Year One
What's been written, where to find it, what's coming next.
Eye Style has been going for just over a year. It became a weekly practice when other things changed and writing became the way I worked through what I was seeing.
Most of what gets written here starts with something I couldn’t stop thinking about; a conversation, a pattern in how practices behave, a gap between what suppliers believe is happening and what’s actually going on. Writing gives me somewhere to put all of those thoughts and explore new avenues.
This piece is a reading guide. If you’re new — here’s where to start. Been here a while? Here’s just a few you might have missed.
From next week, Eye Style looks a little different. The thinking won’t change.
Eyewear design & the designers
What drives the people making frames, and what does their process say about where the industry is heading? The Style File series talks directly to designers — what they’re reacting to, what gets compromised, and what independent design actually means in practice.
The business of buying & selling frames
The commercial layer between brand and practice; reps, agents, returns, margins, and the assumptions everyone’s quietly working from. These are the conversations that happen after the meeting.
Frame Game: Return to Sender — perhaps the one I most enjoyed writing, mainly because I started to find my voice. Returns are everywhere in this industry; almost nobody talks about them plainly.
How people actually decide
The behavioural side; how choices get made, what loyalty really is, and what happens to a message by the time it reaches the person it was meant for. Most of this doesn’t get much space in optical training. Probably should.
Fine (A customer’s story)
Trade shows
The hardest thing I’ve written for Eye Style. Five parts, three perspectives: exhibitor, organiser, visitor. Then what a different version might look like. It got complicated — there are competing interests, real costs, and a genuine affection for what trade shows do well — so it took time to write fairly. Read in order.
Inside the practice
What independent optical actually looks like from the inside — the roles that don’t exist, the supplier relationships that could work better, and the conversations that don’t happen often enough.
Style, identity & craft
The more personal side; what it means to work in a profession built around how people look, and what happens when your own practice becomes the experiment.
From next week, the look changes. The questions stay the same. Worth asking them while the industry’s still working out what it is.