Who are we?
Nicole Banerji and Alex Szymanski met in 1984 whilst both working at Manchester University. She thought he was arrogant and bossy, he thought she was … (not telling)! Needless to say, after several years of messing about, they became life partners.
Nicole embarked on a glittering career as an occupational psychologist, working with top executives on their career development. Alex indulged his bossy nature and became a senior manager at the university.
Nicole had always had an artistic nature and in 2001 she set up her business as a silk painter to run in parallel with her consultancy work. Alex was always on hand to offer ‘helpful’ advice such as
“No man would ever wear that”
“Don’t you think that those colours clash”.
In 2003, after one of these exchanges, Nicole offered Alex some loving feedback that if he had so many fabulous design ideas, why didn’t he have a go himself? Never one to back away from a challenge, he did just that! And Nicole pretended not to sulk when Alex’s ties started to sell as equally quickly as hers.
Over the years Nicole and Alex have built up a very loyal and eclectic following in Manchester. In 2008, as part of their expansion, they launched Hypno-Ties and together created several ranges of exclusive hand painted ties available only from this site.
Enjoy!