Work with me
I don’t just draw pretty pictures…
As an employee for more than 15 years, I was comfortable with the idea that I periodically needed to talk about my skills and experiences when applying for new roles. One of the things I haven’t quite gotten my head around since going freelance is how to translate this into finding clients and customers, when you just want people to know you exist, in case they need you and your skillset or products – as opposed to applying for something specific!
I was therefore very excited to learn about Creative Book Northumberland. This is a project funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority's Challenge Fund, to help connect freelancers with businesses and other organisations in need of creative services, enabling more collaboration across Northumberland. The Creative Book Northumberland website provides a platform for creatives to list their business for free in the bank.
Needless-to-say, I’ve already listed my business, but I thought it might be helpful to also list out my full range of skills and experience here.
Illustration
As you’ll know if you’ve spent any time on my site, I create unique, hand-drawn artwork for stand-alone illustrations, illustrated maps and surface pattern design. A range of my artwork is available to purchase through my shop as art prints and gifts, or you can also find my designs on fabric, wallpaper and other home decor product via Print on Demand sites like Spoonflower and Contrado. I also create special, one-off illustrated maps for customers looking for a special gift – for themselves, or a loved one – to commemorate a place or journey.
If you’d like to work with me to licence my artwork, or to commission me for a bespoke piece or freelance project, just get in touch.
Branding and Communications Consultancy
Before becoming a freelance illustrator and designer, I spent more than 15 years working in the higher education and charity sectors as a communications specialist, most notably at the University of Oxford, University of Newcastle and the National Trust. So I understand that there's no one size-fits-all approach to communications - your audience, objectives and resources are unique to you, whether you are a charity, a publicly-funded project, or a small business.
Through my employment history, I have had extensive experience in building communications teams and functions (large and small, stand-alone and integrated), reviewing existing communications programmes and supporting the development of new strategies. I’ve also supported people to develop their brand – from identifying their brand values, to creating a visual identity and a supporting communications strategy.
The most recent brand and communications consultancy I provided was to a team of academics in the AGE Research Group at Newcastle University. They had had multi-million pound funding from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research to run a large scale research programme (called ADMISSION) looking at multiple long-term conditions in hospital patients. The research team had identified a need for specialist support to help them develop an appropriate Communications Strategy and associated delivery plan to be owned and understood by the team at large. The team was also ambitious to develop a recognisable and enduring brand for the project. I created a series of bespoke workshops to support the team through this piece of work, including synthesising the workshop outputs into a Communications Strategy that they could follow, but also understood how to adapt and develop. I also delivered a set of brand guidelines, a unique visual brand identity and assorted communications planning materials to assist with their ongoing delivery.
“I wanted to send another thank you on behalf of the whole team – for all the input and guidance in developing our comms strategy over the past few months. As you know – a new experience for us! – and learning that we can take forward in other ways across our portfolio of research studies. We were really pleased to have the opportunity to take part in the workshops and are now looking forward to using our new comms skills in ADMISSION – and beyond!”
Get in touch to discuss how I can support you and your team through bespoke mentoring, facilitated workshops, programme/activity reviews and/or 1-2-1 consultation sessions or through the provision of specific communications services.
Graphic Design
Designing materials to communicate specific ideas has been part of almost every role I’ve had. This amounts to more than 20 years’ experience of creating posters, fliers, newsletters, events materials, stationery, digital assets and more, to the highest possible standard. Drop me an email with what you're after and we can discuss your needs and see if I'm the right fit for your project.
As part of my Creative Book Northumberland listing, I created this information as a small A5, 4-page flier, which you can download and keep handy!
