Jill Bonner and John Blackburn are a couple of middle-aged former bikers from the North of England. Collectively, they call themselves “Names In Lights” and they make mesmeric light sculptures in the shape of words. They have been trading since March 2012.
Jill and John both have health problems which make the traditional model of employment problematic for them.
They have created their own mutually supportive work environment, where they both get to play to their strengths. For them, Names In Lights has become a lifestyle, taking over their home and filling it with interesting questions and changing rainbows.
Jill has had a somewhat varied career, having been an illustrator, cheese tester, signwriter, and chocolate adjuster, although not necessarily in that order.
John spent his career as a motor technician , having served a five year apprenticeship. John also works on some collaborative projects, both lighting and audio based. Names In Lights “make what you need” ethos has led him to build an entire hi-fi system from scratch.
They began to merge their interests in December 2010, when they started to experiment with lighting clear forms. The first word was “John”, in the form of an acetate and polyresin mock-up, with the appropriate parts blacked out to make the letters. It had a presence that didn’t exist in the other forms they had tried – mushroom shapes, teardrops, semi-spheres and polygons.
The design process for this was that Jill would make an object and John would illuminate it. The sculptures would then be “lived with” until one of them decided that they could improve their part.
Once the letters were settled upon as forms that they wanted to work with, there was a need for molds – a whole set of letters and numbers.
The bases started out in pine. It didn’t match the beauty of the letters, so they progressed to oak block. With a little help from the internet, Jill and John taught themselves the cabinet making skills to produce octagonal plinths.
Are you passionate about what you do?
We are crazy about what we do, you could call it an obsession.
How did you get started and what pushed you to stop working for other people?
We got started in business out of necessity to provide truly suitable and flexible work for ourselves.
Do others support you emotionally?
Our family and friends love what we do but it’s the total mutual support for one another within the partnership and our solid belief in our work that makes this whole enterprise a great place to be, mentally.
Do you continually need to explain why you’re doing what you do?
No, we never feel the need to explain. We do what we do, and, as we say in England, you can like it, or lump it.
Do you have health insurance and if so, who pays for it?
We have the good old NHS.
Sophi’s note: Here’s the first paragraph from Wikipedia about what the NHS is
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. It is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system, in a similar fashion to the funding model for fire departments, police departments, and primary schools. The system provides healthcare to anyone normally legally resident in England, and also any other part of the United Kingdom (should a person from another UK area be travelling in England, for example), with almost all services free at the point of use for all such people.
How much time do you spend looking for new business? How do you look for new work?
It’s really hard to quantify. We work on raising awareness of just what we do, with images, videos and competitions. We’re artists, not salespeople and we have to say, things are going very nicely without the hard-sell.
Glad you chose this path or do you wish you could go back in time?
Wish we could go back in time and choose this path sooner.