Black and white photograph of designer Julie Nicholls drinking a mug of tea

Blog

My occasional thoughts, musings and insights on all things design and marketing.

What I learned in my first month as a freelance designer

I think I’m probably quite unusual among my peers in that I have never really aspired to the freelance life. I’ve always enjoyed working...

Logo or brand; what's the difference?

So what is a brand? Is it just another name for your logo? A brand is never just a logo. It’s the sum of all the parts of your business....

Build the drama

Storytelling is about painting pictures. It's about being able to convey to your reader an image that transports them somewhere else....

Sprouts, Rosé and selfies

What did we spend our money on in 2016? At the start of last year, I wrote a blog on the retail trends of 2015 and just what is was we...

Hashtag lazy

What’s that expression about “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”? This morning I had cause to...

The power of collaboration

Sometimes the life of a designer can seem a little… well ambiguous. I can say that because it’s the career I chose. We spend a lot of our...

2016 in 77 seconds

As the year draws to a close the TV schedule and newspapers seem to be full of 2016 reviews. The highs and lows, the expected and the...

Death of the scrapbook

Staying inspired must be one of the biggest challenges for any designer. You need to keep up to date with the latest trends, colour...

Creative commuting

7 days, 14 trains, 6 buses, 4 tubes and one camera phone. Commuting to central London every day, I spend a lot of time traveling. 16.5...

My life's a board game

Explaining to people what I do for a living always seems to be problematic. If I use the word branding, they tend to either glaze over or...

Holly Hall, Brazil Street

I can honestly say it’s been a total joy working with you and I’ve really loved your take on things, really refreshing! So I have no hesitation in recommending you far & wide :)