remained the same throughout. We wanted to create products with personality that could fit into any environment, that were of high quality and made in Britain. Collaboration has also been a big thing for us and knowing that our manufacturers and designers align with our motives. We straddled the ground between craft, looking for the best quality materials, and commercial viability. Did you always want to work within the industry? At school I always enjoyed art, I actually did my art GCSE a year early! Instead of A-levels I did a GNVQ in Art and Design which gave me the points I needed to get into university. I always enjoyed anything 3-dimensional out of all the topics I studied. University then taught me a lot about the industry and gave me the insights I needed to progress to where we are today. When I met Elliot on the first day on university, beers in hand, one of the many things we had in common is that we both wanted to work for ourselves. After working many part-time jobs growing up, it was clear to me that I wanted to be my own boss. Elliot and I used to organise events at university, so I guess that was our entrepreneurial traits coming out. What did you want to be when you were younger? I can’t say I was born wanting to work in the furniture industry. Weirdly, when I was really little, I used to say I wanted to be an architect, but looking back I guess I was always going to go into something creative, yes. My sister was the first in the family to go to university and did a Textiles degree. She paved the way for me and showed there was the option to study a creative subject and, make a career from it. How has the pandemic changed the way you operate as a business? Obviously, it’s been a year like no other. We have always worked as a flexible team. We operate across three locations, London, Nescastle, and Bristol, so have always had a virtual team in essence. That side of things wasn’t a massive shock to the system for us. The showroom being shut was hard however and we are still trying to adapt to the new normal. We have made some back-end improvements and are still in the process. We’ve become more efficient and have looked for time-saving methods to improve our working, especially when people were on furlough and time was limited. Constraints are the best thing for creative though because you’ve got something to solve and to improve on. What does your normal working day look like? (pre and post pandemic) My days are very varied, I usually base myself from the London showroom. I like to be out if I’m working and separate my home and working environments. I usually meet with the team first thing to catch up on what’s going on and see if there are any urgent flags. Then it can include having a meeting with Vicki, our Designer Director, to discuss product development or sitting with Michela from Operations. It’s a really varied role as an Owner/ Manager, you do a bit of everything. Two days are never the same, but that’s what I like. I like to generate ideas, solve problems, then move onto the next one, but that’s just my personality. I enjoy the chance to get the creative juices flowing. We’ve had a fair few challenges over the past few months with the pandemic and Brexit. We’ve consolidated a few of our suppliers where needed to improve our efficiency. Our main upholstery factory is in a very rural location which has become very handy in these current times! How do you think the pandemic has changed the way we think about the workplace? What do you think the future holds? We are still in the eye of the storm and the dust hasn’t settled yet. I think we will see less of these big HQs and more smaller hubs which perhaps will mean investing more in quality furniture products. Hopefully for us there may be the chance for some business after this if, there is a rise in front of house products rather than back end such as desks. But this won’t be the end of the office. Businesses still need spaces to meet with staff and clients, and to collaborate. I don’t think they need to be as big, maybe smaller offices of higher quality but I don’t think it’ll be the death of them. It was starting to merge that way anyway with offices spaces starting to look like coffee shops and so. We’ve fast-forward say 5 years and pushed the businesses that may not have ever dreamed of flexi working that this is possible and can work. I think there will be some challenges when half the workforce are in the office and the rest are at home. There will be some problems to be solved to ensure the team still act as one. The dust hasn’t settled just yet in regard to hybrid working and the new workplace. It’s going to be exciting. There is going to be change, but that’s good!
