Looking back at 2011 – No Grey Creative turns 10

2017 marks 10 years for No Grey Creative. As part of the celebration I’ll be bringing you a series of blog posts with the purpose of sharing my unique business story and also with the hope that you can relate to, learn from and have a laugh at (along with me) my experiences. 
Here’s a look back at 2011…

The year of the expo: There must have been something in the water on 2011 as the majority of my work was creating ideas for clients around their stands for upcoming expos.

Kings Workplace Solutions (KWS) which was run by Stuart King was booked to exhibit at the Melbourne Safety Show and The Sydney Safety Show. I was already Stuart’s graphic designer and when the opportunity came up for me to assist with the expos I jumped at the chance. I did everything from designing all the marketing collateral for the events such as flyers, brochures, posters and a short promo video. I even assisted with booking the stand, flights, accomodation, couriers, bump in and out to working as a rep for his business for the duration of the show. I loved seeing all the work we did come to life at the expos and I genuinely enjoyed every moment working on the project, it was really exciting. I couldn’t believe that I was working for myself and jet setting from Melbourne to Sydney as a part of it.

Another client – Rockin Green – which was run by Christina Chiodo and Emily Gill (fellow Firbank Alumni) were wanting to take their business to the Baby and Toddler Show. They engaged me to come up with a stand design for their alternative nappy wash detergent product. For those of you unfamiliar with Rockin Green I would describe it a grunge, hippie, enviro loving alternative looking brand. It really is quite unique! I was thrilled again to be a part of the design for the expo. I created posters, flyers, sample giveaways and worked together with Christina and Emily to come up with the loud and ‘in your face’ stand design which featured drag worthy green sequinned fabric and a drum kit converted into storage/display for the sample pack giveaways. It certainly stood out against all the pastel, fluffy, ‘sunshine and lollypops’ style stands that were at the Baby and Toddler Show that year.

Moving to Gordon Street in Richmond: My friend Mackenzie and I had been talking about finding a space together for a couple of years. It needed to accomodate:

• a full working photography studio set up for her

• allow me to have substantial space for my business

• a level of professionalism like a meeting room, reception area and a small kitchen

and the two most important factors were that

• we had a car space each

• would be able to bring our dogs into work

After much research into converted warehouses and what seemed like endless inspections we came upon the Gordon Street, Cremorne premises. To cut a very long story very short Mackenzie and her sister Samantha were approved as the new tenants and that was it! Our new studio was now a reality – a 6 year reality.

The next couple of months were interesting and we all learnt a lot. Fitting out the studio was more time consuming than we could have anticipated and many many mistakes were made due to the stress – like painting an entire interior wall dark blue instead of white (yes we were very stressed!). The fit out finally finished and we were ready to move in along with the rest of the crew who would fill the front room of the huge space.

I would never have imagined how special the next 6 years at Gordon Street would be. We met and got to share the space with some pretty amazing people, particularly in the first couple of years. Christmas parties, Friday night drinks, lunches and a great support network of small business owners proved to be a unique environment, which we created! I’ve made some very very special friends from my time at the studio and would be the first to say that it has had a huge impact on both my working and personal life. 

The below pic is of some of my favourite people to ever inhabit Gordon Street Studio xoxox

Something new: 2011 was my first year participating in the Small Business Festival Victoria. After the success of my seminar from 2010 I was eager to take my presentation ‘on the road’ and get into a many places to speak that would let me! My first SBFV experience was a great one and I have participated for many years since.

Some design work from 2011: