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Friday Five with Martin Yeeles of Bob’s Your Uncle

12.14.12 | By
Friday Five with Martin Yeeles of Bob’s Your Uncle

Martin Yeeles, a graphic designer, is this week’s Friday Five subject, and he’s the co-founder and creative director of Boston-based stationery and gift company, Bob’s Your Uncle. He created all of the Bob’s Your Uncle line, which includes boldly contemporary greeting cards, gift wrap, place mats, file folders, dish towels, and more. In 1993, he and his wife, company co-founder and former shoe designer Michele Yeeles, moved to the States from their native England  “just for a year or two,” and never left. In case you’re not familiar with the saying, “Bob’s your uncle” is a British expression used to indicate that a given task is very simple. It was possibly inspired by Victorian Prime Minister, Robert Cecil, who appointed his nephew to a ministerial post. Translation: having Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success. Let’s see where Bob, I mean, Martin, finds inspiration.

1. Moleskine Notebooks
Who knows, I may write a novel one day. I write things down in these notebooks; observations, quotes, overheard comments, funny conversations. For example: “A person gets into an elevator. People stare. It’s only later that she realizes that one of the lenses is missing.”

2. Lodge Cast Iron Combo Cooker
I took a two month sabbatical last year to earn a diploma in Artisanal Bread Baking at the French Culinary School in New York. I use this pot to bake bread. It’s the closest I can get to re-creating a steam oven at home. You can easily slide the dough onto the skillet and cover with the pot. It can withstand high temperatures too.

3. Leupin’s Tribune De Lausanne Poster, 1955
My favorite poster. A clever and subtle way to advertise for a daily newspaper to be read with a morning cup of coffee.

4. Toast Rack
Again with the bread. I love that this toast rack is picked up by the top of the extended letter “A.”

5. Wellfleet, MA
All of the above are enjoyed on Cape Cod. Michele and I have a small cottage in Wellfleet that we rent out in the summer. We have just finished insulating it for year round use so that we can enjoy spending time there on weekends in the quiet off season.

Marni Elyse Katz is a Contributing Editor at Design Milk. She lives in Boston where she contributes regularly to local publications and writes her own interior design blog, StyleCarrot.