22: The secret weapon for any business - a Graphic Designer!
Today we're joined by graphic designer Elise from Elise Lola Designs. We dive deep into her journey and have a solid chat about the elephant in the room - Canva and its impact on professional design (spoiler alert: it's complicated!). Between fits of laughter and some classic FAFO tangents, Elise drops some gold about keeping your brand consistent and why sometimes you need to invest in the pros. There's plenty of real talk about what it's actually like running a design business, including the stuff that makes you want to bang your head against a wall. Fair warning: this episode contains strong opinions about font choices and Chris's questionable attempt at DIY logo design.
Number of fucks given in this episode: 38 (New record!)
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Emily: Welcome to the fuck around and find out podcast where your hosts, Emily. Rah and Christine. We're three women who have built and run our own businesses and are here to shoot the shit on everything about women in business and running your own business. I have cameras in my faces everyone. That's why I'm giggling.
We're doing it for the gram. For the gram. Um, we are here at once again, the Bella Vista hotel. Thank you, Bella. Um, and we are really kind of in all kinds of moods today. So this is going to be a funny one. Um, Christine, yes. Give us a fun fact about yourself. Cause we're all, everyone's tired of hearing about what we do.
I think everyone knows by now. Um, well, it's very,
Christine: very true. I like train travel. Um, and so when I [00:01:00] go, um, somewhere I'm, I'm not talking about taking the metro, the central kind of thing. I've been watching those on
Elise: TikTok. Yeah,
Christine: no, no. I'm talking about, um, you know, the Garnies on my bucket list. Did you watch the
Elise: Garn special on?
Yes, I did.
Christine: Um, and nerd work, and I want to do, uh, some of the train travels in Switzerland. Um, I did the trans alpine, um, train trip in January, um, from grout to Christchurch. It was a lovely, uh, five hour train journey with. food and beverages and white linen. So I'm talking that kind of train travel. So I can't Sorry, I just banged my beer mug.
Elise: So good. Putting it in the way of my selfie. So rude.
Christine: So rude. I might cut that out. She hasn't had that many. So yes, Yes, train trips in style, absolutely. There's [00:02:00] another couple in New Zealand I think I'll need to knock off. New Zealand? New Zealand. Um, I could just do it in a weekend really. It's close enough.
Well it is. But then I'd have to go and see other things because I like sightseeing. Anyway, that's me. I like a touristy sightseeing train trip. Nice. Yeah. Nice. What about you, Ra?
Elise: So, fun fact about me, I grew up in a drive in. Yo! Have I told you guys about that? Oh my god, you have not! So my dad was a projectionist, and used to run film.
Like a drive
Emily: in.
Elise: Like where you would drive and watch the, and you'd sit in the car, sit in the car and watch the movies grew. Awesome. There's still one at Blacktown. Yeah,
Emily: yeah, yeah. Right. And I
Elise: say I grew up in one, in that. My family was running one when I was growing up. That is just awesome. That is really cool.
So dad was a projectionist and then like he used to do the cinemas in Sydney, like he used to do the, what's the Muslim one? Yes. No, no, no actual proper sins. Oh, the Orum. Oh, like the ha used to Hayden Orpheum. Oh. It's
Christine: like my.
Emily: I used [00:03:00] to go to school down the street from that.
Elise: Yeah, I actually inserted my husband, which is all very strange sort of parts of family things.
Emily: He went to a school similar to mine, didn't he?
Elise: Yes. So when I was born in the late seventies, hashtag genre age, my family, um, we're running the local drive in in Grafton in Northern New South Wales. My family's from Grafton. Fuck off! No! Okay, we need to come back to that. Hello, hello, there's Elise. We've got our lovely guests, Elise.
Chime in whenever. My parents ran the drive in, so mum was in charge of front of house. So she would do the ticketing and help. And my sisters, who were a bit older than me, would help make the choc tops and dip them in the chocolate. thing and make the donuts and run the till and there's me as a little, yeah, little up to 86.
So I would have been eight when we stopped with that. Yeah. I just got to walk around and watch dad change the film spools over, wait for the cigarette burns. Yes. switch [00:04:00] over between the spools and that would have been very incredibly fascinating. Would lock myself in the cool room and see how long I could hang out in there.
Of course you did. And then famously, I used to, um, I went through a phase where I thought I understood what the middle finger was, but it was, I thought it was the ring finger. And so I would sit out the front on the plastic stools or chairs outside the front. Of the main building where people go in and buy their chop chops and donuts and whatnot.
