A CHANCE encounter with one of the country’s top designers, led to an exciting project for a Chester gift wrapping company.

Andrew Maddock, MD of Deva Designs, had wanted to work with top TV designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen for some time, so when he spotted him at a trade fair in Birmingham in February, he invited him onto the company’s stand to see the firm’s range of products.

The star of programmes such as Changing Rooms, agreed to design a range of gift wrapping and bags for the Sealand Road-based firm and was at Chester Racecourse for the official launch last week.

Deva Designs was set up 18 years ago by Derek Bell-Jones. It designs its own ranges of gift wrapping products as well as working with the Designers’ Guild and sells right across the UK. Its products can be found in stores such as Harrods, Selfridges and John Lewis.

Andrew Maddock, MD, said of his chance encounter with Laurence: “We asked him to come on to the stand, and once he saw how we could transform his designs onto gift wrap and gift bags, he was only too pleased to work with us.

“He has been an absolute delight to work with. He is totally hands-on, from creating original designs and patterns in his sketch book, to watching his designs develop into beautiful and sophisticated gift wrap and bags.”

All the Deva team were invited to the product launch to meet the TV personality who explained where his inspiration had come from and his belief that in these difficult ‘credit crunch’ times people choose carefully the gifts they buy and how important it is that the gift looks impressive and beautifully presented.

Everyone was given the opportunity to spend time with him and take home a personalised signed book as a memento.

“I really wanted to work with him because he is such a recognised name – and because I thought it would be fun,” said Andrew. “He is actually very commercial in his approach and he loved the range we produced.”

As well as the new Laurence Llewelyn Bowen collection, Deva has launched more than 200 new lines.