Hello Lovely Design and Co

27/01/2025

I’m pleased to share a new look and services for Hello Lovely Design and Co which has a new name, new address and a new website. You’ll find a fledgling recording for a new podcast, the Top Tips are back and there’s a new Creative Journal. And a lead magnet for Gorgeous, the newsletter.

It was long overdue an update as I’ve learned a lot about accessibility this past year. The old logo, branding amd website was excluding people with sight difficulties, including the site owner, me!

It’s 90% there. It’s an absolute myth if anyone says that websites must be 100% perfect. This won’t be so I’ll be checking the site map, links and other small details over the next few days as the site updates in Google etc. I’ve also asked for an independent accessibility report as I’m now too close to it.

What is absolutely true is designers are our worst clients!

www.hellolovely.design

02/01/2025

It feels like a good time of the year to share this tip about Website Copyright Lines. What do they mean? Do you need one, and what should it say?

It’s that time of the year when social media reminds us that we must change our copyright lines on our website. Do you need to do it, and if so should be the current year?

13/12/2024

"Thank you for your help and patience over the past year, I appreciate it."

Empathy is a much underrated but terribly important skill to have in content creation and design. Great designers, I find, tend to keep their clients because they show empathy naturally.

Empathy helps me to understand where our client's clients are coming from. I think about much more than fonts, for example ...
- cultural sensitivities
- inclusiveness in illustrations
- navigation
- accessibility

I'm also thinking about my client. They may have been ...
- let down by other supplier
- not understand a process
- struggle with tech
- have trouble with their intentions and aims, and selecting the best route
- trusting and delegating.

A great example of this was marking up on a PDF. Do you know how to do that? I do, but I had forgotten to put myself in my clients shoes. I solved it by creating a blog post and video. It's been very helpful.

The quote above comes from a client who has worked with me this year and got overwhelmed with what happens and in which order. I went through their questions and we shared our knowledge so they felt supported but at all times with compassion.

I'm just about to start working on the third book with them. But, I still have space and opening up my diary for February if you'd like to take advantage and book in early.

Drop me a DM or comment below and I'll pop a link to my diary.

09/12/2024

Gorgeous is the Hello Lovely newsletter. Read for easy wins to help you design your work. Read about 2025 European laws for accessibility and how it may affect you, my month in fonts and an offer on a free ebook on email marketing!

https://view.flodesk.com/emails/67506afb1b2ba1be1699904c

06/12/2024

Typically me, getting a photo of a Cambridge tradition and signage! I do love a well painted sign plus cake. I cycled down today and met up with dear Sarah whom I’ve known for a long time online but we’ve only briefly met in person once from afar. Came away feeling very fortunate to have such dear friends.

02/12/2024

Good morning, how was your weekend? Each Monday I ask about intentions and share mine, and invite you to join in. Why?

Partly it's accountability. I'm a designer and creative, thus I'm 'person most likely to be distracted by an ampersand, rescue greyhounds on BlueSky, Dr Martens or new gizmo'. Or a podcast which is meant to be a side-hustle but can take over!

Having a list of weekly intentions keeps me on track and away from the shiny things which can go on a list and get scheduled in, if relevant. (Dogs are always relevant and ampersands make me smile).

It's also a bit of 'behind the scenes' and shows what I do. No week or day is the same with my work which I love and a list is useful. And I do return to LinkedIn to check in! It's a real list of real things.

I also like to share what I do for the planet as that's a value for me. I believe it's an action we can share and it might inspire someone else.

So.... this week..

This week for my business I am
- Monday afternoon is my hour of working on my business so I'm writing up the last pieces of the Hello Lovely newsletter.
- sending out a new proposal

For my clients
- sending a second edition book to press today
- I have a call with a client this week to set website milestones

For the planet
- I'm going to Cambridge's Mill Road Winter Fair on Saturday, up the road, to support local businesses.

For myself
- I'm heading up the road to Trinity Street in Cambridge in search of cards and a fringe trim so I'm more Claudia and less Cousin It.

So what about you? What's happening over there?

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20/11/2024

So hugely proud of Thor and Nicki who are at the Poetry Pharmacy today signing copies of the First Aid for Feelings manual which we worked on last year. It's a fantastic guide to help you build a first aid kit for your feelings.

Who’d have thought that when the first recommendation for poetry from the Poetry Pharmacy appeared in the Helpful newsletter, we’d be doing a book signing for the First Aid for Feelings Manual there today, Wednesday, November 20th!

So I want to share my own recommendation which are the Poetry Pills that I got from the Poetry Pharmacy. I got them last year when we were in the midst of the crowdfunding to get the First Aid for Feelings Manual published.

As a social entrepreneur and health activist I’m committed to show up and speak up for what I feel matters most: our own personal agency and ability to read and respond to our feelings whether they are emotions or physical sensation. It’s my firm belief that when we have those skills, everything changes for the better.

It does mean that I’m often at the edge of my comfort zone. This could be learning new skills like technology and practising making meaningful connections with new colleagues, allies and fellow advocates.

This can be scary and overwhelming at times so I love being able to dip into the few lines of poetry in a courage capsule. It helps me find my way back to clarity and purpose. I recommend getting a poetry prescription for your First Aid Kit for Feelings

👉 Do you have any recommendations? It can be any kind of activity 🎶, music 🎵, books 📚, movies 🎬, people 👥, places 🌍, or things 🛍️—anything that helps you feel better and you have in your First Aid Kit for Feelings. Write to us at [email protected]

P.S. Are you in London today? Join Nicki Hayes and I for the booksigning and a cuppa and a cake afterwards 🤗



Image description

A photo showing a pill bottle labeled Poetry Pharmacy - Courage with white and red capsules in front. In the background is a partial image of the front cover of the First Aid for Feelings Manual and a green plant on the left.

A text box reads: Five stars Recommended BY YOU

In the right hand corner is the icon for First Aid for Feelings in white which which is a three-quarters closed circle with a cross in the middle.

11/11/2024

Good morning on this sunny Monday in Cambridge! What are you doing this week for yourself, your business, your clients and the planet.

For myself I'm looking forward to meditation classes, and time with a personal trainer and a wellbeing coach. I also had a lovely chat with my co founders of the Full Stop Community and Podcast in which we reflected, spent time catching up and made plans for 2025.

For my business, I'm sorting out links on my almost completed website and finishing off a few pages, it's going well. I'll be at Rachel Extance Writing Club and popping in events in my diary until the end of the month so I can connect with people and learn about what they're up to.

For my clients I'm working on website updates and sending out a proposal after a discovery call for a new branding project - taking an old logo and refreshing it.

For the planet I'm looking at ethical ISAs and being mindful of how money is used. I've also got to fix some moth holes in a favourite jumper so I'm learning about darning, may need help from my mum!

I have a rare gap in my diary for new clients during November and December. If you'd like to get creative with me and elevate your website, printed material including books and branding with design sparkle, drop me a DM!

05/11/2024

02/11/2024

I'm a magpie for fixing and restoring, it brings me so much joy.

I've lost count of the appliances I've had fixed - washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner - or repaired myself. That's most of my house as it had no floorboards, wood root, timber beetles and no kitchen when we bought it.

This chair was in my late grandparents office. They ran a business and it sat with a roll top wooden desk. The desk held the invoices and accounts. I had no idea what was beneath the stretchy green fabric and metal pins but I had a feeling there was potential.

It was too complex for me. I made a table and a fruit bowl from wood once and I'm a dab hand with sanding and oiling furniture and worktops but this was a bit too much!

It has personal history. A lot of family bottoms have sat on this seat (and staff)!!

I called in the experts and within a few weeks it was returned to me looking unrecognisable. I had no idea it had this beautiful carving. I have several lovely things I've inherited and keep safe for the next generations in my family should they wish to have them. This simple chair makes me smile.

The moral is know when to call in the experts. Whether it's your website, a book cover or marketing material, sometimes you need someone with the knowledge to give a polish and improve on the design so it makes you smile too.

If that's you, then meet me! You can ask for my help. I can provide a report to guide you or hands-on support. Drop me a DM or comment below and let's have a chat.

30/10/2024

Today Cambridge United launched their new logo and brand - again.

Earlier this year they had a first bash and retracted the presentation in the face of negative feedback from their fans. It was interesting to observe this lesson in how not to launch a brand from behind closed doors. It was presented as a ‘job done’ with the question, ‘what do you think?’ Which immediately invites all sorts of complaint and discourse.

The new logo and branding comes with a decent bit of storytelling to show the process from start to finish in terms of engagement via focus groups who represent the stakeholders, a key group are the fans.

There are still naysayers who love the old logo which has been around for a loooong time but there is positive feedback. Mine included.

When logos change it can create upset, what was familiar is lost. When you think of football grounds, the logo is on the building, shirts, hats, scarves, hoardings, old programmes. The Abbey football club dates to 1912, that’s a lot of history and in an area of Cambridge that has the oldest buildings in the city (even older than the University). The Abbey that is referenced at the ground dates to 12th century.

Historic logos present a complication in their use. Old designs that predate Instagram or Tik Tok etc may not stand out on imagery or be adaptive. It may not work on a website or requires a landscape version. The fonts could be in an outdated format or on a limited licence.

The colours - the all important colours, it is the Amber Army - have to stay but if they aren’t accessible then that impedes use and audience engagement, up to 3m people can be excluded by poor visual accessibility.