Christine: Yes.
Elise: And I would sit there and I would go Give, give them the ring finger . And then one of the customers at one point, it's small town, everyone knew each other. And I was like, oh yeah, that's Bob Kane. Yeah. He runs the drive in. Like dad would hand out freebies to everyone at the supermarket when we're out.
He'd write up little slips and hand them out. Oh my God. And um, and then, yeah. So they always knew, oh, that's Bob Kane's little turd of a daughter. Yeah. and Becky
Christine: giving you the rings.
Elise: Exactly. And then, so then, so. told mum or dad or somebody [00:05:00] and, um, yeah, so then he had a talking to me and he's like, what, what are you doing to those customers?
And I showed him that I was giving the middle finger and he went, and trust me, this is not a man who laughed easily. I would have had a clip around the ears. If he had anything. You don't have to deal with it. But yeah, once he tweaked that it really wasn't the middle finger and that it really was just clueless little kid in kindy.
That's right. You were kind of like, yeah. Figuring that it moved past. Oh
Emily: my gosh. Scarily, my actual kids in kindy, just over, man, they know what this was. They know that. Yeah. So I did not know what that was. And he'll even tell you, if you face it the other way, you're giving it to yourself. Oh wow. And it's like, okay dude.
So
Elise: fuck me.
Emily: Yeah.
Elise: Yeah.
Emily: I'm trying to go,
Elise: like,
Emily: play that, you know, you're turning it around and then, like, This is going to go
Elise: really well in the audio format, but Adam Hill's famously, he had a, uh, bit in one of his stand ups for a while about how you say fuck you and fuck everybody, and it's like when you're doing the airplane instructions, the exits are [00:06:00] ahead and the exits are to the side, but if you do it with the middle finger, it's fuck you and fuck everyone, and that's clever, and because He had shared this information in one of his standups and then someone who was an air hostess started using it.
I love that. Yeah. Or air host. That's fabulous. Whatever the male version air hostee, whatever.
Christine: Flat attendant. Thank you. That's much better. Sorry. Trying so hard to not I know, but sometimes, sometimes, you know, the past creeps into terminology. So, Em, come on, come on, give us a freaky weird fact, fun fact.
Emily: Well, you made me think just talking about you being little.
So my mother was a physiotherapist for most of my childhood. She had her own physiotherapy practice that was near the public school that we went to, so we'd just walk, it was like a block away, so we'd just walk there of an afternoon and whatever, but I was the biggest hypochondriac to the child. Like I would constantly find like the tubey grip That you put on, like, to help on, like, an arm or a leg or a [00:07:00] wrist, like, that chibi stuff.
And I'd kind of, I'd constantly be there, like, hacking away at it. And just putting it on my legs. And then the amount of times she'd have to go to school sick. I would, I'd figure it out quite quickly. I could go in and say, That I had a headache or a tummy ache or something, and they just let me lie down for a while.
Yeah. Right. I was just like, sweet. I don't wanna, I don't wanna, we're not gonna call Mrs. Back here. And so, yeah, they would, they clued onto me and then they like had indicators to tell when I was actually sick or not. Yeah, right. And some days mom would not follow fighting with me and she'd be like, Mel, wanna go to shops?
Yeah. Like, okay. Okay. . So I was the biggest hypochondriac as a child. Um, always wishing there was something wrong with me and the hilarious parties now as a 30. Now there's so much wrong with you. Fuck man. I don't want anything wrong with me. I just want to be normal. Yeah. Uh, we were laughing at the PT the other day because, um, she's like, now tell me about your injuries.
I was like, well, here's this, here's that, here's the least. My pussy and [00:08:00] my crack, no, my crack. Well, she did tell us to clench up our diners, so we never want to work out what the fuck that meant, but alright. Um, yeah, I was the biggest hyperchondriac as a child, and hilariously I actually am, was hyper, I'm pretty hypermobile, less so now as an adult, but definitely during my sporting days, because I played so much sports, so I actually did get injured a lot, and mum would then be like, I don't believe you.
I'd be like, no, I'm actually like f ed. And then cause she's a physio, she'd never treat me herself. She'd take me to other people. Yep. All the time. Yeah, right. And then I'd go to another physiotherapist and he's like, yeah, her knees are kind of f ed. And mum would be like, oh, whoops. So the analogy of the plumber always has leaky taps at home.
