Meet Simon Craze | Magic designer and inventor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Simon Craze and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Simon, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I originally trained as an SFX modelmaker and worked in industry for several years before embarking on a career in Teaching. During my time in education I found I was still working on personal projects in the negative space between lessons and this eventually formed part of my teaching practice. I was teaching Technology, Product Design and Graphic design and a lot of the things I was making displayed real-time the processes and disciplines I was teaching in class.
When I left teaching I built my own workshop and purchased the same model of laser cutter that I had been using at the school.
Several years ago I took my exam and was accepted into Mensa and the following year I was accepted as a member of The Magic Circle. This was a very proud moment for me and encouraged me to pursue my creative and magical endeavours with a sense of improved confidence.
I have always been interested in magic and there was a significant crossover between the worlds of magic and special effects. I wanted to design and make magic tricks that felt magical, that didn’t simply do something impossible but which also added to the experience both for the performer an the spectator. I embarked on a range of effects which I described as artifacts as opposed to tricks.
Growing up, the magic sets available for children were often full of great effects, but the quality was generally poor with low quality materials and finishes. I found this made performing the effects less enjoyable as I was presenting people with a brightly coloured plastic ‘thing’. I wanted to design and make products which looked magical, using wood as much as possible. I used my experience in prop-making to create a range of magical artefacts with an added depth. It was also important to me that the experience of receiving, opening and learning my effects was a magical one for the performer. Often effects are sold in plastic bags with poor quality instructions and I wanted to the experience to begin as soon as the package arrives on the doorstep.
I joined the Magic Circle and got to know other magicians and inventors which gave me a broader base to develop my practice.
I have been designing and making magic for over ten years now. My wooden effects tend to be made in small batches and often go to collectors of my work. Making small runs allows me to focus on generating new ideas and this is the part of the process I find most rewarding. Sketching, conceptualizing and prototyping is where I find the most joy and satisfaction. When An idea forms in your mind’s eye and you job is to make it a reality. Looking to the future I would be well suited to generating prototypes and having the idea developed for sale on a larger scale by a third party. I often find if I am making more than ten of the same item (if it is a complex build) that my attention and care for the project begin to taper off and I do not like selling items that have not had my best efforts gone into their production.
Alongside my wooden effects I also make a lot of graphics based effects, most recently a custom designed beer mat which allows you to perform a 30 minute, 10 trick routine. I enjoy these projects as I can design in a different way and in a different setting as I do not require my workshop. It also allows me to offer more affordable products which can be made on a larger scale.
Over lockdown, as many magicians were struggling to find work, my business also suffered. To work with this I diversified into Escape room design and much of my work through that period was designing and building puzzles and props as well as developing some unique escape experiences of my own.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My work is quite abstract as I find inspiration from the world around me. I was diagnosed later in life with Autism which has helped me make sense of my process and the way I see the world. Everything is stimulating and I see potential in almost everything I see. This means my world is very small, like a snow globe. I am constantly processing the stimulation in my field of vision and am often blind to everything outside of it. I liken it to being in a video game where the horizon only loads up as you approach it. This makes it easy for me to find inspiration and get hyper-focussed on a project but it makes it very difficult to do the peripheral, organisational and bigger-picture elements.
I am proud of the fact that I am a one-man operation, doing all of the designing, making, promotion, graphic design, ad-copy etc, but it can be a bit overwhelming. I find it hard to work with others initially but I feel this is down to confidence. There’s no-one to let down or let you down if you work alone. It does make it quite hard to feel confident in my work when I send it out and often find myself waiting nervously for a positive response from a customer once their product has arrived and they are happy with it.
