Marketing Design Dispatch
Join 17,000+ creatives receiving insider insights about brand and marketing design – featuring landing page and rebrand breakdowns, useful career content, and a behind-the-scenes look at running a Brand Studio team in tech.
Something I learned about communicating with conviction
Have you ever had a team member reach out to you after a team meeting to compliment you on the way you answered a question? Well, Reader, that happened to me last week! We were in an all-team meeting discussing some changes we're making to the team, including new roles we're hiring for. One team member asked why we were hiring a motion designer full-time onto the Brand Studio team rather than using a contractor. I answered the question, and after the meeting something interesting happened—I...
What if AI could handle all the annoying parts of being an in-house creative team?
How much have you been thinking about AI lately, Reader? I've been thinking a lot about where AI can be most useful in my day-to-day work as Creative Director. I know a lot of people are using it to generate imagery or copy, but I'm much more interested in having AI take over the tedious, friction-filled parts of the job that pulls us away from actual creative thinking. The biggest one? Managing brand requests from around the company. How it works today (and why it's exhausting) Right now,...
What came first: the brand or the deep conversations?
I have a little story to tell you, Reader. Last week I was at Craft + Commerce, Kit's annual conference for creators in Boise, Idaho. With Anne-Laure Le Cunff & her fantastic book, Tiny Experiments With author & coach John Meese at the neon-themed closing party I met so many of our customers there and they're such wonderful people. But what really struck me about our conversations was how we kept skipping right past the surface level after introductions and immediately diving deep –...
Back to my roots (but make it Creative Director)
Hey Reader, Remember how in my last email I mentioned wanting to do things differently this year? Well, I've just uploaded my first YouTube video of 2025, and it marks the start of something new (well, actually old – but we'll get to that). While I was taking that three week break in New Zealand over the holidays, I started to get my spark back for creating content ✨ And it came from realising that there was a gap in the content I personally wanted to see: There's just not a lot of folks in...
Taking the scenic route in 2025 🌿
Well hello there, Reader. I know it's already mid-January, but for me it feels like the new year is just starting – I've been in New Zealand for the past three weeks, spending time with my family totally unplugged from work. Check out the views from one hike we did 😍 Duder Regional Park Anyway, I'm getting a bit of a late start to the whole "new year, new me" thing now that I'm home. I've always loved a new year. Just like I honestly love a Monday – there's this 'fresh start' vibe to it that...
The financial cost of burnout (real numbers) 📉
Well Reader, it's that time of year where I pull together the numbers from my various income streams and share them with you. This is my seventh year of writing an annual income report, but it’s the first time that I’m reporting an overall decrease in income from the previous year. In fact, when it comes to my side business this year I’m reporting the lowest level of revenue since I first started writing these reports. Yikes. What you’ll see in these numbers is the financial cost of burnout....
when it's a marathon, not a sprint... but you still have to move really fast
First of all, thank you to every who responded with such enthusiasm to the lo-fi newsletter I sent last week. ❤️ I really loved hearing your wins. Here's just a few things that Marketing Design Dispatch readers are celebrating recently: Increased confidence in their role Taking the bold step of asking for a promotion Landing a meaningful project Landing a new job Making progress in dealing with anxiety All absolutely worthy of celebration 👏 I loved hearing your stories. Second, you know...
when constraints aren't breeding creativity
I know, I know: you're used to receiving prettier, branded emails from me in your inbox in the form of the Marketing Design Dispatch. (Or maybe you're not exactly used to it, since I've only sent about 4 issues in the past year!) When I realised I was burnt out in October last year, I hit pause on pretty much everything related to my side business, including the newsletter. I truly thought I'd take the rest of the year off and then be ready to go again come January. But then January came...
Behind-the-scenes of burnout recovery
Issue #121 Hi Reader, Long time, no newsletter from me. It's been a few months of ups and downs and I've got some honest updates for you in today's issue: What's been going well, and what hasn't been going well with my burnout recovery Filling you in on a side project venture that TOTALLY flopped Let's just get right into it, shall we? Burnout recovery: What's going well and what's not Back in February I uploaded a video sharing that I was going through a period of burnout and had paused my...
What career goals have you set?
Issue #120 I'm curious, Reader: have you got any career goals you're hoping to achieve this year? In this issue I'm reflecting on setting and achieving career goals, announcing my first ever in-person workshop event, sharing a video about burnout and an interesting behind-the-scenes of a Figma feature release motion graphic. Let's jump in! Setting & achieving career goals I'm in a period of growth right now as I tackle a large new-to-me project at work which is setting me up to achieve one of...
Join 17,000+ creatives receiving insider insights about brand and marketing design – featuring landing page and rebrand breakdowns, useful career content, and a behind-the-scenes look at running a Brand Studio team in tech.