The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Together Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson are Absolute Zero Degrees – a London based design and branding agency, whose solutions for clients often include bespoke pattern design as a strong element of the brand identity. Wonderfully they are also Mini Moderns and produce a range of interiors products for kids and ‘kidults’!

Formerly a graphics and textile print designer for Red or Dead, co-founder Keith Stephenson was able to utilise his skills to best effect when teaming up with Mark Hampshire, an experienced brand strategist to form Absolute Zero. Mini Moderns was their ‘proof of principal’ in creating and managing their own brand. Print designs are themselves at once retro, and modern, with influences ranging from textile designs of the 1950’s to vintage toys and games.

I interviewed Keith Stephenson to find out more about their Inside Life…

I collect… Anything – from vintage Fisher Price toys, magazines and books to 1960’s Portmeirion pottery.

I cant live without… My partner Mark.

My guilty pleasure is… There are so many I have stopped feeling guilty about them!

Our house is filled with… Lots of vintage fabrics, which are a great source of inspiration, our wallpaper collections – nearly every surface of our studio and house is wallpapered with our wallpaper – it makes it easier to know if you are getting it right if you can live with it yourself – and lots of books and magazines. Design posters and art – we are the fortunate, proud owners of signed Charley Harper screenprints, a Bansky and Stanley Donwood original screenprints, as well as other pieces which we find.

I treasure my… life. Setting up two parallel running companies is quite a daunting prospect – but I couldn’t live any other way – the hours tend to be long but it means that when you switch of the studio lights at night you have a real sense of achievement – everyday. After 8 years I still find it hard to believe that this is what I do for a living and I won’t have to go back to a full time job on Monday morning…

Right now I can’t stop thinking about… Deadlines! -  and all the new products we will be launching in the near future, including greeting cards, rugs and new bags and cushions for Mini Moderns. We are also writing our 7th book for Rotovision so that is also in my thoughts!

Currently I am reading… ‘Me Cheeta’ – the autobiography, by James Lever, it’s very funny and clever and a collection of short ghost stories by M.R. James, which I was given, as I love the old BBC adaptations which are often shown at Christmas.

My favourite item of clothing is… My old Redwing boots

At the top of my furniture wish list is… No more chairs! We have so many different chairs! We have just bought ‘String’ shelving which was designed in 1949 by Nisse Strinning, which has been on our wish list for a long time.

The last thing that really inspired me was… We frequently run projects for the Surface Pattern course at Swansea Metropolitan University, where we set a project and work with the students to focus their concepts. It is so inspiring to see the different solutions and designs stemming from our original brief. It is really refreshing to meet the students and a privelage to work with them.

My comfort food is… mushroom risotto.

On my desk are… phones, coffee cups, bits of packaging that we keep at hand for technical specs, rug wool colour samples, digital camera and a stylophone – I am disappearing under it all. I am not the most tidy worker.

This weekend I will… be completing the fourth collection of Mini Moderns greeting cards for The Carte Postale to launch at Top Drawer this January. We are terribly behind with them so this weekend will have to be sacrificed for them.

Tonight I must… sleep.

I love what I do because… We have control over what we do – with Absolute Zeroº -  our branding side of the business, we deal direct with the client which makes the job so much easier and more enjoyable. When we were working in big agencies, which both of us left behind some time ago, it meant that a lot of direction from clients arrived on our desks distorted, with each account handler adding their own interpretation to the clients needs. In the case of Mini Moderns -  it’s exciting as it is totally up to us what product category we want to do. We are also gaining in recognition -  so has brought the opportunity to team up with like minded companies who produce our designs under licence, such as Clothkits, The Carte Postale and Rugdesigner.co.uk.