Ken: It’s great to see you again. How have things been with you lately?

Laura: I’ve had a weird 12 months where it started really quiet and it was really quiet before Christmas and then as soon as January hit, I’ve been crazy busy. So I think everyone’s got to the new year and wanted to start thinking about the year ahead.

Today I met up with someone from a web development agency to potentially work together. So he would potentially get me on board to do designs and I would potentially get him a bit of web development work. So, you know, just networking this morning.

And I’ve been doing a property brochure for one of my clients who are based near Bournemouth. They sell property and for each of their properties, they get a bespoke brochure made. So I’ve been working on their bespoke brochure.

Ken: In terms of the level of demand that you’ve seen coming through over the last six months, so pre-Christmas and the first three months of the year, has there been a complete change? And if there has, what do you think might be the reason for that?

Laura: I think people are just happy to spend money now, because of the cost of living crisis, as everyone calls it. Everyone went into panic mode. Everyone was trying to swipe back on spending last year in their business and their personal lives. People weren’t earning as much money.

People’s wages weren’t going as far, and people’s businesses weren’t turning over the same money. So I think people were being more careful with spending, especially on what some people consider luxury items, such as graphic design. So I think now people have upped the prices, upped their income and things are getting back to normal, and people are starting to spend on graphic design again, which is good for me. I know a lot of businesses across the economy are raising their prices.

Ken: What’s your take on yourself and your services? Obviously, you’ve got costs which you need to cover. Are you finding resistance from clients to pay a little bit more? Are they asking you to hold your prices?

Laura: When I first started freelancing full-time two and a half years ago, I started with a set hourly rate, which was what I based everything on, and I was still on that hourly rate until December last year.

And that was when I realised that I needed to increase my rate, for two reasons. Firstly, because I was getting better at what I was doing. I wasn’t new at it anymore, I’d already been doing it for two years, which is not a lot of experience, but it’s enough to warrant a pay rise. And secondly, the cost of living.

My money just wasn’t going as far. All my outgoings had become more expensive, so paying monthly for my email and website had increased. My Adobe subscriptions for my software had also increased. Everything in day-to-day life has gone up. Not only was I not getting that pay rise, but it also wasn’t going as far anymore.

So I increased my rates in January of this year by 11%. I emailed all of my clients to let them know and gave them plenty of notice. And to be honest, no one’s had a problem. No pushback. People are expecting it. I haven’t lost any clients, I haven’t lost any work. In fact, I’ve got more work since January.

Ken: One of the things I wanted to talk about is your own journey as a business owner now. So obviously I know you very well from years ago, and I knew of your plans then and the kind of lifestyle you wanted to live, and your vision about where you wanted to go from being a full-time employee to your own business owner.

So can you go over that vision that you had for yourself and the way it actually happened?

Laura: To be honest, I think I had the goal to work for myself as soon as I finished university. You know when you go onto Facebook and you get Facebook memories? I got a Facebook memory from a post that I’d posted straight after university saying that.

I think I’ve found what I want to do in life. I’m going to work for myself and travel around the world with my laptop. To be honest, I think that has always been in the back of my mind, but that wasn’t the set thing for everyone to do.

Everyone should go and get their junior level job, get a few years experience, then work their way up into another job, and then go into a management job and then work their way up the roles. I did that and it was great, and I got all the experience I needed.

I got so much valuable experience from that. But I think I did start to think back to the 21-year-old me that had those dreams and I thought, how can I make that happen? So I tried to go part-time. In my paid job and then more freelancing on the side. But then obviously lockdown kicked in and that never really happened.

So I got my redundancy payout in lockdown, and then I used that to buy myself a laptop and get myself set up to start freelancing. I can work from anywhere I want now; I’ve been to Malta to visit a friend and we’ve sat at her kitchen table and worked together whilst in Malta.

I’ve been around Europe in my campervan for a month and worked from my campervan, which was not something I ever thought I’d be able to do, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that in an employed role. So yes, I’m definitely managing to craft that life the 21-year-old me joked about.

