I’m not interested in talking about sales, funnels, and launches without also talking about the experiences in life that *make you feel something*. The kind that create a response in your soul, that move you to make and to create things that make the world a more interesting, more beautiful place. I’m talking about reclaiming the depth in your design.

Some (many) of you know me as the packaging design course. In many ways, I still am (it’s launching again soon, by the way, rebranded, repositioned, reimagined 🐚. But earlier this year, I realised I wanted (no, needed) more depth in design. The reason I became a brand and packaging designer in the first place was thanks to my mentor, Natalie, during my master’s degree. She taught us that the only way to make meaningful work was to respond to the world’s real problems.

Products have the ability and the privilege to make change.

On a micro level, they help people feel good, eat well, and stay connected. On a grander scale, they can change supply chains, educate, and spark conversations that shift culture. This is what I’ve always cared about most. Along the way, that reality got diluted. I worked in agencies where great work happened, but… did we really *feel* it?

Then, in 2018, I became a freelancer and lived every day as a whimsical AF, free-range human. And then I scaled that shit, fast, hiring team and booking high price projects. I made a course that’s now taught around 500 designers this untapped skill – not because I had a big ambition to be a course creator, but because folks were literally asking me how I do it.

Around 2022-2023 – the online design world got quicker and dirtier. where day rates were heroed and efficiency worshipped. in a shift to make design cheaper – let’s call a spade a spade – and more profitable, depth, meaning and true creation was cut. Meanwhile, inside Pitch Please, I was out there promoting a high ticket, white glove, high touch, patient and steady conversion system. But that didn’t sound sexy, in the online space where fast and empty was celebrated. so I paused Pitch Please as a standalone programme – it’s not for the masses. (it now lives inside GOLD.)

Reader, this is where I lost faith in the industry.

Someone (a good internet friend) recently asked me when my desires in business changed – looking back – it was here. I’m not about fast and cheap. I don’t jive with the word slow either. More so; steady; deep; considered, patient, treasured. quality.

I work my ideas like they’re precious gems waiting to shine at the right time. I incubate and let things stir, not out of procrastination “or not being ready” but out of reverence for quality. trusting that the less I push, the better it gets. Like a chef who knows flavour takes time. (cooking isn’t my strongest skill so I have no business with this metaphor)

[if this resonates with you, send me a DM to let me know]

I lost the passion – not for the craft itself, but for the *conversations around it*. So this year, I launched GOLD — a group mentorship and mastermind for creative innovators, who were lured into the hustle vibes of 2022, scaled fast, girlbossed a little hard and now want to scale, in a way that works with their body, but without confusing it for “slow living.” the waitlist for the 2026 opening is here btw! changemakers need only tap in.

My content started shifting too, towards the ideas that matter most to me (of which there are many). My business today isn’t the sexy, soulless agency I once imagined I’d build, but an *anti-agency* let’s call it. One that values projects with depth, and group experiences that have something real to say. I’m interested in how we can build the next legacy of innovative ideators. I’m interested in projects that help women work *with* their energy instead of the clock; in conversations that challenge the systems we’re told to operate in; in brands that drive *impact*, not just aesthetics; and in living a life where play and creation always takes priority.

And so, in this post, it’s all on the table. Call it my manifesto.

I may always be “the packaging girl” to some of you.. but with this frame around it; I’ll take it.

The Inspiration

You may or may not know, I’m on a personal mission to reclaim the whimsy in both life and business and this also looks like working in the field, free-range, without my laptop. (see my latest fieldwork post, here.) This portion of Felt That will always share a piece of content, a project, or article for your inspiration.

Starting with this visual essay on the return to printed mediums as a rebellion against an entirely digital world. Sam speaks to the return of coffee table books and collectible magazines; a return to tactile and physical for luxury fashion brands. And how IKEA is adding little games to their direct mail – a clear reclamation of whimsy and IRL engagement. (btw, the other reason, I always loved packaging; because it’s real and felt. 👀) Watch the reel, here.

The Activity

Journal prompt: Be The Creative Director of Your Life

• If your life were a coffee table book, what would you want the following week to look like?
• What feelings, colours, and moments do you want to fill it?
• What would you remove to make space for more play, and/or space?
• What’s one tangible thing you could print, touch, or create this week to feel it, literally?

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