Category: Behind The Scenes

Behind the scenes of Aromas Christmas coffee cup design project

Aromas is one of my all-time favourite cafes. Based in Weybridge, Surrey, it’s quite local for me and I’ve visited many times over the last few years. To meet with friends, to hold business meetings and networking, and to relax with my husband. Their food is incredible (I even felt the need to order my 30th birthday lunch from their menu last year!), and their service is always so welcoming. So, when the lovely owner, Inci, commissioned me to create the Aromas festive coffee cup designs for 2020, I was over the moon. The idea of creating a clean, creative, and on-brand, product packaging design for a local Surrey business, filled me with excitement!

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Blurrgghhh… I keep writing and re-writing the introduction to this post, but nothing feels right. Let’s just say ‘this year was hard’ and leave it at that, hey? I want this post to be about some incredible women who have brought joy, light, and (most importantly) inspiration to my 2020. Yes, there have been difficulties, yes there has been sadness, but these five women have fought the odds and done some amazing things this year. All five of my most inspiring women of 2020 are wonderful small business owners and deserve every bit of success that comes their way. A couple are clients I’ve had the pleasure of working with, the others are women I follow and admire.

Let’s get started. Here are my five most inspiring women of 2020…

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…and a brief look at brand personality

 

If you follow me over on Instagram, you might have seen (or even taken part) in The Brandalong during August. For those who don’t follow me on Instagram, and have no idea what I’m talking about, firstly – pop on over as it’s where I spend most of my time and share my latest creations, secondly – here’s a quick explanation… The Brandalong was an interactive way to give you a glimpse into the joy of branding design. Together, we created a fictional brand, from scratch. With my Instagram followers choosing everything from our brand’s industry to the pattern for packaging.

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Behind the Scenes of Kate Avery Flowers’ “Hug In A Jar” Tutorial Project

Kate Spicer, the creative and lovely woman behind Kate Avery Flowers, is a floral stylist with well over ten years of experience in the industry. It’s this experience, and knowledge, as well as her generous and kind-hearted personality, that has led Kate to not only creating gorgeous (and I do mean GORGEOUS!) floral arrangements herself, but also to teaching other florists the art of stunning floral design. A few months ago, in the midst of full lockdown, Kate approached me to create a beautiful, clean, and on-brand pdf design to go alongside a video for her “Hug In A Jar” tutorial. It was one of my favourite projects to date, and I thought I would give you a little insight into the process…

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Behind the Scenes of Janet Mactavish’s Vegan Handbook Project

Janet Mactavish is a luxury travel designer. She’s also a vegan. Having stayed at numerous luxury hotels and properties over the years, she’s had first-hand experience of what’s on offer (or not on offer, as the case may be) for vegan travellers. With a goal to help places be more vegan friendly, and a knowledge of both the travel industry and vegan lifestyle, Janet decided to write a vegan guide for hotels and properties. She knew what she wanted to say, but she also needed a stylish and on-brand PDF design, with bespoke illustrations. That’s where I came in…

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Urgh, ‘pricing’ – a word that sends a shudder down many creatives’ spines. It’s hard enough making sure you’re covering all your costs, let alone knowing and charging your worth! Now, before we get into this topic, I just want to say, I’m not about to share THE answers. I don’t have any magical formula and I’m in no way a ‘pricing for creatives’ or marketing specialist. It is, however, a topic at the forefront of my mind right now, and I think talking about it amongst friends and like-minded creatives can only be a good thing in helping us feel more comfortable with charging our worth.

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Wow! That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of the past twelve months. Wow, wow, wow. It has been such a wonderful year, and far beyond my expectations. I started 2019 still running my first business, making wedding cakes, but already knew at heart – something needed to change. Take a read of my posts ‘A career of Joy & Fulfilment’ and ‘Is my business fulfilling me?’, if you want to know more. I’m really touched and overjoyed by the creative projects I’ve helped clients create, and so excited to have launched my first range of Christmas cards and Art Prints. I could talk for hours about all my amazing clients, and the projects I’ve worked on, but instead I thought I’d do something a little different for a ‘Best of 2019’ post, by sharing my Five Most Inspiring Women of 2019.

Some I have worked with directly; others have simply inspired me from afar. Come 2020, I hope to have made a couple of tweaks to my brand, to even better align with where I want to take my business – and inspiring creativity is definitely going to be at the heart. So, without further ado, here is my list of the five most inspiring women I’ve come across this year…

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Creating my own product range was one of the first ideas that sparked inspiration for my brand. I knew the thought: ‘if I can live a more creative, light and fulfilling life, then why can’t you?’ was true, but I also realised I wasn’t going to be able to help everyone with my services alone. Providing inspiring products as well as my creative art and design services was going to be the best way to help spread more light and joy. With my services successfully launched earlier in the year, and with Christmas fast approaching – in September I started focusing on the new Kerri Awosile product range. Here’s a little behind the scenes look at its creation…

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Turning my back on over three years of work was the best choice I ever made!

Do you have a career of joy and fulfilment? Does your work make you feel good, whether that’s your own business or a nine-to-five?

It can be so easy to stay in a place that’s not actually doing us many favours, because it’s what we’re used to, and what we’ve invested time and effort (sometimes money) towards. Deep down we know our role isn’t making us happy, but we stick with it. Things might improve in a few months’ time – we tell ourselves. Maybe if more money comes in (or I ask for a pay rise) – things will suddenly feel better. Perhaps if I rebrand/take a promotion/complete a course/invest more money, that sinking feeling will go away. The job we know brings a sense of security – sometimes financial, sometimes emotional, sometimes both. Yet, how secure is it really if it leaves us drained and shadowed by that ‘grey cloud’?

Continue reading A Career Of Joy And Fulfilment