STELLA’S STORY
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I grew up in the North West and fell in love with advertising the moment I saw a bright orange bald bloke with no clothes on run up to someone and slap them round the chops.
I knew I loved ideas, but with no visible pathways into the industry at the time (and no clue that people actually got paid to come up with ideas for brands)… I ended up studying art in sunny Stoke-on-Trent.
It turns out graduating from a Fine Art degree just before a recession didn’t really launch me into the trailblazing career in the creative industry I always dreamed of… who knew!?
I left turps sniffing and dark room disasters behind and started building my creative firepower by dipping my toe in a number of creative careers…
I shot babies and dogs (as a photographer); made a masterful manoeuvre from a temp post room role into the marketing department of an investment firm; dabbled in PR & Marketing for an interior design magazine; and got my first taste of agency life in a role that involved wearing many hats - design, artwork, print management, even account management… you name it, I probably did it.
With a years agency experience under my belt, I moved to London and started to find my groove as a creative artworker at Carphone Warehouse head office. In every role I had, I was coming up with ideas and writing, but it wasn’t until I jumped ship and started working as a designer at a small agency in Shoreditch with some proper 90’s ad folk, that I realised it could be a full time job.
Working closely with the ECD and Design Director I worked on a variety of integrated campaigns and pitches but knew I’d need a better portfolio of ideas to start sidewinding into the industry as a creative...
PRE-PANDEMIC
I leapt into the flexibility of freelance life, and started building
a book of advertising ideas. I won a place with Jolt Academy in 2019, and went on to do placements at GTB, DRUM and Mother London where I was loving life and making work for Ford, McDonalds social, B&Q, KFC and Uber Eats.
PANDEMIC
Remember the pandemic? Well it threw a right ole spanner in my plans, and after a rocky period of freelancing (and worrying if I could afford cheese), I was selected for Creative Comeback in 2020 by the lovely crew at Creative Equals.
TODAY
Fast forward to today and I’ve been gigging as a solo hybrid creative for a few years, working on a wide range of ATL and BTL campaigns for the likes of Currys, KFC, Costa, Co-op and many more.
I’m used to working on pitches, crafting new ideas, writing headlines, decks, and CTA’s… and I’m a total fiend at photoshop, so masterful mock ups and design tasks are a doddle.