Susanna Cook: Feeding a passion

Susanna is a self-confessed foodie. Renown for her collaborations with artisan food brands, Cook has made her mark on Ginger Pig, La Fromagerie and Spanish purveyor Brindisa, among others. Her design studio Allies created branding for Soho cocktail bar Lab in the mid-1990s and has worked with drinks pioneer Tony Conigliaro on his cocktail book ‘Drinks’, his bar 69 Colebrooke Row and cocktail chain Be At One.

A keen strategic business sense has helped Cook carve out a niche in the food sector as a champion for independents. Authentic food demands attention to detail to build a personality for which she prides herself. But it’s not just market awareness that her taken her there. Food retailing is in her blood.

Cook’s father was a butcher in her native Essex 'My father being a butcher, I became obsessed with shops and displays,’ Cook says. ‘Every year, my two sisters and I were taken to Harrods Food Hall for a Christmas treat.’ Her appreciation of the skill involved in butchery made Ginger Pig a natural client for her when it opened in London’s Marylebone.

Design, likewise, was an early passion. As a child she collected packaging, arranging it in her bedroom as other kids might do toys. She built a collection until her room looked like ‘a mini shop’, she says, describing her childhood treasures as ‘crazy little personalities on a shelf’. Design was a natural direction for Cook. 'At school I wasn’t academic, but loved art. I wanted to become a set-designer, but I went to Canterbury College of Art to study graphic design,’ she says. Significantly, her final thesis in 1988 was on the homogenisation of the high street.

‘I wanted a job in the creative industries – and I wanted to make money doing it.' The first taste of this came through internships, with a big branding agency, and with the smaller, now-defunct Beresford Sherman. Beresford Sherman gave her a job and led her into food and drink branding. Its clients ranged from Spar and Tesco, for which she worked on own-brand wines, to McVitie’s and luxury brand Bendicks of Mayfair.

One of her favourite projects was for Bendicks’ Chocolate Bath Olivers. ‘It is a real pleasure to work with classic brands and create designs that endure for years,’ she says. That was in the late 1980s, a time when illustration was the vogue in branding. Working with illustrators kindled an interest in the business side of design for Cook. ‘I really enjoyed negotiating deals and was very proud of creating good work within budget,’ she says. She also enjoyed the collaboration with illustrators and later photographers such as Diana Miller, David Loftus and Nancy Honey, with whom she has forged lasting relationships.

Itchy feet prompted a short foray to Hong Kong. 'But design in Hong Kong wasn’t great [at that time] so I came home after a few months to work freelance,' she says. A freelance project with interior design group Calcott Anderson (now CADA Design) led to a long-standing relationship with international pharmaceuticals brand Nurofen for Cook. She also became an equal partner in Calcott Anderson and Cook as the group developed its branding side. Cook describes her time at CADA as ‘a collaboration with like-minded people’. ‘I was young and learned a lot from them.’

She cut her teeth on clients such as Boots Healthcare and the British Potato Council – a client she kept for 19 years. But after four years she went solo, setting up Ally in 1996 in London’s Lambs Conduit Street with a gallery on the ground floor. 'I wanted my own shop front, not just a name on a buzzer,’ she says. ‘But eventually I became too caught up in being a landlady and needed to change.’

Ally became Allies to reflect the collaborative way Cook works and the studio moved into her Marylebone flat. Primrose Hill was her team’s next home, before they moved into a purpose-built studio at the end of her garden in Chalk Farm.

In collaboration with interior designer Emma Oldham Cook began working with furniture and luxury brands. Firmdale Hotels was one of those clients. She also embraced natural heathcare... But food has remained her passion. ‘I’ve always loved it,’ she says. ‘I think local – greengrocers, bakers, butchers - and want to work with independents. I believe I can make a living doing so and can help others make a living too.’ She responds to the passion of privately-owned businesses with quality and individuality at their heart.

But Cook can still think big. The team behind BBC TV’s Great British Bake Off works to style guides she created, for example, bringing baking – and design – to the nation. Regardless of scale, Cook admits, ‘What I like best is getting close to a client in a visceral way and building on that in the design. I want to work with – and be – the best of the best.’