In this edition of Meet the Client, we speak with Abigail Ball, Marketing & Brand Manager at Bisley. With a background rooted in industrial design and a passion for manufacturing-led storytelling, Abigail plays a pivotal role in shaping and evolving one of Britain’s most established furniture brands. From driving brand strategy and product launches to delivering standout moments at major design events, Abigail shares insight into her journey, her proudest achievements, and what it takes to keep a heritage brand relevant for a new generation.
What are your main responsibilities at Bisley?
I’m the Group Marketing and Brand Manager at Bisley, responsible for shaping and delivering the brand across our entire portfolio. That includes overseeing brand strategy, PR, campaigns, product launches, trade shows and showroom activity, as well as ensuring consistency across our sub-brands and sectors. My role sits across both strategic planning and hands-on delivery, working closely with sales, design, product development and external partners to make sure everything we put into the world feels considered, relevant and distinctly Bisley.
What led you to this role at Bisley?
My background is in Industrial Design and Technology, so I’ve always been drawn to how things are made, not just how they look. I started out working in architecture, then moved into trade marketing within the lighting industry, which gave me a strong grounding in specification, manufacturing and design-led storytelling. Furniture felt like a natural progression — it sits at the intersection of design, engineering and everyday life. Bisley in particular stood out because of its manufacturing heritage, its scale, and the opportunity to help evolve a well-known British brand for a new generation.
What does your typical working day look like at Bisley?
No two days are ever the same, which is something I really enjoy. A typical day might involve planning major trade shows like Clerkenwell Design Week or Workspace Design Show, developing new product launch campaigns, working with the team planning photoshoots briefing, or working with the sales team on showroom events and activations. One minute I might be deep in budgets and trade show timelines, the next reviewing new prototypes or discussing colour palettes. It’s fast-paced, varied and very collaborative.
What is your proudest work achievement?
One of my proudest moments has been the RISOTTO Studio collaboration, where we introduced digitally printed steel into our product offering and launched it at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025. It was a genuine meeting of art, design and manufacturing, and seeing such a technically complex idea come to life — and resonate so strongly with the design community — was incredibly rewarding. It felt like a real marker of how far the Bisley brand has evolved.
What excites you most about your job?
Seeing ideas move from concept to reality, especially at scale. There’s something special about watching months of work come together at a major event, fully built, in colour, and in three dimensions — whether that’s a new product, a stand design or a showroom transformation. That moment when people finally experience it in person never gets old.
How important are PR and marketing for driving and sustaining business growth?
They’re absolutely essential. As Bisley evolves and new generations enter the industry, it’s more important than ever that people understand who we are today, not just who we were historically. Bisley may have been in almost every office in the 1980s, but we’ve since diversified into new sectors, new product types and new ways of working. PR and marketing play a vital role in communicating that shift, building awareness, and ensuring the next generation of designers, specifiers and end users see Bisley as relevant, progressive and design-led.
Why do you think it’s so important Bisley continues to manufacture its products in the UK?
UK manufacturing is one of Bisley’s strongest differentiators. Increasingly, project tenders demand full transparency around sustainability, provenance and product lifecycle, and because we design and manufacture in our own factory, we can trace every part of that journey. That level of control is a huge advantage and often a deciding factor in winning projects. It also allows us to remain competitive on price while maintaining quality, because we own and control the entire manufacturing process rather than relying on outsourced production.
Finally, do you have a favourite Bisley product and why?
That’s a difficult one. The MultiDrawer will always have a special place — it’s an icon and so deeply rooted in Bisley’s history. But Deco from our BeSmart® portfolio is a strong contender too. It perfectly represents where the brand is heading: smart, functional, design-led storage that integrates technology seamlessly without compromising on aesthetics.
