&Something More…
Thoughts on the creative industry, its pros and cons, its delights and miseries…
Mention: Taking stock after a challenging year: how creatives plan to move forward in 2026
For many creatives, it's been the year from hell. But now, as 2025 draws to a close, our community shares some hard-won lessons on persistence, authenticity and learning to trust their own pace.
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
Dec 03, 2025
Ways to stay connected
Many designers find that they don’t have the luxury of a local community; yet, online, we can seek each other out, collaborate, and learn.
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September 27, 2025
Don’t work for free (unless you mean it)
Let’s be real – if you’ve ever come across this, where a prospect – or even an agency – has asked you to provide some ‘free’ work under the guise, “We can’t afford to pay you, but a lot of people will see it…”, that, in my view, should set off alarm bells.
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July 19, 2025
AI is no longer just the sound of northern realisation.
It’s becoming increasingly common to see AI-generated design being used by brands over the past year or so, and while this might seem like a bad thing for designers, perhaps we should be thinking of it as an opportunity.
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May 22, 2025
A Balancing Act
One of the biggest challenges can be balancing respect for a client’s vision for a project while taking the lead and using our expertise.
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April 11, 2025
Choose Your Creative Strengths
Don't get caught up in all the influence; think rationally about what you want your businesses to look like.
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Mar 11, 2025
Make A Shift To Find The Right Projects
Choose projects that offer quality over quantity and value over cost. Prioritise working with clients who understand the value of a well-thought-out process.
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Jan 11, 2025
Team Up with Experts
We get so used to wearing all the hats that we forget that it’s perfectly acceptable to take one off sometimes and give it to someone who can do the job better.
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Dec 18, 2024
The pressure of ‘perfect’
‘Done is better than perfect.’ Sheryl Sandberg (former COO of Meta) cited it in her book as a way of expressing the idea of doing something, even if it’s not ideal.
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Oct 26, 2024
Why it’s important to take your clients through your design processes
Collaboration ensures that the final product is not just the designer’s vision but a co-created solution that meets the client’s needs.
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Sept 10, 2024
Things to think on as a design graduate
Starting a career in design can be both exciting and daunting. In truth, even those of us who have been here for a long time find it tough going sometimes.
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June 13, 2024
The Importance of Brand Consistency
Having consistent branding that is instantly recognisable creates trust and confidence.
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May 8, 2024
Career paths: how do you qualify?
Like with everything, everyone learns differently, and I think it’s important to find the right path for you, whether that’s traditional or not.
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April 5, 2024
Not yet niched? How far should you go?
I wonder if we’ve become overly focused on it to the point of blocking out opportunities that more generalist designers enjoy.
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Mar 15, 2024
How to build a great graphic design portfolio that will get you noticed
Our portfolio is (and should be) an ongoing, evolving project that needs time and effort to make it work hard for us.
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Jan 10, 2024
If nobody knows you’re there, they can’t hire you.
On the studio wall, there's a list. The first item on it is 'nobody has heard of us'. We often overlook this point, don't we? But it's possibly the one thing we need to remember to get ourselves to focus again.
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Nov 20, 2023
Feature: How to rekindle your spark after working in design for a long time
When you enter the creative industry, it can be really tough to find your place, fit in, and earn a consistent living. Eventually, though, you find your stride and enter a dream period…
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
Nov 2, 2023
A freelancer vs a studio/agency
Here’s a question: how did you decide whether to run things as a freelancer or a design studio?
This is something I’ve often pondered, and the subject was raised again recently by a friend of mine, where we discussed the pros and cons of both options.
Designers: What’s your pitch?
Not long ago, marketing ‘online’ was still in its infancy. We didn’t really have any of the social networking sites that are abundant now – Facebook was for students, we chatted people up on MSN or spied on people from school on Friends Reunited.
Branding for startups – where to begin
Often an afterthought for new business startups, branding is an essential element that sometimes seems overly complicated – and expensive to implement. But it doesn't have to be that way, and having some idea of branding can help you establish an identity and make all of your marketing so much easier.
Mention: Creatives reveal how they found their best clients
It's all very well offering advice in theory, but how do freelancers and studios actually find their dream clients in practice? We asked the Creative Boom community, and we share their best stories here.
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
March 15, 2023
Mention: Lost your passion? Here's how to fall back in love with your creative work
We all suffer burnout, but you don't have to suffer alone. Ahead of this year's Valentine's Day, leading creatives share their top tips on reigniting your passion for creativity.
Mention: Why clients often undervalue graphic design (and how to persuade them otherwise)
Many clients don't fully appreciate what graphic designers can offer them. Leading practitioners explain why and offer advice on the way forward.
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
Feb 6, 2023
Mention: A fresh look at merchandise: the sector that got a bad name
As real-world events return, does branded merchandise still have a role to play for creative agencies?
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
Jan 30, 2023
Collaboration and Community
If you’ve been reading my content for some time, you might have read my previous posts about my thoughts on the benefits of having a design community and my efforts to put together a local design hub. These subjects have come to mind again recently for several reasons.
Mention: Be at the top of your game: 13 lessons on creative progress from artists and designers
Happy birthday to us! It's Creative Boom's 13th anniversary this weekend, and to celebrate, we're sharing 13 brilliant tips from our community on creative progress.
Written by Tom May, Creative Boom
July 21, 2022
How little or how much?
For most of us right now, the subject of money is at the forefront of our minds. The cost of living, particularly things like food and fuel, has increased dramatically and continues to do so, and I’m sure, like me, this has brought up the subject of how much we earn as designers and whether or not we’re setting it right!
The Studio Name Game
Here's that niggle I mentioned back in April. It might not have escaped your attention that there have been some changes over here. You see, quite some time ago, I decided to move away from my old business name (Severn Agency) and am now working under my new studio name &Something.