A lot of my inspiration comes from asking myself ‘how could I make this into a trick?’. A lot of doodling, sketching, reams of paper and sketch modelling. This is where I find a lot of the joy in my work, the generation of an idea from a thought to a finished product. I tend to make my magic effects in small batches of around 10. This allows me to ensure high quality without my attention and quality tapering off through repetition. I prefer to make a few items really well and focus on generating new ideas. Someone asked the comedian Bill Bailey once, ‘how do you write a joke?’ and he said ‘I start with a laugh and work backwards.’ This really spoke to me and often I find that is how I start a new idea. I think ‘What do I want to make? What do I want it to do?. I will start with how I want the thing to look and feel, then work out a way to fit the magic into it.
I have always had support from my family in my endeavours and that has been a big help. I did well at school but found it hard to engage fully with the majority of my work. It wasn’t until I started my A-Levels at 16 that I fully embraced Art and Design and when I did I became fully immersed in it. I was supported and encouraged to pursue 3D design in further education. I found a new focus at university and really thrived having broader briefs and space to be creative. Through the work experience program at my Uni, I found work at Asylum Effects and my first modelmaking work was on the Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy movie. I worked as a frelance modelmaker for several years until getting a job as SFX Supervisor for a horror film. This was an intense but incredibly rewading experience, Working with a minimal budget I had to use my resourcefullness and creativity to achieve the practical effects and it was a formative time for me and my practice.
As much as I loved working as a modelmaker, I was keen to start a family and the inconsistent nature of the work, along with the unpredictable working hours led me change career and train to become a teacher. I taught Design and Tech for ten years, with the last two spent as the head of Technology at my school. Whilst I loved working with young people, with a focus on exploring and nurturing creativity, I found the education system very difficult to work in. The needs of students and welfare of staff were no longer a priority and I found myself struggling to engage in a system I didn’t have any faith in. I have no problem working for others, provided I have faith in the people I am working for and unfortunately my faith in my school leaders and the UK education system as a whole was severly impacted by what I was witnessing. Eventually my mental health suffered to the point where I had to leave the profession and it was at that point I decided to work for myself.
I set up a workshop of my own and began focussing on creating my own business.
I am often at odds with what I have chosen to do, but I feel the need to try and make my living doing what I am best at and also, possibly selfishly, doing something I find real joy and satisfaction in. There is a lot of stress that comes with being a one-man operation but I remind myself that I am at the early stages of this career and building a brand that has the potential to expand and become something more consistent.
Since childhood I have always designed, drawn, made, embelished etc. I’m not a great reader and find concentrating on a page of text very difficult as I end up distracted by the patterns of the words as opposed to the words themselves, like staring at a magic eye picture. I am very articulate and love wordplay and I often use metaphor when describing an experience or concept. In the same way a picture says a thousand words, metaphor can help give shape to a thought or a feeling. I feel I have always been an authentic version of myself, but that I have struggled to find a suitable place in society for me to fit in.
As far as lessons I’ve learned, a big one for me is recognising the value of my work. Not just in raw materials, but in the time it takes to create, refine and produce as well as the value of my skills. I used to struggle to price my products and was almost apologetic when stating how much items cost. I have become better at working out a pricing structure that takes into account my hourly working rate and R&D time and I have found a customer base who appreciate my work and recognise it’s value. I have also worked to create a range of products at a range of process to allow my brand to be more accessible.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am fortunate to live in a beautiful village in England called Wivenhoe. I was born in London and lived there when I was a model-maker and thankfully the two are reasonably close to each other. If I had someone over for a week I’d spend a few days taking in some of the riverside and woodland walks and enjoying the local pubs. On a few evenings we’d head to the local town of Colchester as there is a great music scene there. I often sing in the local pubs so we might go to a few of the open mic nights. There’s also a great gallery called firstsite.
We’d take a few days in London where some of my favourite spots are. The Victorian pubs are beautuful and I know central London quite well. And I always have to visit Waxy O’Connor’s. I’ll not say anything about it, it’s more fun to discover it for yourself.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate this shout out to my wonderful family and friends who have been and continue to be an enormous support to me. Of course, I have to give the biggest shoutout to my amazing Mum.

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