The sub brands in this extract seem to be in response to past feedback when the first iteration failed. That feels a bit like pandering to the audience and a wobble of confidence but football clubs rely on their fans and engagement, through their main teams and the many community projects. Giving them a brand that connects to the main identity is a nice value add but also keeps control.

I hope they stick with it, be brave and courageous.

Are you a footie fan, what do you think?

Club News New Club Identity Revealed 30th October 2024 Remote Stream Evolving our IdentityOver the past 18 months, we have been on a journey to create and evolve our identity seeking to ensure we protect our history and heritage, whilst developing an identity fit for today’s modern world and repr...

23/10/2024

Why do we need to reconnect Google Drive to Squarespace?

Google added some essential updates over the summer, which means if you use Google Drive to store data from forms or newsletters on your Squarespace site, you'll need to reconnect the integration. You’ll need to do this by today, 23rd October, 2024 to make sure that your website data flows through from Squarespace to Google Drive without interruption.

You don't necessarily need your website manager or designer for your Squarespace site to do this. If you feel you'd like to try it yourself then here's a guide.

Step-by-Step guide

1 Log into Google Drive

Navigate to Google Drive and log in using your Gmail account. I strongly advise on using Google Chrome as your browser. If you’re already logged into Chrome, just type in “drive.google.com” and make sure you’re signed into the correct account.

2 Access your Google Drive Settings

In Google Drive, click on the settings gear icon in the top right corner. Select ‘Settings’ and head to ‘Manage Apps’ on the left-hand side of the screen.

3 Disconnect Squarespace from Google Drive

Scroll down to Squarespace listed under your connected apps. Click on the options next to Squarespace and select ‘Disconnect from Drive’. This will disconnect all your forms, newsletter blocks, and other Squarespace features that were connected to this Google Drive account.

4 Reconnect Squarespace to Google Drive

Head back to your Squarespace website. You'll need to go through each form block or newsletter block that was previously connected to Google Drive and manually reconnect it. I have many websites that I maintain for my clients and for those which use Google Drive where I've had to complete this task, working through the page menu systematically was the easier way to ensure I had each form reconnected.

5 Reconnect each form and don't forget the newsletter block!

Click ‘Edit’ on each page to enter edit mode, then click on the form block you wish to reconnect. Click the pencil icon to edit the form, go to ‘Storage’, and then ‘Additional Storage’. Click ‘Connect’ next to Google Drive and follow the prompts on your screen.

6 Follow Google’s prompts in Squarespace

Google will ask you to confirm which Google account you want to connect. Follow the steps, allowing the necessary permissions. After connecting, name your Google Sheet where the form submissions will be saved so you can easily locate it. If you happen to share the sheet with another user, remember to set up their permissions to view or edit.

7 Repeat for every form and block

Repeat the process for each form or block you need to reconnect to Google Drive. Remember, each time you reconnect, Squarespace will create a new Google Sheet in your Drive. If you want to consolidate this data, you can always copy and paste information from one sheet to another.

Hello Lovely tips

Complete by October 23rd to avoid losing any form or newsletter submissions.
Keep it clear by naming your sheets so you can management (especially important if you sharing sheets with other users).
Check it works by sending a test to each form to ensure the data is being correctly stored.
If you get stuck and you don't have anyone to ask, feel free to drop Berenice at Hello Lovely a message and I can help you to fix this as part of my power hour package along with any health checks or other issues, let's get that site working hard for you.

20/10/2024

Six years ago today I sat in a pub with a double G&T, thanks dad, waiting to graduate.

Why study when you already have years of experience? Does an MA mean anything for your clients?

Like many things in life, it’s a bit more complicated than that. This photo was taken 3 years after I stood at a crossroads in life.

It came after my department was made redundant shortly after IVF failed me for the 6th time. I went freelance (working on the same projects I was made redundant from …). I had this small amount of money.

In one direction was this path. The money wasn’t enough for one more round of IVF despite having one embryo left. An embryo that probably wouldn’t survive the thawing process (a conviction I still have to tell myself, I will always live with that knowledge).

I also had a signpost to an amazing job. I had the interview one hot July day in London. The train was full and I’d already had 4 years of commuting, but it was a good job and I needed one. But the interviewer asked me if I was going to have kids. I was offered the role but that last point was a red flag however good the company.

Or there was the MA. I saw the poster for Anglia Ruskin University at Cambridge station. A friend was studying a different course and recommended it. I applied, was offered a space having felt immediately at home.

Why study? Mostly to find myself and my passion after years of medical intervention, grief, all consuming trying to be a birth mum and realising, unconsciously at that point, that I probably would not be. And to find my vocation again. I wanted to be a designer since I was 12 years old and it’s my passion.

Does it matter to my clients? To some yes, it’s an endorsement but to others the many years of practical experience is relevant. Often it’s both.