It's like the boys kids always. Yep. The wolf is there but she didn't believe me. That's probably my uh, crazy ass fact for the day. But that leads me to Thank you. Speaking of crazy asses. Wait, sorry Elyse. Gorgeously beautiful asses. Bad segway. I'd like to welcome our [00:09:00] absolutely gorgeous guest for the day, the lovely Elyse from Elyse Lola Designs, a wonderful graphic designer.
Would you like me to read you a little about or would you like to introduce yourself?
Elise: Uh. Yeah, you can read it.
Emily: I'm trying to help you to read it. Yeah, I'm trying to read it. Elise adores the world of graphic design. It's all about bringing aesthetic and functionality together through typo, typo, typo, typography.
That's the word I'm looking for. Thank you, I can speak English. Colors and layouts. It is her cup of tea and she cannot get enough of it, which is why I'm here. She's a seasoned designer with over 10 years experience and has had the privilege of working with a diverse range of brands across various industries.
In 2018, she made the bold decision to start her own business, woohoo, and was eager for new opportunities and the freedom to unleash her creativity. She's fucking
Christine: amazing. Yes. Uh
Emily: huh. And don't just get anyone to design my earrings. Yeah, and we all love, absolutely love Elyse's [00:10:00] work. Whether it's crafting a captivating logo, reviving outdated designs, or designing, oh I missed a word, or constructing a comprehensive marketing campaign from scratch, Elyse is up to the challenge, guys.
I'm listening to
Elise: that going, God, I sound froufy. Yeah, no, it's great. But also side note, at least legitimately has designed some Hamilton earrings.
And also has designed my ebook. I've got all that. I'm making all this stuff.
Emily: I want you to help with this too. And at least has just recently. Presented at our conference. She certainly
Christine: has.
Emily: Fucking nailed it. Such a great day. Those are memories. Take us back. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you. Elisa is my nerd spirit sister.[00:11:00]
We like to nerd over the same stuff. As soon as she told me she liked John Wick, I was like, done, we're friends.
Elise: How can you not love Keanu Reeves? Amazing. Keanu.
Christine: Well, Keanu, absolutely. You know? Because I've been watching Keanu for a very, very, very long time, ladies. Very long time. Oh, that's
Elise: my fun fact. In um, when The Matrix came out, uh, I was still in early high school and, um, we had, I know, it's nice
Emily: to have someone closer to mine.
Yeah, there you go. It's nice to sit over at the old lady's corner.
Elise: But, um, in high school we had a, we had one of the very rare tables our group, um, claimed and it was under a tree and we were like, we need to name the tree and I had it. The baller idea of calling it Triano Leaves. And that was the name of our group again.
Emily: That was the name
Elise: of our group. Have you thought about moving
Emily: into copywriting? [00:12:00] Creativity like that you can't find.
Elise: They're few and far between, but when they happen, they're good. Yeah, absolutely.
Emily: Gold, gold mine. So have you
Elise: always wanted to be a graphic
Christine: designer?
Elise: No. Um, yeah, I mean, I've always been the arty, crafty person.
I did like visual arts. I did, um, the sewing one. Where, what was called textiles? Textile, that's the word. I think they were called in the eighties. Shout out to the OTs that I used to make and the scrunchies.
Emily: Oh, I'm a doula scrunchie girl. I know.
Elise: So many scrunchies. I found out that I was terrible with a sewing machine, so I didn't look.
I didn't continue with that. Um, but yeah, like I did all the visual arts. I think the benefit for me is I didn't know what kind of job, like, would have those opportunities until my elder brother had gotten through and done graphic design, um, through TAFE or whatever, [00:13:00] and seeing what he was doing, I was like, Oh, that's it.
That's what I want. And finally, he didn't stick with it. But he did it for a few years. And went on to do other things. Cause he said, I just got sick of the clients telling me to do something else. I'm like, I designed it perfectly. They should just take it as it is. Why do they keep fucking around with it?
Not quite how clients work, is it? Naughty client. It is the one shitty thing. Yeah. I mean, I often say the work would be great if it wasn't for clients. So it's usually the way, um, but yeah, so yeah, I left school, did, did a little bit of work before. Finally deciding, yeah, I want to go into graphic design. I didn't want to do university or TAFE because they, they focus too much on the theory part.
I'm like, I just want to do create. Oh my god, yeah. So, um, mum and dad forked out for the private college. That was about a year and a half. Thanks mum and dad. Uh, yeah. And then couldn't get [00:14:00] a job in graphic design.
Emily: Fuck.
