Working for Russwood, a timber specialist based in the Scottish Highlands, means ensuring my writing style is simple, elegant and innovative – to match their superior range of flooring, cladding and decking products. That’s what I’ve sought to do since July 2023, when my relationship with the company first began.
Since then, I’ve produced a collection of pieces that help to share Russwood's premium product and service offering with UK-wide homeowners, architects and builders from a series of blogs to their annual Profile magazine.
Writing excellence, for excellence
A quick scroll through their portfolio of work will hint at how much I enjoy writing for them. The architecturally stunning properties, for which Russwood products are selected, often showcase the power of pairing minimalistic design with premium materials. You’ll want to pin each picture you see, before realising that you’re not on Pinterest.
Participation in such bold projects opens up the prospect for more creative writing. The award-winning Larick Centre, a new Fife-based community centre, is just one example. The building lives up to its name – Larick being an old scots word for ‘larch’ – with Scotlarch cladding complimenting the unashamed red corrugated aluminium.
Producing a profile magazine
Producing a coffee-table-worthy piece is any writer's dream. And with Russwood, I got to do just that. In 2023, the organisation launched its first profile magazine, highlighting the company’s participation in numerous state-of-the-art projects, as well as company values and goals.
While Ruswood products were busy building buildings, I treated words like building blocks, constructing a magazine full of architectural stories.
Championing sustainable futures
Sustainability is woven into every Russwood project. The company, through its product range, is pioneering more sustainable building designs, and much of my writing for them spotlights this.
Take the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, the world’s first rewilding centre, for example. The Glenmoriston-based site, which opened in 2022, incorporates multiple sustainable Russwood products, including their iconic renewably-sourced timber, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. I write about this, and more, for one of their ‘inspiration’-style pieces.
“Selecting construction materials for the world’s first rewilding centre comes with a certain pressure. But this was a challenge that Trees for Life’s appointed architect, Threesixty Architecture, embraced, choosing Russwood products for their aesthetic and technical qualities – as well as for the way the location and ethos of our business fitted with the client’s vision. Using timber for large-scale commercial buildings is growing in popularity, and Dundreggan is the perfect example of its effectiveness.”
