Sophie Nicholls

ABOUT THE CLIENT

Sophie Nicholls is the author of three bestselling novels and has been teaching creative writing and working with people using writing as creative exploration for over twenty-five years. She lives on the edge of the moors in beautiful North Yorkshire in the North East of the UK and teaches on the Creative Writing faculty at Teesside University. Sophie believes in the power of writing for wellbeing as a grounding, nurturing, and healing practice to make you feel better. Through her membership “Write! Club and in retreats, Sophie has a unique approach which integrates somatic (body-based) work, mindfulness, and visual art to help both beginners and experienced writers let go of their own or others’ expectations about what they ‘should’ or ‘ought’ to be writing and discover what their bodies are telling them, what needs to be heard or witnesses and what stories are calling them.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

When Sophie first approached me, she felt embarrassed by her homemade website. Over the years, she had spent hours making different websites and then abandoning them because they didn’t feel like the right fit. She knew she wanted something more professional, but also that she needed to work with someone who could disentangle the many different threads of the work (professor, researcher and the holistic modalities she brings into her teaching).

Sophie wanted to create a calming, warm, earthy, rustic, cozy feel that aligned with her message of writing for wellbeing. At the same time, Sophie’s message also speaks to the idea that your creative practice is your resistance, so we wanted a rebellious, fun, bold pop infused. She wanted a hand-made feel and nothing too polished. Lots of delicious texture. In her personal work, she often creates these art pieces where her writing spirals around and creates collages and watercolour work. We wanted all those aspects infused into the brand so it feels truly authentic to her. So I created beautiful, earthy watercolour textures, we utilised watercolour paper backgrounds and other collage/scrapbooking style elements as well as nature elements and Sophie’s own hand-written spiraling art.