Since I was small girl I have had an appreciation of aesthetics, and always loved to paint and draw. I never doubted I would go to Art College and progress to illustrating children’s book.  However, my ambitions were brought up short when a tactful college lecturer proclaimed, “only an exceptional talent would forge a career in illustration, and I was not one of those exceptions….!” So quickly I had to return to the drawing board – literally. Spurned by college, I decided to look for a temporary job and through a family friend discovered graphic design. My first 6 months at the small, Worcester based, design studio was spent dividing my days between making tea, processing plate negatives in the darkroom room, and waxing hundreds of sheets of typesetting, in readiness for the super cool designers to apply to their carefully considered page layouts. Despite the lack of opportunity to exhibit my creativity, I was not deterred, and eventually I progressed to working on Kays catalogue pages (retro reference for all those over 40 years of age), and designing stationery for small businesses. I was in my element, so I stayed in the industry and aimed to gain as much experience in every graphic application I could.