I have been working with Westbank Healthy Living and Community Care Centre for about 9 years now – in conjunction with Devon Carers. Recently I have been taking on more contracts with them, one of them being the “Working Together to End Loneliness” campaign.
They asked me to design a leaflet and banner to help advertise and raise awareness of their campaign, using a few brand colours from their Westbank brand. It was good to start from scratch, and aimed for something eye-catching and informative.
As well as the leaflet, I designed a pull up banner for events and displays. You can see the designs on my portfolio.
Essential Oils Direct were looking into creating a different brand to sell some of their products. They asked me to design something using an owl as they are Oldham based, and the owl is a big part of the town’s identity.
I came up with a few ideas… some with and some without an Owl…
We decided on the owl face, and after a little more development, came up with a few different colour options depending on the product/packaging, based on this design.
In the end, EOD decided against the new brand, as it was not needed, but we liked the designs so much, they agreed I could show them on my portfolio. You can see more on my portfolio pages.
When I first graduated from University, many moons ago, my first job was as Information and Communication Officer with Devon Carers. When I decided to go freelance, they were one of my first clients, and I have worked with them for nearly 10 years, through 2 rebrands, and on many pieces of work, from leaflets to newsletters, from websites to photography shoots.
This year they have decided to change things a little, update the brand and some of the marketing and literature. My first job was to overhaul the newsletter, and change it from a newsletter to a magazine.
I have worked with the Devon Carers team to change the newsletter – changing the content, layout and design completely, giving it a facelift and making it look more interesting and slicker.
I used more imagery, a new colour scheme based on the Carers Trust brand as well as the existing brand, and some more exciting typography, to redesign the look and feel of the magazine. I am pleased to say the team are really pleased with it, and I hope the carers are too. This job has been one of my regular pieces of work for a long time, and it’s been fun to change things around!
I have been working on other pieces for Devon Carers – I’ll be updating my portfolio soon, and have more pieces in the pipeline. Have a look below at some of the pages from the magazine, or have a look at my portfolio for more: Devon Carers Magazine. And also check out the new Devon Carers website which was redesigned recently and looks very smart!
I was asked by Ron Campion’s to help out about a year ago, as their graphic designer had left. I was not far away from giving birth, but took on the job to help out with their Summer Sale brochure before having my daughter.
Since then, I have been helping out every week, updating the Facebook account with adverts and posts, designing the adverts for local newspapers and magazines, and designing the Winter Sale Brochure and a “Good Sleep Guide” Bed Brochure.
Ron Campion’s had a rebrand a few years ago, and have a great logo and colour palette. I was able to use this and previous designs to design the Summer Sale brochure, before working on the newer adverts and brochures with my own designs. It’s been essential to make sure we source good photos of the products and display them with all the information needed clearly, to catch the audience’s eye, and make them want to buy!
The first project I worked on properly was “The Good Sleep Guide” – a Bed-based sale before Christmas last year. Here’s a few examples, to see more have a look at my portfolio. More to come soon…
January is never a great month… cold, wintery weather; Christmas is over and packed away for another year; I’m usually a few pounds heavier than I was in November; and it’s tax return time…
But this year I was more than prepared due to using Quickbooks.
Quickbooks Self-employed
I started using Quickbooks about a year ago and it has made my life a whole lot easier. I don’t have particularly complicated accounts, but they were taking me a whole day or two a month to get them up to date and my tax returns took me at least a week.
However, since using Quickbooks, I can get a month’s worth of accounts done in an afternoon, and I managed to get my tax return done well before the deadline.
I now invoice using Quickbooks, and I can log in and see where I am financially easily. I can track my mileage easily and I can take photos of receipts and upload them to stop me losing them or having piles of paper to sort through. It’s only £8 a month (although they often have offers) and only a little bit more for VAT registered businesses.
I highly recommend Quickbooks, it has made the paperwork side of my business much easier.
I’ve updated my portfolio with some work from over Christmas and New Year – some adverts for both their website and Facebook page, and Christmas website headers.
We try and keep the imagery nature based to reflect the products and keep the adverts simple. The headers are based on the existing header, but with some Christmas-sy imagery.
Well, Christmas has been and gone, a very exciting one for us as it was our little girl’s first Christmas, and my sister was over from Australia for the first Christmas in the UK for 8 years!
So, back to it. Lots to do, a new look Devon Carers magazine which should be published by the end of the month, (I’ll update my portfolio soon!), ongoing work for Ron Campion Furnishers (I’ll post some more photos), updates to my portfolio, and some new projects in the pipeline!
I am also working hard on Sunshine and Shenanigans, getting some Valentines Day stock ready, working on some more wedding products, and updating the store. I’ll post more on that soon.
And finally, I have a new set of pens to try out – a fabulous Christmas present from my wonderful partner. Thanks love!
So, I’ve been away for a while, and the new website has taken a while to get up and running… what have I been up to?
I had a 3 month temporary contract at the Met Office in early 2014. After this, and a long busy summer, I took a little break and was offered a job at Brixham Yacht Club which turned into the Front of House Manager. This took up a fair chunk of time, and whilst I was still doing freelance work, I was pretty tied up. By the beginning of 2016, I had decided to go away travelling and to visit my sister who lives in Australia.
So after a very busy few years of work, work, work, I took a few months off to relax in the sunshine. I spent just over a month on the Gold Coast, before flying over to Western Australia and the Ningaloo Reef for a few weeks. I then flew back via Thailand, where I spent 10 days in Bangkok and Kho Samet. It was a brilliant time – the trip of a lifetime and I came back feeling refreshed and ready for new challenges.
I decided to concentrate on Sunshine and Shenanigans when I got back, (more about that soon) but lo and behold… I fell pregnant the following year and gave birth to my lovely daughter Willow in March this year. Since then I have been back working hard on this website, and on Sunshine and Shenanigans and enjoying being a mum!
