I'm a self-taught designer.

Here's how that happened.

You know how it goes when you're a kid - your career decisions are based on things like "the teacher who does that subject is a bit weird" rather than anything resembling a life plan.

Graphic design nearly missed me entirely because of a weird tutor and far too much 90s TV. Changing Rooms made interior design look genuinely glamorous, I briefly considered landscape architecture before remembering I live in the UK and hate both rain and cold, and then - finally - A-level work experience happened.

I ended up at a printers with an in-house design studio. The designer gave me a brief and told me to sketch some ideas. Old school, pre-computer, just me and a pencil. I sat and doodled away, and he looked at my sketches and said: "Wow, that's a lot of ideas."

He took some of them to the client. I didn't go - I was only there a week and very much not important enough - but they liked one of my concepts. That feeling? Brilliant. And I was pretty certain after that what I wanted to do.

Then I changed my mind several times, because that's apparently what I do.

I went into interior design - moodboards, layouts, essentially colouring in, which I was delighted about. Then they added a kitchen and bathroom design element and I loved that even more. I worked in that for a while, tried working for myself in my twenties (terrible timing, I knew nothing - possibly know less now, if I'm honest), and somehow social media got added to the mix along the way.

Then I needed a proper grown-up job because my husband and I were trying to buy a house, and houses unfortunately require a reliable income. I applied for what I thought was a secretarial role based on the worst job advert ever written. It turned out to be graphic design. Estate agent brochures, client briefs, Adobe software, and that's where I really learned the craft. How to lay things out. How to use the tools. How to make things look intentional rather than accidental.

What I also discovered was that I was genuinely good at listening. Most of my client contact was over the phone - I had to get a real feel for what people wanted, often from half-formed ideas, and turn it into something that was exactly right. First time. That skill has only grown since.

The limitation was that it was quite samey. Corporate, structured, the same kind of thing on repeat. Since going properly self-employed, I've been able to expand - more illustration, more personality in the work, more flexibility to pull from different styles depending on what a project needs.

And the biggest difference of all? I get to choose who I work with. Turns out I have a real passion for people with wild and wonderful ideas who want a brand that actually looks like them. Who knew the weird tutor, Changing Rooms, and a very badly worded job advert would lead somewhere this good?