We are pleased to announce our shop’s regular opening hours in Cross Street, Oswestry Town Centre.

We officially open our doors on 20th February 2023.  This is the new face of mental health support becoming more accessible, with much much-needed High Street presence.  We believe it is vital that our Community has this type of support available so people can come in to make self-referrals, to enquire about joining our studio groups.

Designs in Mind was originally a studio that was tucked away down an alley, hidden and not accessible to the general public, now we have a new front door to open out onto the high street. 

In addition, we also have our new workshop situated at the back of our shop, where we have the opportunity to become active in local events, run public workshops and provide pathways for our members to develop new skills.

The idea behind our Designs in Mind shop is that there is a place where adults referred through mental health services could go on to challenge mental health stigma. This opens up opportunities for our members to become retail volunteers.

The shop and new studio are a way in which Designs in Mind can transform what mental health services look and feel like. It is an important connection between the local community and our studio.  All our Volunteers have participated in Listen and Connect Training run by the Samaritans.

This training is to build on our Volunteer listening skills, what to do if they think someone is struggling who comes into the shop, and how to signpost prospective members to the relevant staff.

We have a handful of willing and able volunteers ready to meet and greet you, whether you popping into browse, shop or self-refer to our studio as an adult experiencing Mental Health challenges.

We are excited to have our Volunteers on board in the Designs in Mind retail team.  The stylish shopfront below our main studio showcases the creative work our members are part of. We sell contemporary and experimental design-led homeware and gifts.

These are quality, well-thought-out pieces, they make fabulous gifts for friends or family or equally as a gift to yourself, as you deserve to treat yourself too!

We have many beautiful pieces varying from prints, gift cards, wood-carved products, jewellery and ceramics to name but a few.

We created a way of keeping abreast of our high street impact, we have a book in our shop, where you can leave any comments about products you’ve loved to see as you took a browse or ones you’ve purchased, perhaps sharing why you chose your item, maybe adding a comment on what our Designs ethos means to you personally.

We hope you’ll pop along and see our shop soon.  If you’re not local we have an online shop to browse here http://designsinmind.co.uk/shop-1

Our products are also available on the following sites: The Big Issue Shop, eBay for Change, and Social Supermarket.  We have extra good news about recent projects you may have previously read about.

Perhaps you heard about us being involved in a collaborative project with Scion that included further designs our members worked on.  This collaboration was recently featured in the magazine House Beautiful, you can read more on this here https://bit.ly/40ZWPMm

To discover more about our Scion project you can read more on Scion’s website  https://www.scionliving.com/the-edit/designs-in-mind/

We had a shop launch back in December that was a great success too, if missed the blog with our member’s speeches included, here’s a link to it http://designsinmind.co.uk/single-post/new-shop-and-studio-opening

Blog written by Willow, Good Egg Team, Social Media Coordinator & Studio Member