How would you describe what you do?
First and foremost, I would say I’m a graphic designer and a trans, queer and neurodivergent activist. Then, in February 2024, I launched Studio Arlo where I am the founder, creative director, designer and more. I basically do all the roles because I’m a team of one!

You’re also a director for Trans Pride Manchester. What does this role involve?
It came about after I moved from Devon to Manchester and saw there wasn’t a trans pride that was at grassroots level and a protest. It involves a mixture of dealing with local authorities for road closures and the correct permissions, through to organising panellists, speakers, photographers and a whole lot more. What makes this really special is working with the wonderful trans community in and around Manchester.

What’s been your favourite project to work on from the past year, and why?
There’s two, for very different reasons. Firstly, working on the partnership between Love Writing Co. and Paddington Bear, for the sole reason I could say “Paddington Bear is kinda my boss now!” One of my autistic special interests is Paddington Bear, and he was paw-some to work with (not even sorry). Little Arlo wouldn’t believe big Arlo if they’d told them it would happen!

Secondly, working with Transpire Talent, the UK's first and only trans-led recruitment agency. I got to build the brand identity with the founders and I truly believe in the service and why it’s so important to have. I wish I had this platform when I was looking for employment.

What was your journey like when you were first starting out?
After graduating university in 2019, I managed to bag one of the three to five design jobs in Devon! Then COVID hit and I was made redundant. Since then, I have had a number of jobs where I was at risk of redundancy multiple times, experienced transphobia and just didn’t feel valued or accepted when bringing my whole self to work. Starting out in the design industry has been turbulent to say the least.

What pushed you to take the plunge and leave your full-time employment to go solo with Studio Arlo?
In all honesty, I think it’s because I didn’t feel welcome in any job or space as a neurodivergent, queer and trans individual. Things started to ramp up with friends, family and other connections asking if I could do a little bit of work for them, and then I was recommended to others on LinkedIn and went semi-viral for sharing my hot take “Why the phrase women and non binary people isn’t actually inclusive”. Since February, I’ve been making more than 1.5 times my salary month on month and I thought “let’s just give it a go!”

How did you go about landing your first few clients at Studio Arlo?
All of my clients so far have been entirely through referrals and word of mouth, I’m yet to do any outreach (which is crazy!). I’m fully booked until October. I calculated that 83% of my clients are from a marginalised background or identity and 17 of 23 are queer, trans and/or neurodivergent. I think this is because folks see me being vocal and open online, so they can bring their whole selves to me as a client.

What has been your biggest challenge along the way?
Myself, my own self-worth, my confidence, and the belief that I am good at what I do. It wasn’t until I won a D&AD New Blood Award in 2018 and met Chloe Templeman (who was the CD at Design Bridge at the time) and she said to me “I love your style, don’t ever change” and my autistic brain took that as gospel and stood by my decisions from then on. I think coming out at trans in 2020 really helped me take less things to heart. I was finally able to be my full self and I realised that someone else’s prejudice isn’t a reflection of my worth.

How important are social media and self-promotion to your work and what you want to achieve with Studio Arlo?
Without self-promoting and being unapologetically myself, those clients wouldn’t have known about me or reached out. An important ethos with Studio Arlo is to do great work with great people doing great things, and encouraging my clients to be authentically themselves too.

My advice is to, yes, use social media as a self-promotion tool, but also use it to share your USP. My USP (unique selling point) is being trans, queer and neurodivergent. This isn't describing the style of work or type of people I want to work with, but it is what sets me apart from other designers on the internet and it's what people come to me for.

What inspires the creative work you do?
It's actually more what doesn’t inspire me. There are two reasons for why I work the way I do. First, if I take an ‘anti-inspiration’ approach, I can see what didn’t work and what I would do better or tweak.

Second, if we are all looking at the same inspiration, we run into the risk of all designers following what’s ‘trendy’ at the time. All we need to do is look at all the luxury brands going minimalist and into a Helvetica style era, called the Helvetica Syndrome.

What have been your greatest learnings with making money and supporting yourself as a creative?
Ironically, my greatest learning is to not focus on the money or aim to make £10k every month. I do what I do because I love it, not because I want to be a millionaire.

When I took the pressure off myself to make “lots of money” because that’s what society has you believe as a freelancer, I started to succeed more.

The advice I’d give to people considering taking the freelance leap is:

• Talk to other creatives about rates, to make sure you’re not under or over charging
• Take on more, smaller or potentially less quality clients at the start, to get out of the cycle of “no one will give you experience without experience.”
• Try part-time freelancing while in a full or part-time job to build a bank of clients with the security of a salary

As a creative who seems to have lots of projects on the go, do you have advice about juggling multiple jobs?
The real advice is to know your limits and what you’re capable of doing before it turns into burnout or affects your mental health. I’m also an old-fashioned pen and paper to-do-lister, I have one every day (even on weekends).

I use Notion and purchased this template to see me through. It allows me to share work with clients live, but also see my finances, client list and more! I also love calendar-blocking my days. The more I’ve gotten into Studio Arlo, the better I am at gauging how long things will and should take me. It also really helps my autistic brain.

Why is it important to you to be transparent about salary and salary expectations?
First of all, I think transparency is important in aspects of life, honesty is such a huge thing for me personally. I've been in many roles (especially when I was a junior designer), where people weren't transparent, and I found out that peers with the same level of experience were being paid more than me.

Being open about your salary benefits everyone, not just you. It means that workplaces can't exploit the secrecy of salaries and pay people less or more, with no reason to do so. I actually left a job because they were paying me a salary of £20k, then hired someone in the same role at £24k. When I raised it they "promised" to match me, but never did.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into a similar role or industry to you?
If you’re thinking of going freelance, do it. It was the best thing I ever did for my mental health and work-life balance.

In a similar role or industry, keep at it and have confidence in your abilities. If you’re 'not like anyone else' and that’s getting you bad grades, that’s completely normal, and it happened to me. Keep being courageous, and also keep being you! You are so valuable and people care about what you have to say and your skills.

Also, send emails asking to shadow someone at an agency or a founder for a day, or ask for a coffee or virtual meet up to chat about the future and experiences.