Elise: Damn. Um, cause apparently like, unknown to me, it'd become the, the it thing for everyone to suddenly be into graphic design.
So there was, I remember looking for jobs and saying, we're looking for a junior, but they have to have at least three years experience. It's the shit, isn't it? Like seriously, it's a junior role. Yeah. Oh, some of them even like entry level. I'm like, okay, well that's me have three years experience. I'm like, yeah, how do you get, I know I'm trying to enter to get those three.
So, uh, I got a shitty job. I shouldn't say shitty, but it was, excuse me while I look up your LinkedIn profile. Um, I was a scheduler for a company that tested electrical lights and PowerPoint stuff. Oh, that
Christine: sounds riveting.
Elise: Bloody awful. And I did that, I think, for 18 months, two years. And then I got a job [00:15:00] with, through actually an old school friend that I hadn't seen for five years.
Um. Once I left them I got a, a good job that actually set me up a bit better in terms of, um, my career as graphic design because I was doing a lot more with them. They were a distributor for a lot of different brands, one of them being Philips Avent, Philips Sonicare, the toothbrushes. Oh yeah. Yep. We've got Philips toothbrushes at home.
Yeah, um, so I got a lot more diversity in what I was doing with sort of, they had two categories, baby and lifestyle. It's a very open ended category. Yeah, so anything related to children in any way went on one side. Yep. And then anything not related to children was on the other side.
Christine: Oh. Well. So, no. How simplified.
Yeah. Can't find anything, but you know. Are you a baby? No. You're on my side. Have a lifestyle instead. I feel
Elise: like [00:16:00] that's like life choices. Babies or lifestyle. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but like all good jobs, they do down go downhill sometimes. Mm. So when I'd started, I was one of four designers, two part-timers and two full-timers.
I was one of the full-timers when I left. After six years, I was the only one left and they replaced me with a junior straight out of college course they did. Oh yeah. Thanks so much. Yeah. So. Yeah, it was time to leave and, and that's how I started, got into starting my own business is I'd had a few friends in, um, designers and like other creative fields going, Oh, you should just go freelance.
It's all puppy dogs and sunshine. Like it's amazing going freelance. And I thought, all right, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So I got an ABN and then [00:17:00] agonized over trying to figure out a business. And then just went, Oh, f k it. I'll just use my name. So at least You know, but it's
Christine: amazing. Um, we was, Em and I were speaking to somebody else today who's just wants to keep things simple and yes.
Yeah. Keeping their own name. Yeah. Yep.
Elise: So, and then a lot of people like, but where's the Lola come from? I'm like, well, that's my middle name. Even my own family, like, that's your middle name? I'm like Were you named after the Barry Manilow song? No. It was my, my Nana's middle name. Oh, sweet.
Emily: So we do that in my family too.
Elise: Sweet, but apparently she hated it.
Emily: So hilarious. Well, my middle name is
Elise: Rose and that's from one of my grandmothers who, Rose was her middle name, but she didn't like her first name, which was Emily. And so she That's how I feel about that. Terrible name. So she was always known as Rose. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's
Emily: hilarious.
My grandfather's middle name was [00:18:00] Brian. And I grew up my entire life thinking his name was Brian. Then to find out that it's actually his fucking middle name. And his real name was Maxwell.
Elise: So yeah, I, I had all these people say, Oh, just go freelance, go freelance. Um, so that's what I did. I got the ABN. I, um, just decided, fuck it, I can't pick a name, so I'll just do this.
And then sort of sat there and go, well, what do I do now? Like, how do, how do I, I hadn't actually factored that in. I'd quit my job, said, Oh yeah, I'm just going to go freelance. And they're like, Oh, really good. Like, yeah. But how? Yes. What does that look like? Suddenly no one asked me how. And it wasn't until I was like, it was towards the end of the year.
So I was sort of already like, I'll just.
Christine: You'll just take some time over the Christmas break. I'll take time over
Elise: the Christmas break and I'll start fresh in the New Year. But the New Year comes and I'm like, oh. So now what how do I go [00:19:00] freelance? Yeah, and it turned out what my friends called freelance was actually just working as a consultant for design agencies.
Um, and contracting, contracting and not really working for themselves. And the. The catch of working for someone else is that they send you to their clients all over fucking Sydney. So, um, so you have to work in their client's offices because you need to Remote working didn't exist either. No. No. No. Um, like you have to prove that you're, that you're working You're doing the work.
