42 was meant to be the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything according to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
More than ever it’s difficult to know what that ultimate question is. 42 hasn’t quite gone to plan. It’s my 43rd birthday today (26th May) although I’m sure this doesn’t count given everything that’s going on. Surely, I get a free pass and another run at it? This year I’m furloughing my 43rd birthday – it can take a year off.
I made plans in January…
- Contemporary calligraphy course
- Screen printing workshops
- Walking short break
- Spa break in beautiful North Cornwall (and other short breaks)
- I also joined a gym in February
Much of this was put in place to help give some breaks from work and to look after my wellbeing. I’m not great at selfcare and often put it off… ‘yeah that would be nice. I should do that one day.’
Much of it has been cancelled for obvious reasons.
But things go on…
- I’m using my bike to exercise
- I’ve bought some screen-printing gear for home
- I’m enjoying walks that are right on my doorstep
- I’ve got a Spa(r) shop opposite my house (ok this doesn’t match up, but it sells beer!)
- I’m healthy and well at the moment
There’s plenty I miss from ‘normal life’ but there’s more that I am grateful for. Through this time of tragedy and loss we have to dig deep and find something positive to believe in, to feel optimistic about. It might be difficult to see right now but it’s out there and all around us if we look for it. My advice (for what it’s worth) is to notice the little moments that bring joy. Things that maybe you took for granted before.
- The first coffee of the day
- The satellites flying overhead on a clear night
- ‘Zoomies’ on a Friday evening (the ‘pub’ video call after work)
In recent months all of the team at Alive have been putting together ‘meet the team’ blogs around their birthdays. You can read some of them here. I’m lucky to work with such a great bunch of people…
https://www.alivewithideas.com/blog/category/being-alive/
Whilst the above was me going off script (sorry, I can’t help myself) here’s the questions I was asked…
How did you first get into design and communications?
My passion for this started at school. With a massive amount of encouragement and belief from my Mum and Dad I was encouraged to pursue a path that I loved rather than falling into something just to earn a wage. I’ll forever be grateful for this.
I’ve always been drawn to creative activities and as my career has progressed this has expanded because I’ve been able to work with fantastic people with diverse perspectives and skillsets.
Whilst at college I was given an amazing opportunity to gain great experience working with a local agency. Early projects were for the BBC, The Guardian and Penguin Books. Right from day one this taught me that you don’t need to be a big city agency to tackle big projects. This lives on in Alive today. We’ve never punched above our weight because we have always earned the right to work on the projects that we do.
When did you start Alive?
Our journey started in the recession of 2008. Both myself and Alex had kids and mortgages to think about, so we thought… why not make this a little more interesting?
We connected with people, shared our thinking and built momentum. People often say, ‘and we never looked back’. For me that’s not true. I regularly look back to check that we haven’t lost ourselves or what we stand for as things move forward.
Our early projects we’re supporting friends and people we had an affinity with. These tended to be creative individuals that were also starting out on a journey. We helped them shape what their message was and how they presented themselves. We gave our time and energy to their cause.
We have done this consistently over our time and won’t stop. In recent times we offered £20k (for free) to support NHS comms teams. We still have a little bit of that budget left if anyone needs something.
What was your vision for Alive?
To be famous in both hemisphere’s for creative comms.
I wrote this as a joke one day but why the hell not?? I’m not one for making grand statements so it always makes me laugh when I read it.
But on a more grounded level it’s simply to enjoy what we do as much as possible and to be relevant. The comment about being relevant has always been my personal goal. I think in the creative industries in particular this feels like it should be at the heart of what we’re trying to be. From a creative perspective the world is always in a state of flux and we need to echo this by being ready to shift thinking, attitudes and approaches. This was always the case and has been brought into greater focus recently.
What do you most enjoy?
What a question! On a par with, ‘which is your favourite child?’.
The moments that bring me most joy are when someone shares an update on a project or piece of work and it’s brilliantly not what I expected. The challenge being that there’s no formula for that. It’s all about context. The organisation, the client, timing, budget and many other things need to be taken into consideration.
There are so many aspects of our work that I love. The diversity of projects and challenges makes for a rich experience that we all share. I love working with individuals that are passionate about what they are doing – hungry communicators wanting to make an impact and a difference.
What does the future hold?
Who wrote these questions??
That’s a big question right now with everything that is going on in the world. From an Alive perspective I think we need to continue to adapt to the times that we are living in. The challenge is the same – stay relevant.
It’s been said for years that work is a thing you do not a place you go. As we’ve entrenched into our homes this has never been more obvious. We’ve invited people from all over the world to meet our pets and our partners sometimes intentionally but often not. In this moment I feel there’s more opportunity than ever to connect with people from around the world and support them. We’re lucky enough to have connections and clients from Brazil to Brussels and back to Basingstoke (and many other places that don’t start with B).