I’m really excited to finally share that If Buildings Could Speak now has a publishing home with Amberley Publishing. The book is due out in July 2027, and between now and January 2027 I’ll be creating 70 new illustrations, which is more than one a week. I’m making good progress already. Each building will be brought to life with an illustration and a short written piece like the one you see here. Some stories will also have longer poems, which readers can discover on my YouTube channel, If Buildings Could Speak. It’s early days over there, just three subscribers so far, but every story has to start somewhere.
This journey began with frustration. I’ve never absorbed history well through reams of long reports or endless lists of dates. I read them, but what I’m always searching for is the essence. What happened here? Who built it? Who designed it? Who used it? What has this place seen, and why does it still matter?
So I started translating history differently.
Instead of retelling facts, I focused on voice. On the builders, the architects, and the people who passed through these spaces every day. Stories about ambition, pride, neglect, survival, and reinvention. Not invented stories, but emotionally truthful ones that sit beneath the dates.
That instinct became drawings.
Then poems.
Then, a growing body of work that treated buildings as if they had voices of their own.
Giving buildings a voice
If Buildings Could Speak brings heritage buildings to life through Art Deco–inspired illustration and poetry. Cinemas, airports, hotels, civic buildings. Places that have witnessed everyday lives and extraordinary moments are now speaking in their own words.
When a building speaks, it doesn’t recite its listing grade.
It talks about what it’s carried.
Who believed in it.
Who nearly lost it.
And why it’s still standing.
That shift, from information to voice, changes how people respond. When I shared this work, people slowed down. They read. They recognised places they thought they knew, but suddenly saw differently. That response is what led to the book deal.
Art Deco, poetry, and clarity
Art Deco isn’t just a visual style in the book. It represents optimism, structure, and belief in progress.
Poetry plays a similar role. You can’t waffle in a poem. Every word has to earn its place. That discipline, saying less and meaning more, runs through everything I do.
From buildings to brands
Although the book sits within my Made by Me by the Sea work, the thinking behind it connects directly to The Brand Surgery.
Most organisations communicate in the way buildings are usually described. Lists of services. Capabilities. Facts. But people don’t connect with lists. They connect with meaning.
Heritage buildings endure because they carry stories. Brands do too. When people feel what something stands for, attention changes. Trust builds. Behaviour follows.
A hope for the reader
Ultimately, I hope the book does something straightforward.
It encourages readers to look again at the buildings that fascinate them.
To feel curious.
And to go out and discover more about the places that have quietly captured their attention.
You can follow the book journey, illustrations, and poems over on Made by Me by the Sea, where If Buildings Could Speak first found its voice.
Connect. Converse. Convert.
That principle applies just as much to places as it does to people.
If this resonates with you, drop me a line.
