Interview: Designer & founder of Mind the Cork, Jenny Espirito Santo
Jenny Espirito Santo is the founder of Mind The Cork, a design studio which specialises in creating sustainable homeware accessories out of cork. Jenny’s working life may be all about sustainable design now, but she grew up with a passion for politics and went on to study science before launching her creative business. We caught up with Jenny to find out more about her creative journey…
Hi Jenny! What does your creative job involve on a day-to-day basis?
I spend my days creating products, designing the branding, taking care of marketing, doing a lot of production and selling at markets. I also design for other brands, too and spend time dealing with customers, suppliers and stockists. It’s quite a lot when you list it all together!
Can you tell us about where you grew up?
I was born and grew up in Angola, so my entire childhood was spent in an on-and-off war zone. Sometimes we would have school, and sometimes we would have no school. There were never any school art projects. Instead, it was about getting by and doing as much as you could from home. It was a very strange time and a completely different experience compared to someone who went to school in the UK.
When I was 14, I moved to Portugal and - maybe because of where I grew up - I already had the idea that I wanted to go into politics. I did an equivalent of GCSEs there and studied economics, law and literature. I attended an after-school art group for a few years, but design was very much seen as a hobby and not something that you would have a career in.
How did you go from being interested in politics to working in design?
After doing my A-Levels at college, I was moving away from the idea of going into politics. I took a gap year, moved to London and started on a course to learn English. This was fun, but I didn’t learn very much because everyone on my course was Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian or Italian, so we all understood each other and never spoke English to one another.
They offered an Access to University course and - even though I had no intention of going to university - I thought I might as well try it. I chose a science course because things like Chemistry and Maths are universal, so I didn’t need to know English to study them. The tutor told me I should apply to university, and I thought I might as well. I sort of just went with the flow and ended up studying dietetics at King’s College. I didn’t like the environment of that university and became really bored, so I quit and went to study design at the University of the Arts instead. That is where my design career started.
“Any kind of creative career is hard, and it is made harder if you have no financial back-up or if you don’t look like everyone else in your industry. That doesn’t mean that it is not fulfilling or that you can’t be successful.”
- Jenny Espirito Santo
Did your family support you in pursuing a creative career?
It wasn’t a situation where my family said, “That’s a great idea!”. My family thought I was going to end up doing something completely different, as I had been interested in politics from such an early age. Going from being interested in law and politics to science was still acceptable. Studying design… not so much. I think all parents - especially parents from my background - want the best thing possible for their children. I just wanted to be creative, but that seemed odd to them. They didn’t understand why I couldn’t be creative but also have a job with “proper prospects”. After I graduated, I felt pressure to prove that I could earn a decent living and be successful with a career in design.
What inspired you to start Mind The Cork?
When I had finished studying, I went to work for a few different design studios. This is when it started to hit home that not everyone is the same. When you graduate with a creative degree, you are expected to do a lot of internships and work for free for a long time. I saw that the people who were able to do that were people who didn’t look like me and came from completely different backgrounds. Where I had to work to pay my way, they had parents who would pay for things.
I realised that this industry wasn’t built for people like me, and so I set up my own business. What I’d say to anyone who is young and wants a career in design is: you can make it. Any kind of creative career is hard, and it is made harder if you have no financial back-up or if you don’t look like everyone else in your industry. That doesn’t mean that it is not fulfilling or that you can’t be successful. It just means that you are going to have to work hard and make your own way.
Cork is such a beautiful material. What made you want to work with it?
I grew up in a way that was close to nature. People in Angola are sustainable without even trying because there isn’t a throw-away culture there. The environment can be quite harsh there, with things like the temperature and the animals around you determining how you live. I always had this strong sense that we were a part of nature and not this separate species that did not rely on our environment.
Working in the high-end interiors industry, I found it odd that there wasn’t much discussion about sustainability in interior design. People were becoming more and more aware of the impact of what they eat and wear had on the environment, but not about what they put in their homes. The indulgence of high-end interiors didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to do something slower, which felt more considerate and a little more human.
Having lived in Portugal, where most of the cork in the world comes from, I had learnt all about how great, eco-friendly material it was. You don’t have to cut trees down to get cork; you just shave the bark off, and then it grows back. It is such a positive material to work with; it is sustainable from a social perspective as well because there are entire villages that rely on the cork industry.
What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome while pursuing a creative career?
Being invisible. The industry is still very white-dominated, and there are situations where I feel completely overlooked. For example, I was part of an event recently, and they were getting people to sit on a panel about sustainable design, but it didn’t even occur to them to ask me. It ended up being a panel about sustainable design, at a show where Black people were exhibiting, and the panel was all white. How can you have that in London, where there is so much diversity?
“You can’t call something sustainable if it is not inclusive. It can be eco-friendly, but it is not sustainable if it is not accessible to everybody.”
- Jenny Espirito Santo
The way I get past obstacles like that is to speak out about them, which is hard. As a business owner, you want to be positive and collaborative with other people, and having to tell people they aren’t doing something right creates a point of friction. At the same time, it has made me mindful when choosing the people that I work with. Some great collaborations have come from me specifically looking for people who are doing great stuff in an inclusive way.
There is no doubt that young people out there who are like me will encounter the same issues. However, it is getting better because there are people like me in the industry now who weren’t there 10 years ago.
Finally, what advice would you give a young person wanting to follow a similar career path?
Choose something which you love. It will make it easier to get up and do something every day, even when it is difficult and you are not seeing results, if you believe in it.
Ask for help. I felt like I was imposing on someone when I asked questions, but people are happy to help.
Be fearless. There is nothing better than building your own path.