About us

Welcome to The Drifting Bear Co, home to unique personalised gifts that capture those special moments, favourite places and happy memories.

We are an award winning small creative business based by the sea in South Devon and specialise in professional typographic and photographic designs. If you would like to commemorate the place you met the love of your life, that first special moment you looked into your little ones eyes or maybe you just want to capture those special family holiday shots, we have the perfect design for you.

Our small team of creatives (and one very fluffy dog) are always happy to help. We pride ourselves on our great customer care, adding the personal touch to each and every order we receive.  

Proud winners of the notonthehighsteet.com Make Awards for “Start-up Success” you may have spotted our designs in major TV advertising campaigns and bestselling interiors & style magazines, such as Ideal Home, Vogue, GQ, Country Homes & Interiors, Real Homes and You & Your Wedding. 

If you are looking for something a little more specific we are always happy to discuss creating bespoke designs so please do pop us a message. We would be happy to talk you through getting that special design spot on for you.
 

Our story

Set up by David in 2010, The Drifting Bear Co. grew rapidly after joining Notonthehighstreet.com and David went on to leave his full time job to concentrate on creating thoughtful and beautifully designed typographic prints commemorating special moments in peoples lives in 2011. Fast forward to today, and not only has the team grown (including a small fluffy dog and a baby!), but the range of products has too. 

You can now find our thoughtful designs on a range of high quality homewares, art prints, jewellery and keepsakes. From prints commemorating the place where you met your soul mate, to cushions acting as a virtual hug to your nearest and dearest, we've created a wide variety of thoughtful gifts for all of life’s moments and are continually thinking up new ideas to delight our customers.

We pride ourselves on unique, high quality design and materials and do our best to do the best for the planet, using recycled and biodegradable packaging where possible. 

We hope you love your order from The Drifting Bear Co. and that it gives you or someone you love a warm fuzzy feeling. We get one every time we receive an order and are so grateful we get to do this for a living - so thank you... so much!

 

Meet the team 


David 
David is our Founder and Creative Director. The majority of what you see on our website is designed by David. He also works with our designers, helping to create our orders and making sure everything looks perfect before it's made. He has a HND & BA (Hons) degree in Typography and has been awarded membership of the International Society of Typographical Designers. When he's not designing David loves driving around Devon in his 1974 camper van (Alvin).



Tanya 
Tanya is David's partner and very much 'Mama Bear' of the whole operation! Responsible for all the ‘behind the scenes’ bits and pieces that go hand in hand with running an online business, Tanya also makes sure everyone is happy and supplies the sweet treats and hugs when needed. Tanya has a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art and loves vintage loveliness, yoga and taking photos… mostly of her little boy and of course the dog, Sydney.



Tim 
Tim is our graphic designer and he works alongside David to produce the artwork for our personalised orders. Like the rest of The Drifting Bear team, Tim comes from a creative background. He has a HND & BA (Hons) degree in Typography and a super eye for detail. He loves films, especially scary ones. He also makes a mean cup of tea.




Emily 
Emily is our social media wiz and store manager of 'ROAM by The Drifting Bear Co'. Emily will usually be the face you see in our Teignmouth shop, making everything look amazing and advising customers on their purchases. She's also the one creating those beautiful posts and videos you see across our social media sites. Emily has a creative background and you can find her beautiful embroidery hoops in our Teignmouth shop.

  

Melissa
Melissa is our studio manager. She’s the one making your orders, wrapping them, and ensuring your memories are well protected on their travel to your doorstep. In her spare time Melissa works across the creative spectrum, from illustrating children’s books to making sculptures out of recycled materials and driftwood; if she can upcycle it, she will.
Check out her creations here

 


Sydney Parsnip
Finally, this is Sydney. He is the Drifting Bear dog. He helps us de-stress by letting us take him for walks on the beach or fuss his fluffy little head. He likes barking at the delivery man and sleeping on the postal sacks.