Coming out the other side of burn out ✨ The past few months have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. I have been hit hard with burn out for the first time and it took me really by surprise. I had always assumed getting to that stage would be triggered by something, like a project going wrong or a client being unhappy. But when all of my work was going really well, I was launching new brands and signing new clients, the months of putting work before any kind of self care just suddenly crept up on me. The physical exhaustion hit me like a brick wall, but what I didn’t expect was it also seemed to suck all of my creative and emotional energy that makes me passionate about what I do. So, I listened to my tired brain and took some needed rest and time for myself, taking whole weekends off and saying no when I don’t have the capacity to do something. It’s been enormously liberating, and while I’m just at the beginning of learning how to manage my addiction to working all hours of the day - it definitely feels like such a turning point and I feel re-energised and ready to take on some really exciting work AND enjoy some equally exciting rest over the next few months. How are you feeling going into the new week?! ✨ 📷 the magic @sarahgmessina who candidly snapped me leaving my house like paparazzi 🤣 ➡️ for my reaction 
Design is how it works ✨ Ive been lucky to kick off a bunch of really exciting new projects recently with some amazing entrepreneurs starting new ventures or building their personal brand. In so many cases at the beginning of the project, clients feel like they need to come to me with everything all worked out - which can be difficult to do unless you are super clear on who you are and your vision for the brand. What I always say is let’s get designing and when you start to visualise it - it will become SO much easier. While I love all of the creative stuff I’ve realised helping clients to structure what they offer and how they offer it is actually one of my favourite parts of being a designer. Design is how it works. It takes it from a million floating ideas in your head into a real life thing - enjoy the process and don’t panic if you don’t know where it’s going to go yet ✨ 
Happy Friday ✨ What with everything opening back up here in the UK, I’ve felt (as I know many others have!) this pressure to fill every moment of my free time over the past month with activities. And while it’s been SUCH fun I’m taking this weekend to properly step back, relax and enjoy some downtime ahead of a busy few weeks putting the finishing touches on one of my biggest launches yet! What are you up to this weekend? ✨ 📷 @gigiandolive_ 
The brand new website for @nibsetc is LIVE ✨ Back in March the lovely Chloe at Nibsetc won our ‘win a website’ competition with @zerowastegoods . The aim of this competition was to work with a sustainable brand doing incredible things for the 🌎 to build a custom website to help as they grew their business. Nibsetc had created a beautiful, clean website (swipe for before) - but they were looking for something more unique that really stood out from the crowd. With a customised Shopify theme, we created a layered, dynamic home page that better communicates all of the brilliant work @nibsetc are doing to fight food waste! What’s more is we could build a really bespoke About and Our Ingredients page to share about the brands mission and amazing story. Swipe for a before and after of the home page. What do you think? ✨ Ps. check out @nibsetc DELICIOUS range of snacks and granola, you’ll thank me later! 
Understanding the freedom that good organisation can give you ✨ This year I’ve spent a lot of my time improving my processes and overall project management skills. I had put this off for the first 8 months of the business because it felt like this momentous and really boring admin task that I needed to do and I was having far too much of a good time doing all the fun creative stuff . Building in proper processes was a necessity at the beginning of this year as my business grew, but now I have them I wish I’d never put them off. What I never realised was how much freedom a handful of simple habits would afford me in my business. We see these tasks as mundane but the anxiety of not feeling on top of things is way more time consuming than you think. If you can make them part of a routine, not only will your admin become easier but you can create a structure that allows maximum time and energy for all the juicy creative fun. My favourite tool for getting myself organised to his year has been @mondaydotcom , that allows me to track and manage my projects in a beautiful designed (a necessity for any software I use!!) way that makes all the admin way easier to manage. What’s your favourite tool for keeping you organised? ✨ 📷 @carlaypage 
My Favourite Shopify themes ✨ I've spent a lot of the last year working with Shopify and getting to know the ins and outs of its themes and potential customisations. As my end goal is always centered around creating something unique, finding the right Shopify themes that give my clients enough optionality in terms of design for their ecommerce store has been really important. These are my top 4 themes in terms of unique design and really helpful functionality features that will improve user experience and result in more sales. I've only listed paid themes because in my opinion $150-180 is definitely worth the investment to 1) give you SO many more customisations options, and 2) save you the time and effort of identifying apps (that will also slow down your site) to give you the same level of functionality to help your store run smoothly. Have you used these themes before? Which are your favourites? ✨