Things don't always go to plan and that's ok.

I’m here! Well you probably won’t have noticed that I wasn’t to be honest.

Who even am I? So, I’m Alison, a brand designer based in Cheshire but working with clients from anywhere they’ve got internet access! I have been a designer for over 12 years now (don’t be fooled by my youthful looking freckle face - I’m hiding a huge stripe of grey hair waiting to burst out underneath those copper tones). I have worked in design agencies ever since leaving university and have loved it. But you get a bit older, you get married, start to think about having a family and your priorities change. So when this happened to me I decided to go freelance. This was great as I made more money and had the flexibility I needed when it came to getting to appointments and eventually having a baby to look after.

So I freelanced for the agency I was employed at, worked with my own clients and then decided to set up doing wedding stationery (and nursery prints and a host of other things I bounced around doing). This was all going ok but it was getting to the point where I had no real direction. I was doing branding for all kinds of people, design, artwork, illustration, and wedding stationery in whatever style the couple were looking for. I knew I needed to get content out to the world but every time I came to create some kind of plan I just didn’t know who I was talking to as I was trying to do everything for everybody. I knew something needed to change so I decided to split the branding and design into one business and the wedding stationery into another. Then I worked out who my ideal client would be and rebranded both to suit.

I decided to do this when I was pregnant with my second baby. I thought I would just throw myself at it and change everything over and launch before I had a baby… ha ha ha! So I rebranded at the end of 2018, had to stop work early because my pelvis felt like it had been rammed by a goat and my slipped disc flared up thanks to the weight of my growing baby bump. So things went on hold for a while. I had a baby. And I also endured months of horrific sciatica. Looking after a newborn with a 3 year old in the mix and a husband who decided it was a good time to go away for training left me thinking I would take as much time away from work as I needed. It didn’t really matter. I hadn’t really launched properly and the business wasn’t going anywhere…

But I missed working. I missed doing something for me. Being creative. Having my own space. So I’d get out the notebooks and start making lists of things I needed to do to get started again. And then I’d have a bad nights sleep and wonder why I was rushing back into work. Babies are only babies for so long, why was I wishing that time away to have my own space? So I’d put work to the back of my mind again. Then I’d come across someone looking for branding or I’d see a logo where the spacing would be irritating me and I’d want to get back to it again. This was a constant cycle. I did start to do things a few times but then I just couldn’t keep up with anything so in the end I landed in the middle ground and started to just do a day here and there while I was still on maternity. #mumguilt is real. You work- you feel guilty. Don’t work so you can be with the kids - feel guilty for not working…

So a little later than planned I’m back and ready to do the best I can in the time I have whilst the kids are at nursery! We just have to remember to be kind to ourselves when we’re trying to do everything for everyone and all at once. Prioritising, time blocking and planning are all new friends of mine.I did a lot of work last year on mindset, productivity and generally learning a lot about being in business. I’ve really focussed on who I want to work with and what my own brand is all about. I realised it was the rebranding of the wedding stationery business that I enjoyed, not the stationery itself, so I’ve left that behind and am now looking forward to helping other mums who are or have been in the same position as me, wanting to build a business to suit their life. So here I am ready to help with all your branding needs and get you set on your journey to do the amazing things that you want to do too.