Ken: So since the lockdown, what parts of the world have you visited while working at the same time?

Laura: It started off as mostly the UK, pretty much as soon as the first lockdown finished. I went up to Scotland for a few weeks in the camper van. I tested it to see what worked and what didn’t.

And I found that getting a mobile signal is a problem and being able to charge a laptop and things like that. So I got all the necessary gadgets that I needed to be able to do that, such as better batteries, signal boosters, and things like that. And then I went back again to Scotland for a month by myself and that worked much better.

So then following that, we planned the month in Europe. We drove through France, Spain, and Portugal, and then back following a similar route. In between there was also a trip to Malta because one of my friends was working out there. I went to stay with her for a few weeks and found I could work out there.

I think it seems like I have a lot of holidays, but I never really have a holiday because I’m always working.

Ken: Do you ever see yourself coming back to full-time employment?

Laura: No. For me personally and the type of person that I am, the pros of working for yourself outweigh the cons so much that I couldn’t give up the flexibility that working for myself brings. And I think as well, from a professional perspective, I get to work with so many different businesses, lots of different people, lots of different clients, lots of different design styles, it doesn’t get too samey.

There’s always something new. Even if you do get a little bored with a project, there’s always something else that you can do. You can swap between different jobs and multitask, which is probably one of the harder parts of the job. But I think once you get that down, the variety of jobs is definitely something that I’ve never had in employment.

Ken: You’ve obviously travelled to a lot of places in the world. Do you pick up design ideas and inspiration from the locations?

Laura: Yes. So one of my favourite things that I like to look out for is car number plates. Not necessarily in Europe, but if you go to America for instance, all the different states have their own number plates with small state logos, all with different designs.

I know it’s an odd thing, but I find it really interesting. And again, if you go anywhere in the world, the types of designs that they do are very different from the designs we do here. For instance, take billboard designs. They are very different abroad and I think it’s that cultural difference that I personally would find it very hard to design for that audience and vice versa.

Ken: So what are branding and corporate identity?

Laura: Branding is the term that I would use as a graphic designer. Brand identity would perhaps cover both perhaps. Everyone is familiar with what a logo is; it’s the little image that represents the brand. For example, there’s the McDonald’s logo; that’s the Big M which sometimes has the word McDonald’s. Sometimes it’s just the Big M. So that is McDonald’s brand. So they have their logo, but the difference between the logo and the brand is that, with a brand, you have set colours that you’ll use, set fonts that you’ll use, and a set brand look across all of the touch-points of your business.

So it means that not only will you have your logo, but you’ll have your matching website, business cards, advertisements, social media graphics, and everything. It looks the same, or everything compliments each other visually, and works together because it’s designed around your logo.

If you’re thinking about the corporate identity, then you may start thinking about your tone of voice, and how you might speak to your customers. Sometimes I’ve come across businesses that like to use slang words in their website copy and social media copy, for example.

So that’s stretching a little bit further than what I do. I just deal with the visual side of corporate identities.

Ken: Do you think branding and corporate identity can really benefit a smaller business?

Laura: Yes, definitely, because your business as a brand is the first thing that a potential customer or client sees before they interact with your website, before they walk into your shop door, or before they pick up your flyer.

They’ll see your brand and they’ll form an opinion on your business within a split second. And if your brand doesn’t enable them to make a positive first impression within that split second, then you’re missing out on an opportunity. You want that first impression to be the right one.

So if for example, you are quite a corporate professional business, that’s the impression you want to give. You don’t want someone to look at you and think, “Oh, it’s just a car team logo, it’s just a joke, they’re not serious, they won’t do what we need them to do”. So you need to be able to convey professionalism, or whatever your key brand personalities are, through how your brand looks straight away. That’s how a good brand works basically – making sure you give the right first impression and making it recognisable if they come across your business again.

Ken: As a small business, you inherently don’t get many touch-points with a customer, compared to a larger brand. So every touch-point has to be consistent, otherwise, it’s difficult to remember you in a buying situation.

