SME News - Freelance Illustrator and Designer of the Year (East Midlands)

Wow.

Just, W O W!

It gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to announce that I have been awarded Freelance Illustrator & Designer of the Year (East Midlands) by SME News in their annual Enterprise awards!

When I received the email last year to say I had been nominated, I couldn’t quite believe it, so much so that I just shelved it thinking it must have been a scam (hello, imposter syndrome?). But as I started to receive more emails about the nomination and consequently the news that I had won it, I started to wonder if I should be paying attention to this news.

When you work for yourself it’s easy sometimes to not notice progression. Especially being a full time mum as well as freelancer, there is little to no time to sit and take in achievements. My ‘colleagues’ are 5 & 2 and they’re not interested if I’ve landed a new client or perhaps launched a new product so I don’t get that same experience as if I was in a studio or office where there are people to bounce that news off with! I’ve very much just been keeping my head down and working through the juggle of running a business, working freelance for clients as well as being there for my kids.

This award means so much more to me than I can explain. It’s been a wonderful moment to just stop, and pay attention to the bumpy and winding road that I’ve been travelling on to get to this point.

As some of you who are self employed will have experienced this year, work has been extremely difficult; I’ve missed out on a few job opportunities, had failed pitches, sales have been down and not to mention the cost of living crises thrown in to help amp up the stress levels. Receiving this accolade feels like the recognition I’m not very good at giving myself, recognition of the hard work and late nights to make it all work in the face of a crazy few years.

After the uncertainty of the last two years or so, relative quiet has been greeted by a rush of announcements, of achievements being announced left, right and centre. Growth, new products, new services, new markets, recruitment – it’s all happening for SMEs across the UK.

Now in its sixth year, the SME UK Enterprise Awards continues to recognise SMEs of all sizes who are endeavouring to bettering business in their industries. Whether it’s by nourishing rich internal cultures to promote employee satisfaction, by offering next-level customer service, or through an enduring dedication to innovative products – British SMEs are truly the lifeblood of the country’s economy and business landscape.

Award Coordinator Holly Blackwood took a moment to discuss the success of this year’s programme: “One of the joys of this programme is realising the sheer talent and skill that permeates every inch of the British business sphere, across all industries and fields. So here’s a massive congratulations and I hope you all have a wonderful – and productive- rest of the year ahead.”

SME News prides itself on the validity of its awards and winners. The awards are given solely on merit and are awarded to commend those most deserving for their ingenuity and hard work, distinguishing them from their competitors and proving them worthy of recognition.

To learn more about our award winners and to gain insight into the working practices of the “best of the best”, please visit the SME News website (http://sme-news.co.uk) where you can access the winners supplement.

I’m very grateful to each and every client I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and for all your wonderful orders through my shop and IRL at markets! Every purchase and commission I get tells me to keep going with this dream career which I’m very grateful to have to work around my home life.

If you’ve been thinking about working with myself to get your illustration or design idea realised, then please feel free to get in touch with me as my books are open to new projects and commissions! Take a look through my full portfolio or even my Instagram to see the kind of work I do. I’m always up for a good chat, especially over a brew and maybe a biscuit or two.

A huge thanks once again to SME news for this wonderful award, and to you lovely lot for your continued support!

Here’s to another year of new illustrated adventures,

Deborah x

Pre-Order my Limited Edition 'Sunset' Tropical Palm Wrapping Paper

A few weeks or so ago I thought I would play around with some different colour ways on my bestselling Tropical Palm wrapping paper and after posting them to Instagram I was bowled over by everyones response.

Pink and Khaki

Yellow and Fresh Greens

Navy and Sunset Corals

You guys were IN LOVE with these new colour ways, and loved the idea even more of a limited edition print run of my wrapping paper in one of these new palettes.

It was a very close call between the Pink and Khaki and the Navy and Sunset Corals but the sunset colour way pipped it to the post and it’s not hard to see why. Sultry and balmy tones of lilac, rust and sandy beige set against a rich navy just shout heady warm August nights (or the July ones of recent!).

And although these photos may be mock-ups to visualise how the finished product will look, I cannot get over how much I love them!

Now, I’m going to be transparent. Us small businesses are definitely facing a hardship at the moment. I would so love to be in the position like I have before to be able to order this design up front but unfortunately that isn’t possible right now. So I’m making this limited edition design available for pre-order only until August 11th at a super special reduced rate to help raise the money I need to make this beautiful product a reality!

As a pre-order item you will have access to this price until August 11th after which it will be available at it’s regular price. All pre-orders will be posted a few weeks after this date dispatched via first class post.

I would so love to bring this design to life, so if you would like to see it too and own one of the limited 500 sheets I will be printing, please take a look at the product listing below:

I’d love to know what you think of this new colour way! Feel free to drop your thoughts below, I always love to hear feedback and suggestions.

Deborah x

MediCity Mural

More and more often I'm getting asked to paint murals for many different building for many purposes; signage, decorative display and statement wall pieces. However my latest wall mural piece is by far the biggest to add to my repertoire. 

Measuring 6 metres wide by 3 metres high, this mural of a lush green British landscape has found a new home at the Grade 1 listed MediCity building in Nottingham. 

I won't lie and tell you this piece was a breeze, because as they say, all great things are by far the most challenging! Creating digital files that can scale up beautifully to such a large size was part of the problem, especially when your work isn't vector! However husband-graphic-designer-genius Avnish helped me immensely to navigate around Illustrator in order to vectorise my work, and once we solved that problem the rest fell into place.

