Going freelance

Photo credit: AzriSuratmin/iStock / Getty Images

Today I said goodbye to my friends and colleagues at Monotype and started my freelance life. This last four years has been a real education into the world of type and fonts and I've been lucky to learn from some talented people. It was a highlight to visit the archive and the recent exhibition of The Wolpe Collection with Toshi Omagari but my favourite memory will be the time I interviewed Sir Quentin Blake's archivist during a customer research project. I am grateful for all the support, collaboration and friendship from my (ex) colleagues. I am glad to be leaving the Monotype legacy library in their safe hands.

Ten years ago, I was getting ready to go on maternity leave from my in-house research job at the BBC. It's been quite the journey since then. After maternity leave, I was thrown headlong into running Mark Boulton Design and Five Simple Steps with Mark. Little did we know that our team would be acquired and we would have to say goodbye to Five Simple Steps five years later. After four years leading research in-house at Monotype, it's time for me to move on to a new challenge again.

Freelancing is a first for me. I've been self-employed before but never without the support of a team around me. As someone who prefers working in teams, this will be a huge difference! I'm excited however because this means I will get the opportunity to work closely with lots of new teams.

I plan to take a few weeks off to recharge and spend more time outside in the beautiful Welsh countryside that I am lucky to live in. I'm not one to twiddle my thumbs though and I'll also be spending some time writing.

I'll be available from March for freelance design/user research gigs. I'm looking to work with agencies and organisations where I can make a difference. 

If you have any research projects that you'd like to talk to me about, please get in touch.