Laura: Exactly. And the other thing to bear in mind is that if you’ve got lots of competitors, you’ll be the one that stands out above them all because your branding is strong. So branding can be a really powerful tool; that’s one thing that people remember, you’ll be the brand that people will look at and think, “Oh yeah, they gave me a really good impression the last time I saw them, I think I’ll go and check them out”. So it’s quite strategic really. It’s not just something that is there to look nice.

Ken: Have you seen many bad examples out there? And can you get a sense of what the effect might be for the business? Is it hurting the business if they don’t devote enough time to think about their branding and corporate identity?

Laura:Yes, potentially. I mean, they don’t have to go out and spend money on it either. If they’re going to do it themselves, that’s fine. We all have to start somewhere.

But yes, I have come across bad examples. There was one potential client recently who I’m not going to name, who sent me her logo and when she told me about this logo, it sounded great. And then she sent it; it was a screenshot of a cartoon that she found on Pinterest. I thought to myself, “I can’t use that”. However, she’d already had business cards, flyers, and everything printed with this logo on it, so her brand became this sort of cartoon that was found on the internet somewhere. She didn’t know where it came from.

She certainly didn’t own it. So yeah, that’s probably one of the worst examples that I’ve come across. Even the colours were wrong; she had chosen a red background. So that was not strategic at all because the colour red represents danger in a lot of people’s minds.

Ken: I know small businesses that use Canva to complete their design work, then use it as their main tool. What’s your view on Canva? Is it a good tool? Is it a good tool in certain situations?

Laura: I think I’m going to surprise you here – I think Canva is great. If you are starting, you can use Canva and you can use the free version. It’s got lots of templates. You can upload your own photos and your own images to it. That’s great to get yourself going at the very beginning.

However, everyone has access to those templates, so you might use the same templates as another business down the road. So you don’t get that personalised brand from it. I think it definitely has a place in small businesses when you are starting out. I have actually had some clients request Canva templates that I’ve designed and sent to them on Canva that I’ve designed on Photoshop or Illustrator, and then imported it into so they can then edit themselves and add their own text or photos. So that’s a good middle ground. Sometimes they can’t always afford to come to me every week to design their own social media posts, but they can afford to come to me to provide them with a good bespoke template that isn’t the same as what everyone else has on Canva, but they can still easily edit it on their phones and reuse it like that.

So I think there’s definitely a place for Canva when starting out.

Ken: You mentioned the client picking their own personal favourites, and there’s a danger to that. It’s not necessarily what the customer needs, or what the business needs. Can you talk about what colour psychology is and how it can be used for a design?

Laura: So if I’m designing for a brand, colour psychology is probably one of the first things I think about. And in that very first meeting or phone call with a client discussing what they need, we will talk about colours because it’s so important. Again, you want people to form the right opinion straight away.

Having a colour that someone sees and recognises straight away, you can create an impression on that person immediately just through the colour. So, for example, the colour red. You might use that for a zipline business, or an exciting sport, like a boxing business. Maybe a personal trainer might use red. And then there are other colours, such as if you are a hairdresser or maybe you make dresses for little girls, you might want to use pink. Because that colour immediately gets the message across.

And then there are things that we don’t think about quite so much. Like the colour blue, for example. That’s quite a calming, natural, clean colour. So the NHS logo’s blue, for example, that’s naturally the colour they use. If you come across businesses such as dentists, they quite often use blue.

Blue is a standard colour because again, it gets across that idea of cleanliness and it’s a calm colour as well. So you definitely wouldn’t use red if you are a dentist because that will might potentially make people think. “What are they gonna do to me when I get there?” So colour is really important and also, it’s important to remember that black and white are colours as well and to always make use of white or sometimes black.

I’ve designed brands for people and their main brand colour has been black. Many businesses use black such as Next and Chanel.

Ken: So can you take us through the main stages of that process to get a successful outcome?

Laura: I’ll come up with at least three design concepts for them to choose between. Normally I will put forward one concept that’s exactly what they’ve asked for, to the best of my ability. Then I’ll put forward something similar, but one I think it should be, and then something reasonably different. And it’s normally similar, but what I think it should be, which ends up getting picked.