You're doing the work. I'm like To me, I'm like, well, if I don't do the work, you don't pay me.
Emily: Also, you kind of know. Yeah, I haven't delivered anything. I haven't delivered anything yet.
Elise: But no, so I was doing that for two years and then I realised, where are the fucking puppy dogs and shuncho? This is a shit rainbow.
I'm still fucking looking. We all are. So [00:20:00] We are the rainbow.
No one's going to give us the rainbow, so we have to be, if you
Emily: don't like them, you will at the end of it.
Elise: We'll shove it down your throat, up your ass, or as Chris says, up your bum,
Christine: too right. I think I heard a snort just now. No, I love it. It's so good. Who
Elise: had a beer? Me. Um, so yeah, it was, um, anyway, like as everything does, it just works in its own time.
So I was getting pretty, um, shitty with having to traverse all over fucking Sydney. And I'd started getting a couple of my own clients and funnily enough, One of them was from my previous job who had gone to work with Dry July and she said oh they're [00:21:00] doing a lot more stuff now and I can't do it all can you come help us out, um, just pre campaign.
So then I've had the Dry July as a client for several years now, and then it's opened up into even more work. So it was funny that, um, just someone that I happen to work with going to that company going, Oh yeah, I know someone. And then, yeah, that referral network. Yeah. There's nothing stronger than word of
Emily: mouth.
You have to, you have to, you have to do word of mouth.
Elise: It's not easy.
Emily: Yeah. It pushes people out of their comfort zones.
Elise: Oh yeah. Networking has just been such a learning curve for me. As I imagine it is for a lot of people, women especially, because we're not really great at talking about ourselves. No.
Promoting ourselves, so. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say like word of mouth really is the best form of marketing. Oh God, isn't it? I mean, half the
Christine: work is and more than half the work's done really. It's just seeing if [00:22:00] you're kind of like a vibe you fit and yeah. And then I suppose, yeah, a bit of price here and there.
And are you going to do what I can do? You know, that sort of thing. So it's good. Yeah, it really is.
Elise: So, and then COVID hit. Yes, bloody COVID. It
Christine: ruined everything.
Elise: Well, you ruined everything, you stupid bitch. Sorry, we sing that every time. You ruined everything. Well, for me, it was, there was a bit of a silver lining because it did.
Become remote work and I was
Emily: traversing. Yeah. Yeah.
Elise: So everyone had to suddenly go to remote and I was still doing, um, work for the design agencies while I was trying to build up my own client list. And they were like, Oh, we have to switch to remote now. We can't, we're like, we're all in lockdown. Can you still.
Yes, I can work from home. I've got a wonderful set up at home and I would much rather work at home. So [00:23:00] yeah, those two years of in and out of lockdowns and not knowing what we're doing and like having to stay in our areas. actually kind of worked in my favor in terms of work because I was like, it was a forced remote work in showing that, yes, this does like does work.
We don't have to be on site and I can do the work better from my own, my own system. Yep. It was a game changer. Yeah. And during that time was doing, I was trying, I was getting back into The women with attitude scene while, like, while they were doing the zoom, um, networking stuff. So, cause that was an easy way to get me back into it.
Um, and then, yeah, like I was getting more of my own clients and then thing, two years later, everything's opening back up again and everyone was like, no, we have to go back to the office. And I went, well, I'm not doing that. No way. No. I'm like, I'm very comfortable here. So. [00:24:00] I was finally at a point where I'm like, okay, I can tell design agencies, no, unless it's remote, I don't want to know.
Yes.
Christine: And how was that taken? Like, did you lose, not knowing how many you did work for, but you know, was it well taken and you still kept some of their work? Or did it was like that a deal breaker for them?
Elise: It was a little bit of a deal breaker for them. I did. They do touch base every so often to see if I've changed my mind.
Emily: That just speaks highly to their view of your work though. Yeah.
Elise: I mean, I'd always had really positive feedback, one from their, from their clients and then from them themselves. So, I mean, I can understand their business model is that they, they're providing someone, a consultant to, to work temporarily, like we have to show a, uh, some sort of quantity to [00:25:00] that effect.
Yes. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it, it was nothing against their business model per se, but it just doesn't really work for me. No. And I think for most people, unless you're, you know, in the city. Um, but I didn't like, it was definitely not a burnt bridge situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, I've had those before. Yeah.