To me it matters the most. My merit gave me focus. It gave me confidence as I realised I knew more than I thought and enabled me to write about design and talk about it. It’s not essential to my practice but I learned a lot. How choices in design can impact the story telling and change lives in social design. Bringing hidden stories to life. How to create a font from the handwriting of an Elizabethan cartographer and a dissertation on the work of John Peters.

I also learned about teaching design, organising complex information and hung out with a wide range of people from different cultures, ages and in an environment I hadn’t been in before.

On a day when I’m having a few uncertain thoughts, I look back and feel proud to have stood at the crossroads and navigated.

07/10/2024

What's going on with you this week? What are you doing for yourself, your business, the planet and your clients?

🖌 At Hello Lovely
- recording a how to video for Black Minds Matter for their website
- making corrections to a book
- collaborating with Lisa Kissane on copy/logos
- going to Rachel Extance Workshop today.
- Co-hosting Freelancer Magazine co-working on Wednesday.

🎧 For the Full Stop
- holding a community conversation in our online space on Friday
- Wishing Michael safe travels home to Australia

🌏 For the planet
- I'm researching and designing planet friendly materials for a book launch
- checking out tree planting for our street as we make plans for a pollinator corridor.

😊 For myself ...
Resting, drinking lots of water and eating nutritious food, I'm aware I've been burning a lot of energy and that can affect my mental health and investing in me matters.

How is your week shaping up? I would love to know.

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03/10/2024

I went to Hay on Wye to look at the 30 bookshops and failed to get to each one. The town on the Welsh/English borders is famous for many bookshops, which is a big draw for me. I was curious about the branding and how the booksellers work together, if they do at all. What can Hay on Wye teach us about competition? Quite a lot! I came up with a List of Book Shop Vibes.

In my latest newsletter I explore what this extraordinary town can teach us about branding and collaboration plus ...

Celebrating a new client Steve Morgan and catching up with my first client, author Nicole Louie and a photo from Rosie Parsons Slay Your Selfies, and a link to Ann Hawkins excellent write up on email marketing from Helen Lindop's Drive the Collaborative Network session.

https://view.flodesk.com/emails/66e9b3fdfed14b82a72628d5

17/09/2024

If you have a Squarespace website and you use Google Forms, you'll need to update your connections by 23rd September. Here's a walk-through on how to do that
hellolovely.design/top-tip/squarespace-google

If you have a Squarespace website and you are using Squarespace forms, you'll need to reconnect them pretty fast, the deadline to complete this is 23rd September 2024 . This post explains how to do this in easy steps. Google have made some updates, which means if you use Google Drive to store data

06/09/2024

Canva claims the new AI features are worth 300% price rise. If you're going to be hit on your Teams account with this epic raise, what can you practically do?

- Emails to current customers indicate it is a year before the price rise.

- If you are a CIC or charity, Canva may give you a free account if you meet their criteria.

If you've got yourself and another person on it, then you may want to downgrade to single status. If you decide that's the route for you here are some essentials so the person who is owning the account has all they need:
- full set of branding guidelines
- branding templates set up on Canva
- uploads of all logos and images
- templates for the items required
- it's a good idea to export a clearly labelled set of the images you're currently using as a visual library for you both.

If you don't have these, I urge you to talk to a designer like me, who can set you up and provide a system that works for you. Let's solve it together.

14/08/2024

Out of Office emails, do you have got one switched on?

Mike Berners-Lee in ‘How Bad are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything’ (2020) estimates that worldwide emails could account for as much as 150m tonnes CO2e in 2019, or about 0.3% of the world’s carbon footprint.

This calculation average email usage is equivalent to driving a small petrol car for around 128 miles. It's not much of a footprint in the scheme of things but it is a easy win for anyone to tackle.

When we think about reducing our carbon footprint, small steps make big leaps so you might want to turn that out of office off. It saves one tree using 6 leaves to offset your message.

🏖 But my clients? How will they know?🏖

One of the most helpful documents I've created is my 'Ways of Working'. I wrote it out one Xmas when I was being relentlessly emailed by a client who didn't recognise boundaries. It really affected my mental health, the OOO meant nothing. Then I went to Gerry McGovern's talk on reducing world wide waste and starting to connect the carbon footprint.

My 'Ways of Working' forms part of my client contract and it's sent with every job as well being freely available own my website.

In it, I share
🍃 when to expect a reply
🍃 how schedules are used

I also
🍃 email each client I'm working with to say that I'm not around first and sets up their schedule accordingly
🍃 my CRM, Dubsado, is closed for bookings too.
🍃 I pop the time I'm away in my email signature too.
🍃 I do check my emails mid-week on leave which is *my* choice to do and within my control. I have a prepared piece of text that I can use to remind a client so the reply, if I need to send it, is minimal effort for me.

It's such an easy win, it helps the planet, and it saves on stress. In fact, you can stop reading this and action it right now!

To find my Ways of Working, head to my website, link in bio, and head to the footer.



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