fresh new season

In line with Chinese Philosophy I have been very busy during the creative season of Spring.  Spring is seen as the season of ‘Wood’ in China and possesses qualities of renewal, growth, creation, moving forward and vision to the future.  It is without doubt my favourite season and I relish the new outlook it brings.  By the end of February I am well and truly over the whole winter ‘thing’.

My old Logo

This Spring has brought a new flush of creativity as after seven years in practice I decided to have a makeover.  Not me, my logo.  Plus, my website was ageing (aren’t we all!) and needed some serious cyber-technical-wizardry to bring it up to speed. So, it’s goodbye little black stones and hello ‘Five Element Lotus Petal Icon’ (or Felpi for short!). I decided to embrace the world of social media and advertise for a graphic designer on www.peopleperhour.com.  I’d never used this site before and thought it worth a shot, rather than ringing around designers in the area.  After uploading the job onto the site and then heading off to bed I was pretty freaked out to sign on to over fifty proposals from as far a field as Pakistan, Iran and the United Arab Emirates!  This I had not expected.  I spent most of the morning sifting through all the talented people who had responded and plumped for a designer in an exotic and foreign land over the Pennines, Manchester!  We had a brief conversation over the phone, where I pretty much told him what I didn’t want (helpful) and he set to work creating me a new look.  I think ‘Felpi’ looks great and hope you like it too.

Next, the website needed an overhaul. That decision was simple and I texted my mate Emma Heptonstall in Vietnam. Thankfully she was only there on holiday so we arranged a meet up for when she got back and she told me what I wanted! I love Emmas’ no nonsense approach and within a week the fledgling site was built. She even coaxed me into using orange! Not a colour I would have thought about, but I think it looks brilliant. Thank you Emma, you’ve made a potentially intimidating process an absolute breeze.

I suppose at some point in this blog entry I need to ‘nutshell’ some kind of message and here it is:

It ‘feels good’ to refresh and renew aspects of your life.  Moving forward is important. At the same time it ‘feels good’ to draw on the people and things in your life that enrich and support it.  They bring different perspectives and help you learn and grow. This Spring has been a great example of this for me. How has it been for you?  Think about what makes you ‘feel good’.

Oh and by the way ‘Feel Good’ is my new little strap-line for my practice as I am pensioning off ‘Relax, Heal, Enjoy’.

Hello brave new world!

A

Meet ‘Felpi’