This Creative Life ~ A Brand Seasons® Paper

Celebrating creativity + seasonality—now available to back on Kickstarter with the Brand Seasons® Playdeck

With the launch of the Brand Seasons® Playdeck, I’m excited to introduce This Creative Life ~ A Brand Seasons® Paper. This mini zine blends articles, essays, and interviews, all centred around embracing creativity and seasonality.

Making a paper in a digital world

As a designer, I’ve longed to create a magazine or newspaper, and the idea for This Creative Life emerged from a desire to make something both expansive and collaborative. The mini zine looks and feels like Substack on a Saturday morning, but analogue—merging all the things I love about this space into a printed package you can savour over your favourite cuppa.

A space for stories that honour artistry, beauty, and creativity, the paper touches on nature and the seasons and how they can guide and move us. There is, of course, some goodness for those who are interested in branding and business. While this mini zine forms part of my Kickstarter campaign to fund the Brand Seasons® Playdeck, it also stands alone as an invitation to explore the rhythms of our creative lives and work. This has always been my intention with this Substack publication.

Over time, my work here has involved sharing others’ words through Notelets on Nurture and, more recently, This Creative Life (which first originated on my blog). My podcast features personal reflections and guest conversations, so collaboration is a central theme of my experience here, and making this paper feels like the next natural step.

Weaving creativity with seasonality

I once read an impactful book called Lift As You Climb by Viv Groskop, and it taught me that if you have the opportunity to raise the voices of others, that is what you must do.

But a recent exchange on social media caused me to pause and think carefully about my intentions for the paper. I found myself shrinking, questioning what I was trying to achieve, and wondering if I was losing sight of the 'why' behind the project. If it is, after all, its own thing, why not keep it that way? Why bring it into the Brand Seasons® ecosystem?

Well, I’m going to be honest: it comes down to ease. As a small business owner, I wear many hats, and launching repeatedly would impact my life and work in an unsustainable way. So it makes perfect sense to me to integrate where possible. This helps me conserve energy and means I can chat about a variety of things during my Kickstarter launch period.

If the Brand Seasons® Playdeck comes from my head, then This Creative Life ~ A Brand Seasons Paper comes from my heart. And I am delighted to have 55 of you (and counting) backing one or both of these paper daydreams.

Everyone who is involved so far is inspired by nature and its rhythms. So we are in good hands.

Finding clarity + plotting a path forward

With that clarity, I’d love to talk about the paper itself—where the idea came from and why I feel compelled to bring it to life.

Back in 2020, I had this idea of creating a kind of offline portfolio. The initial vision was something that showcased my work, a bit about my studio, almost like a marketing tool. But as time passed, something about it shifted. It became less about me and more about others.

The last 18 months of writing here have been filled with collaborative opportunities, and it became clear that this printed publication could reflect that spirit too. Things really started to unfold and feel playful and joyful when I leaned into that vision and accepted that this could be bigger than I initially imagined.

Far from being a platform for me, the paper is a space for others—an opportunity to lift voices, share stories, and connect in meaningful ways. That’s what gives it its true worth.

If you’ve liked my words here on Substack, or indeed the words of those who have contributed to the publication, then you might just enjoy This Creative Life.

Sharing a snapshot of the paper

This Creative Life is a beautifully crafted 64-page mini zine filled with inspiration from a range of artists, designers, makers, photographers, and writers.

You can enjoy:

• Creative insights: articles and essays on living wildly, everyday reverie, and aligning with the seasons.

• Guest interviews: conversations with makers, thinkers and writers about their creative practices.

• Poetry corner: a space for poets to share their words, inspired by the world around us and its rhythms.

• Maker stories: going behind-the-scenes with a florist, a printmaker, a textiles designer, and others.

• And so much more…

The paper will also include a little of my own 20-year journey as a business owner with reflections on balancing motherhood with creativity, and a piece to support the Brand Seasons® Playdeck with an emphasis on simplifying brand strategy, styling and storytelling, and bringing ease into the process.

Ultimately, I want to blend inspiration with practicality, and give you something to hold onto and lean into.

A note on sustainability

As with the Brand Seasons® Playdeck, sustainability is at the heart of this project. Printed by Newspaper Club on bright 80gsm recycled paper, This Creative Life reflects my commitment to creating with care with a 100% post-consumer waste pulp, EU Ecolabel, FSC, and Carbon Balanced certified.

Back the project on Kickstarter

This Creative Life ~ A Brand Seasons® Paper is now available as a reward on Kickstarter.

Whether you’re looking for a creative boost, practical tools, or a more playful approach to branding that honours your own seasons, I’m inviting you to join me and an incredible community of backers.

When the project reaches 50% funded, we open for submissions, and a beautiful quote print will be added for all paper pledges.