Obviously, I’ll explain why I’ve designed things a certain way to the client, so then we’ll talk about that. And then they choose which one they want and they get up to three rounds of amendments, and that’s normally more than enough.

And then it’s just a case of getting the brand guidelines document signed off and sent over, including the logo, symbols, brand symbols because people need those for things like icons on their websites or their social media profile pictures, that sort of thing.

It’s normally about a four to five-week process because there’s feedback and amendments.

Ken: How do you find that business? Do they tend to approach you with a preconceived idea of what the final design should look like? Or do you typically get to work with a blank canvas?

Laura: When I first started, I would often get people who already had a rough idea of what they wanted.

And that could’ve been because my price point points were lower. I’m not sure. Now I’m finding people have a bit of an idea like that they’ve thought about it before contacting me, but generally, they’ll say that they’re open to anything else. That’s just what they’ve been thinking. They might send me a link to some Pinterest boards or something like that they’ve been putting together.

And that’s good because it shows they’re thinking about it. But they’re still they’re coming to me to design their brand because it’s what I do. So they recognise that what they’re thinking isn’t necessarily the correct direction.

But they’ll show it to me anyway, which is great because then I’ve got an idea of their expectations and what they like and what they dislike.

Ken: So what are the main benefits that you see for a small business outsourcing their design to a freelancer or an agency versus doing it themselves?

Laura: If you’re going to start designing your own logo or your own brand, maybe you’ll go and use Canva. The problem with Canva logos though is that you don’t actually own the copyright for them. That’s where a lot of people start off now, but you don’t actually own the copyright of anything you design on there.

So that’s one reason why Canva might not work. One of the other main things I would think about is just making sure that you use your time wisely because is it a wise use of your time, as a small business owner, to try and make your own brand or your own logo when you could outsource that to someone else who does it all the time, all day, every day, to do something that will really add value to your business and actually help you grow. You can certainly do it yourself, but consider, is that the right thing to do?

Ken: It is very difficult and time-consuming, isn’t it, to create a really good design.

Laura: For a branding project, sometimes they can take me up to a week. So, sometimes if it’s something quite simple, it might take a day or two, but still, that’s a day or two. And I don’t think that people DIYing their brand will spend a day or two on it. They might spend an hour or two.

And I think that’s one of the downfalls of doing your own brand. No matter how invested in it you are, you just won’t get that result from the time that you put in.

Ken: Is there one piece of advice you can give to small businesses when they’re thinking about brand identity?

Laura: The main thing I’d say is that your brand has to appeal to your clients and customers, not to you.

So you don’t have to like it. If you have a brand that sells stationery to people going to school, you need your brand to work for people like that. It doesn’t have to work for you. So essentially what I mean is, design for your target audience.

Ken: I was reading your blog last week and you wrote something there I found really interesting. It was the idea that graphic designers don’t just draw pretty things, we solve problems. Can you talk a bit more about that?

Laura: I remember going for a job interview years ago, and I might have already told you about this, and one of the interview questions was a trick question. It was asking me what makes good design? Does the design have to look good or does it have to do its job? Essentially, does it sell a product or whatever? And I didn’t know what to say. I was like, well, neither is good. Design does its job in selling a product, or whatever it needs to do.

I’m vice versa. If design does what it’s meant to do and sells your product, then it’s good design. So yes, it made me think of that. It’s not about creating pretty pictures. As designers, we solve problems and achieve certain outcomes through design.

Ken: Sometimes people call marketing the “colouring-in department”. Obviously as a joke, but they think there’s some truth to that. Is that something you’ve experienced, not just working with clients, but in the wider world, that designers just do “pretty things”?

Laura: It’s a nice-to-have. It’s something we just play around with, but it doesn’t have any substance. I enjoy doing what I do and I know people see me sitting at my laptop with nice things on my screen, so I see why people think that. But there’s just so much more to it.

