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An Iron Clad Idea
You don’t expect to hear an Isle of Wight company mentioned in the same sentence as the Paris Metro or the Elizabeth Line or even an enamel curvaceous front bar and spectacular printed CAMDEN TOWN back bar incorporating twenty-four, fresh from the tank beer taps, but read on.
From originally manufacturing Charnwood wood burning stoves, A.J. Wells which celebrates 50 years as a family run engineering business, has diversified into signage and cladding for both architecture and the transport industry and specialises in vitreous enamel surface finishes for their Vlaze outdoor kitchen units amongst other applications. With projects as diverse as new high rise public artwork created by Yinka Ilori at The Rowe, Whitechapel, to one of the largest cladding projects that is The Wrapper by Jacqueline Poncelet, a Wellsclad vitreous enamel, non-combustible, zero-smoke cladding system located at Edgware Road, London enabling the building to be dressed in a giant patchwork of colourful patterns telling the story of the area by weaving together elements from the local community
Awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade in 2009 and with products sold across the world, it’s refreshing to find that the company’s roots are still very firmly on the Isle of Wight with Creative Director Ced Wells explaining that this is the place to be. “I was born and grew up in Ventnor until a pivotal moment after the storm of 1987 saw our house destroyed and so we moved in with my grandparents in Niton, my grandfather being the original A.J.Wells. I began working as a screen printer at the factory having left school, but I wanted to explore my creative side and so decided to move off the Island to Kingston University to do a course in graphic design and film and just loved being in London, going on to freelance in design for companies like the BBC and Habitat and then had a spell in Cambodia working on some fair-trade business development projects.
“I came back to the Island not really intending to stay but my Dad said why not come back to the business to do some bits and pieces and things just slotted into place from there. We began importing some Cambodian tiles and basket ware to sell with the stoves and I expanded projects that I’d been working on and realised that the business that I’d grown up alongside was actually amazing, a real hub of creativity and became completely immersed into it. What I’d learned in London and in Cambodia was perfect to bring back to the Island and to the business and I really began to appreciate where I’d come from again.
The boundary of water itself is incredible and although it can be seen as restrictive, actually it forces you to explore what you have got and even now, I’m discovering parts of the Island that I never knew existed.