Not London? Not here…
Here’s a question – have you ever come across situations where you’ve lost out on a project simply because of your location? Here’s another – does location matter?
Something happened to me recently that I questioned how important location is when searching for work
Are you talking to your clients?
Being a designer, having a regular stream of paying clients is a big deal. Without them, we’re nothing more than hobbyists. But here’s the thing; we have to know how to talk to them to have people hire us. It’s essential that we speak their language and not bamboozle them with our jargon.
Step outside the obvious.
It might be good to head for the hills sometimes…Alice Fraser and Craig Oldham's Outside Directory champions the creative industry across the whole UK.
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January 31, 2022
Is social media worth it for graphic designers?
Social media marketing is a notoriously difficult beast to master, not least for graphic designers. Gone are the days when everyone was on Facebook with no other platforms to entertain, let alone tricky algorithms to worry about.
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December 13, 2021
Rebranding – when should you do it?
There have been a couple of quite significant rebrands in the news recently – you’ve probably seen the arguments going on around the BBC one, and then there’s the one in which the Facebook brand has been encapsulated under the new ‘Meta’ umbrella.
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November 24, 2021
Discussing openness in the industry with an Annual 2021 Silver winner | #AnnualSpotlight
The Annual 2021 winners have been revealed over the summer, with some of the most exciting companies in the history of Creativepool. Who are these amazing professionals and why do they represent the best of the best in the realm of creativity?
Written by Antonino Lupo
Published 25/10/2021
Designers: What are your hopes for 2022?
I have recently been reflecting on the changes I’ve seen happening in the design industry over the past months, and how lockdown has brought about shifts in the way we work, and the habits we’ve formed.
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October 19, 2021
A little industry comparison can be healthy – but don’t get carried away.
Comparison can be healthy, but it can so easily become an all-consuming, paralysing thing that stops us from being our best.
"Should I have done what X did, and would I be as successful as she is?"
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September 9, 2021
Creativepool Annual 2021 Silver Award
Our concept for the Emergency Services Self-Help wellbeing app ‘OPPO’ has been awarded silver in this years Creativepool Annual 2021 competition.
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September 9, 2021
Creativepool Annual 2021 Bronze Award
Our book documenting a day in the life of the Market Hall in Shrewsbury has been awarded bronze in this years Creativepool Annual 2021 competition.
Working with or working for?
I live in a relatively small town – there’s a lot of history here and a large-ish college, meaning there’s a good mix of people and a growing creative community. I think I’ve talked a bit about this before, but where I live, work is a bit odd from a designer’s point of view.
Creativepool: Best Graphic Designers of 2020
We've been included in the Creativepool top 10 of the most exciting and talented graphic designers to keep an eye on in 2021
Written by Antonino Lupo
Published 17/12/2020
Print is definitely not dead
Pre-internet, promotion looked very different. We relied on using print to show off our best work. We used to send out portfolios so that prospects could see our work in print form. It’s all very well having a beautifully designed online portfolio, but you can’t hold it in your hands. You can’t smell the brand-new paper and ink. You can’t touch it.
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November 19, 2020
Feature: Creatives who graduated in the last recession offer their career tips to the class of 2020
Great things come out of hard times. We started Creative Boom during the global recession of 2007-2009 and haven't looked back. Others who suffered during that time have gone on to do great things, too. Started businesses, enjoyed interesting careers, found their passions.
Written by Katy Cowan, Creative Boom
September 9, 2020
Can having a local creative hub help designers get more work?
I’ve spoken before about the lack of creative support in my town – there is little here in the way of events for designers, and that’s something that I’d love to rectify. I think there are a great many benefits in creating a community, or hub, for creatives in my town, but they seem to be reserved for larger towns and cities. It’s important that as an industry, we are able to call on each other for advice, support, and inspiration.
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June 2020
Above: Spectra Kinetic Sculpture by Accept & Proceed
Why side projects can be good for graphic designers
I’ve heard a lot of talk, especially during the current climate, around whether or not graphic designer should consider creating their own side projects. Opinions tend to vary quite widely on the subject – some designers see them as somehow a waste of their time, in that it takes them away from doing paid work, and perhaps sends the message to prospective clients that they’re not so much in demand.
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June 2020
The Benefits of a Design Community
I wanted to talk about a subject that I touched upon in a couple of earlier articles, where I write about why I went back into education to complete my design MA, and then about being a designer working within a smaller community. I’ve been thinking a lot about my own working location, a small-ish market and college town, and how perhaps larger places have a much closer design community.
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January 2020
Self-publishing
There are a lot of industries, the creative ones especially, where it can be difficult to find effective ways to showcase and market our work. And with such an emphasis on mediums such as social media and online portfolios, it can be hard to get ourselves noticed.
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September 2019
Reasons for Graphic Designers to go back into education
I’ve worked as a graphic designer for a long time, graduating from Wrexham Glyndŵr University in 1993 and working in various studios, bringing me to launch my own studio in 2017. You might say that I’ve made it – that there’s nothing else that I need to achieve from here. But you’d be wrong.
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August 29, 2019
Graphic Designer Tony Clarkson tells us about his journey that led him to create his hardback book that promotes his new studio venture
“I’d been pretty restless at the old studio for quite a while but told myself that it would be ok, that things would change and things would…
People of Print: TENYRSLTR BY SEVERN
June 12, 2018
Creative Boom: [&Something] celebrates 10 years of design work 'worth shouting about' with a beautiful book
It happens to the best of us. One minute we’re excitedly launching our own business; the next, we’re stifled by a large client and our creativity is compromised. This is what happened to designer Tony Clarkson of [&Something] when he worked for another agency.
Written by Katy Cowan, Creative Boom
June 8, 2018
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