At the start of the year I painted my first mural – a bright burst of colour inside my co-working space in Camden. I instantly caught the painting bug and wanted to work on more painting projects (and luckily had the opportunity with Hattie Stewart and recently as an artist in residence with West Elm), so when Jacqueline Colley posted a call out for some painting help on her Instagram I volunteered straight away. Strike...
Sleep – you can’t live with it (ok, during) and you can’t live without it! It’s an everyday essential that we all have to embrace and structure our day around. Everyone’s sleep experience is different, but the average adult needs 7-9 hours a night so best to make it a good one. I think I have quite an unusual relationship with sleep; I don’t really rate it much. I know I need to sleep, but...
This week’s life lesson is the art of give and take; how I’ve been very good at giving and others have been very good at taking. I remember writing the ‘Honest Illustrated’ post back in 2013 on how I REALLY felt about being a recent graduate. It was raw and totally unlike anything I’d read from a graduate before and I felt AMAZING to be able to give that to the world, whilst feeling sick...
Oh walls. I think I’ve proven myself to be good at snapping cool walls (find proof on my Instagram btw), BUT here’s a question: am I any good at painting them? A few months back I mentioned that I’ve been helping Morag Myerscough paint some of her projects on and off for the past 12 months. It’s been an amazing experience and I’ve learnt so much from it, BUT was I ready to go it alone and...
As a Freelancer working from home the majority of the week, things can sometimes be a bit lonely. I’m an extrovert needing human contact and I’m lucky enough to have a co-working space to visit, but every now and again I treat myself to a morning or afternoon working from a coffee shop. Sometimes I’ll meet with a friend (usually lovely Ella – she took these photos of me btw) but other than chatting to the...
Anyone who follows my Instagram feed will know about my love of art, more specifically wall art; art in the wild. I’ve been photographing it since I moved to London 3 years ago and it’s definitely one of my favourite things about living in a creative city. Walking down a street and discovering a new piece of art is such a buzz – it’s the simple things in life, hey? And much to my delight...
Last year I confessed something that probably made stationery addicts everywhere gasp in horror (dramatic, much?). 2016 was the first time I heard about National Stationery Week being a real thing. Maybe this is you right now!? ha But anyway, yes, it is ‘a thing’ and the 2017 stationery hype is in full swing as I post this – in fact TODAY is World Stationery Day. I hope you’ve been geeking out over pencils with no shame?...
Today is a special day; it’s Wednesday. And on Wednesdays we wear pink, right? But that’s not why it’s special… Last year I put together a little post sharing a few of my fave ladies making creative things happen. Well when I looked in my diary and saw that International Women’s Day was coming around again I thought ‘OK, what can I do this year?’ I decided that I wanted more. More women. More inspiration. More Girl Power (like...
As a Graphic Designer, one of the perks is that I get to geek out about weird things like Pantone chips, fonts and paper and kinda get away with it. I mean, a lot of people don’t really get it but in December I discovered a place where I can ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ without judgement. Paper geeks rejoice; GF Smith have opened a show space in London! (It’s just off Oxford Street btw.) Paper. It’s...
After sharing my love for the Career Crisis cards the other week, I visited The School of Life for a special workshop on overcoming procrastination. Walking from the station on the evening of the class I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone would turn up – they’d all be too busy procrastinating, right? Oh the irony! But actually it was a full house, all ready to kick procrastination where it hurts… or try anyway. I’ve read a...
Cafes. There are hundreds (maybe even thousands?) in London, each with their own style and atmosphere. From the swanky coffee bar to the greasy spoon, they are a hub for people meeting friends, working away from the office or just relaxing. They all have that in common. But what about if you’re looking for something different to the norm of coffee and brownies? You’ve probably heard about the Cat Cafes popping up, but if you...
AND BREATHE. #100DaysofGraphique is complete! High five Some days I would think to myself; ‘This is hard, so why am I doing this?’ and this smug feeling is definitely the answer. 100 posts and 12,030 likes later (yes I just went through all 100 photos and added them all up) the project is finished! It’s a mix of emotions; pride, relief and sadness. Sure, I’m really proud of finishing again but let me tell you...
…. you can pick all of the pieces that you want, but you never know how it’s going to turn out! The other week Laura from Cardboard Cities asked twitter for collage ‘volunteers’. Sometimes creatives just need something fun to work on, and being a big fan of Laura’s work, I sent my photo over faster than you can say collage! As expected, I love what she did with my face: Blue hair… what do...
74 days ago I began my second year of #The100DayProject, choosing to attempt #100DaysofGraphique after a pretty successful #100DaysofTriangles project in 2015. I would say that if you follow me on Instagram you would definitely remember, but with the algorithm who knows if I show up in your feed anymore!? But anyway, although I’ve not really been shouting about it and giving you guys regular updates on my blog (last year I did weekly round ups!)...
That’s right folks, Designed in London: the Podcast is BACK! It feels like its been forever since we recorded the first episode on 3rd year & graduation, when in reality it was just over a month ago. But anyway, we headed to the South Bank to record our latest episode to discuss… So what are we talking about in Episode 2? Well there’s only one way to find out – give it a listen! Alongside...