The next challenge though was seeing the finished print. Was the design going to come out pixellated? Would it fit the exact measurements of the wall? Poor Avnish was on tenterhooks on fitting day, but amid his hidden anxiety he managed to capture some beautiful time lapses of the piece going up. The finished article? Well, watch for yourself: 

It's been such a privilege to work on this mural piece for the BioCity team; not only did they have the faith in me to produce such a large, detailed, and risky piece, but they also have given me the amazing opportunity to have my illustration work permanently in a Grade 1 listed Art Deco building. 

I mean, how many people can say that?!

Have a browse through the gallery below to see more shots from the installation day. I would love to know what you think so feel free to drop me a message or leave a comment below!

Choosing the path less Notonthehighstreet

If you have been following me on Instagram recently, you may have seen my frustrated InstaStories detailing some strange and rather unacceptable behaviour from that well known online selling platform: Notonthehighstreet. 

Last month I received this email in my inbox:

Ouch. The 'low sales performance' part got me feeling that sweaty nervous feeling you would get at school when you knew you hadn't done the homework and you'd been rumbled. However, let's not forget the little human I birthed into the world - I think it's safe to say my time was more tied up in keeping her alive than worrying about my sales performance.

The 'completing the form' section then switched up my guilt from feeling like a 'seemingly pathetic businesswoman who has poor sales and has been reminded of her failures' to a 'businesswoman who is now being asked to jumped through hoops after being insulted'. 

Why does this fill me with anger?

Because for the past year NOTHS have made it increasingly difficult to be able to just list items to trial on the site. There were specific guidelines and trends to adhere to as well as strict photography rules. Generally, it made the whole process 10x longer to list one print, than, say, to list said print on Etsy and test the waters.

No testing the waters here, you must have said print in perfect listing condition before submitting it to the powers at be. (and don't get me started on the ridiculous reasons why they haven't accepted some of my products. That is another trial in itself...)

So after all this hoop jumping, and then to have received this insulting email, the spoilt brat in me was stamping their feet and wondering why the hell I should invest more of my energy into a company who didn't seem too invested in keeping my business. Business that I give back to them, no matter how meagre my scraps of commission are that they receive. 

I had paid to be with this reputable company, and not only having paid an upfront fee I paid commission on each of those sales. Now, I know what I agreed to when I signed up with notonthehighstreet, and I knew the commission and the fee went back into their advertising campaigns, their support team and the networking events they run. I was totally fine with that because that made sense. 

Service + Product = £££ to pay out

However, what doesn't make sense to me is to treat myself (a paying partner) like I'm a freeloader. I'm not using the site for free, I'm paying to be with them. A customer. I'm not just using up the time of paid hardworking team members and gleaning profit from the sale of my products without paying something back into it. 

Look at it this way, you wouldn't be refused something that you've paid for in a shop simply because suddenly the shop decided that you just couldn't have it, for whatever reason they chose.

Imagine if, God forbid, Netflix told you that even though you're paying to use their services, they've deemed that 10 hours of usage a week is not enough and you can't use the service unless you up your Netflix binging.

Let's pray that will never happen. 

I may have tweeted NOTHS in the heat of the moment, to the in justice of it all, and credit to them they arranged for someone from the company to call me to discuss the matter further. 

And she was about as useful as a hat with the hole in the top. 

So a week passed and then my suspension email arrived: 

I thought I would feel more eager to fill in said questionnaire and restore my shop but I decided no. Why should I keep investing my money in a company who clearly doesn't seem to value my business?

Couple this with an atrocious incident of stealing a personal photo from another partner who had been suspended in order to generate PR and sales, and I decided that I had enough of complaining about them and thought it was time to make a clean break. 

This was the perfect moment to start a new journey and take my business down a new and more personal route: To invest more energy into my own shop and carry on with the most supportive selling platform I've ever used, Etsy.  

The past 3 years have not been lost, and I am grateful to NOTHS for the support and help I received in learning about trends, mood boards, product development and product photography.

I guess some relationships just aren't meant to last, and I wish them all the success in the next steps of their business. Truly. I'm not sure the way they're running their business is the best way to go about it, but I hope they seriously know what they're doing for the sake of the employees who maybe don't know what the experience is like on the other side of the market place; as a partner. 

To all of you reading this who are considering selling with them: Do your research. This is just my own experience, and no doubt there are other partners out there who have had a totally different one.

Negotiate the fees with them. Confront them about experiences you've heard. Gauge what they're going to do for you after you've parted with your very hard earned money. 

To all of you who do sell with them: I hope you can get the most out of your experience with NOTHS. I hope your business can flourish, and I hope you have better luck with them than I did. 

Keep hustlin' guys ✌🏻

National Treasures Food Map Illustration

Grab yourself a copy of this month's Asda's Good Living magazine and you'll be able to see one of my illustrations as a double page spread! 

I had the pleasure of working on this commission from Hearst publishing for a wonderful piece on some of the UK's best food products (I'm all over the Rodda's classic clotted cream) and it's still so exciting to see my work in print, on the shelves nationwide!

This piece has now been added to my Illustration portfolio, which you can browse through here. 

On another note, some of you may have seen from my Instagram and Facebook that I am officially on Maternity leave! I won't be accepting any new commissions for the time being, however my husband, Avnish, will be running my shops & website and  publishing blog posts for me whilst I'm away. If you drop me an email, he will be sure to reply ASAP.