One of the things that I come across now and again is people who aren’t graphic designers come to me and say, “Oh, this shouldn’t take you long. It’s only a 10-minute job”. And I’m, “No, that’s going to take me a full day”. Even if I do it quickly, I can’t do it that quickly.

Recently I had someone ask, “Oh, can you turn this website around for me in seven days?” Unfortunately, no I can’t. But if I can show people that it is a lot more time-consuming and involved than just “colouring-in things” then that’s good because it is a nice job to do.

Ken: You mentioned websites. I’m just thinking about your own website. I know you are quite a big fan of Wix. Can you tell me why you like Wix and what you’ve done with it?

Laura: I’m not a web developer and I’m not trying to be, and that’s not where I want to be, and that’s not where my skills are.

Again, I can solve problems through design, and that transfers really well to drag-and-drop website-building platforms like Wix or Squarespace. These days, I tend to stick with Wix because again, I’m not a web developer and Wix does so much for you.

Now, anyone can log into Wix and create their own website. It just won’t necessarily look good. And it won’t necessarily convert clients or customers to make sales. Or people might get to the website and get the wrong impression because you’ve used the wrong colours and again, maybe your brand’s not working, and not looking great on the website. So that’s where I come in. I try to fill in that middle ground where people might normally DIY their own website but want it to look good.

Ken: A lot of small businesses use Facebook and Instagram. Are there any tips you’d give anybody?

Laura: I think the main thing to think about is where your clients or customers are. So are they on Instagram, or are they on Facebook? Or maybe they’re on Twitter? Or maybe they’re on LinkedIn?

So perhaps you’re a business that’s providing something for people who are retired, for example, you may want to focus more on Facebook because that’s where that demographic hangout on the internet. Whereas if you are a teeth whitening company for example, you may want to focus more on Instagram because people that want their teeth whitened might be younger people interested in the Instagram culture, and that’s where they’ll be hanging out on the internet.

So I think that’s the main thing to think about. Don’t waste your time marketing where your clients and customers aren’t. Think about your target audience. What do they respond to from a design point of view? But also, where do they hang out online, or where do they consume media? That’s the way you should approach everything in business. Go to where your target audience is. Speak to your target audience. Design for your target audience. Because if you don’t do that, they’re not going to respond, they’re not going be interested.

Ken: I think your first book was published in August of last year. Can you tell us about the book and how that project came about?

Laura: It’s really weird to see my name on the book. One of my design clients is a publisher, Northern Eye, who has published this book. So for years, I would help out with their graphic design, designing their books.

I do some of their social media as well, and I did a rebrand for them actually. And after doing lots of graphic design work for them and really getting to know Carl and Tony, they asked me if I would be interested in writing a book for them. One of their wholesalers had said that there’s a real market for books in South Wales and in the Brecon Beacons, and they didn’t have one for that area. So they got in touch with me to see if I was interested and I wasn’t sure at first just because it was not something I’d ever done before and I was quite scared and I didn’t know how to approach it. I said yes, absolutely, but then afterwards I thought, “How am I going to do this? I have no idea”. So it was quite a long process. It took me about two and a half years or so because we kept having lockdowns in-between where you couldn’t travel. There was one lockdown where we could travel within Wales, so I could go down to the Brecon Beacons.

It was quite a long process taking photographs for the walks and researching pubs for the walks because it is “Top 10 walks in the Brecon Beacons”, which basically does what it says on the tin. So it was good because I enjoy walking. It wasn’t an area that I spent a lot of time in before, so I got to explore somewhere new and go walking and have little trips down there.

I really, really enjoyed it. I’m just waiting to be asked to do another one now.

Ken: I think we’re nearly up on time. I just wanted to ask how can people get in touch with you in terms of social media, website, etc.

Laura: Probably the easiest place to find me is on my website at www.laurahodgkinson.com or my Instagram, which is Laura Hodgkinson Creative.

My website has all the details on the branding and design services that I offer.

Ken: Thanks Laura.

Laura: Thank you, I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s nice to be asked so many questions about what I like to talk about normally.

Ken: We’ll do part two.

Laura: Yes definitely.