We all have. And we all try
Christine: not to have those. I mean, I, yeah,
Elise: you do your best to do not. But sometimes
Christine: people just, some people just don't get it. Oh yeah. I mean, I've had,
Elise: I've had those, like those clients that just don't. somehow lose the perspective that you're a consultant, like you're not an employee.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Um, I'm like, well, I can't just drop everything for you. That's not how this works. Yep. Yep. We've got a lot of those. Oh my gosh, yes, you know. Hashtag founder, ring a key. Yes. Foundries are so important. It's an old school
Emily: mindset that I think that happens with. Yeah. It's a really old school mindset.
Elise: [00:26:00] And I think it's a, that whole lack of urgency on your part does not Create an emergency on my part. Exactly. Or lack of planning on your part does not make an emergency on my part. And it's true because it's those people who are used to just being able to click and make changes to things. If you think things through and then they're actually through.
the thoughtful choices are actually, I find they're also the types of people that really, they shouldn't be running their own thing.
Emily: I agree.
Elise: Like I'm not, not to say I'm an expert. Yeah. I like, there are definite things that I don't do for my business very well. Um, but yeah, the, the people that, Uh, always doing things at the last minute or constantly changing their mind.
There, there's just, there's something, I mean, you can't help them because they can't help themselves and it's, you can only do so much. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I, I've always been
Emily: like, preaching to the choir over this side of the studio. And
Elise: I imagine like, we're all here, [00:27:00] like I'm a definite people pleaser.
Fuck. I had to really, I've really had to work on myself to not be that people pleaser. And I mean, I still struggle, like even for clients, um, good clients that I have, I, I go above and beyond and they're like, Oh, you really didn't have to do that. You have to charge me for that. And I'm like, no, no, no. I don't like doing this and blah, blah, blah.
But I really have to pull back on that.
Christine: Yeah, you do. And there's, and I suppose really when you go Belvin Buell and don't charge, it's, you should, I mean, we all need to over deliver that kind of thing. We always do, but. But, you know, it needs to work for you. So, you know, it's like, oh, I need to back off here or do something for myself.
Therefore, I'll do a little bit extra here, but it's a little bit less next week or whatever the gig is. Um, but yeah, yeah, there is far too much people playing. It should be
Elise: a give and take. Oh, absolutely. It can't just only be give. Yeah, yeah.
Christine: And look, it's a long journey. It's a long journey for you. for you as [00:28:00] the reformed people, please, are trying to create and uphold your boundaries.
And I find it's actually an even longer journey educating, um, those others to understand that you are not their staff member, that you actually are a director of your own business, um, and they don't own you full time. So, um, Elise, like, so you're a graphic designer. Um. And I'm the one, the party in here who is not the, I'm not the creative.
I'm creative in other ways. But I'm not creative in the business space from a social media, graphics, print and visual thing. Like, I'm not creative. So, how has like the introduction to fantastic programs like Canva impacted on, on you in business? And what is your point of [00:29:00] difference between those, you know, between you and Canva as an example?
Elise: Okay, so, Good question. Thank you. I'll have, I'll be honest and say, I've only recently, um, sort of reluctantly, um, agreed that Canberra is not a bad thing. At first I was, it took me a long time. I was like, Oh, there's another fucking bullshit.
So it's like kind of like the people with the argument with GVTSL has taken people's jobs. And I mean, It's not like it's giving people the freedom to do more for themselves rather than paying someone else to do it. But the caveat is a lot of people don't know what they're doing. And yeah, it's just like chat GBT.
It's depends on what you put into it. [00:30:00] is what will determine what you get out of it. Yes. So if you've got no experience or no idea and you're just whacking in templates and doing whatever you feel like or whatever you fancy, that you're going to get a very disjointed, a very disorganised and messy, creative, um, or visual story, I would like to put it.
The difference, the point of difference of working with a professional Like myself, is that you're working towards creating a harmonious visual story for your brand that people will instantly recognise as you. So, the great example for fuck around and find out, as soon as you see that picture. Rainbow or you see the words, fuck.
So as soon as you see those, you know, that's, that's Emily, Chris and Rah. Like I know who [00:31:00] that is.
Emily: F star CK.
Elise: I didn't even know what that word was when I was his age.
My younger brother, his first word when he was probably about two was bucket. And it was only because he couldn't pronounce the. When my friends, kids couldn't say D. Alright. When he was like a toddler and would run around, I was with him at the supermarket once and he was pointing out all the ducks. He's going, but instead of saying ducks, he would go fucks.
So he's pointing at all the ducks and the kids, all going fucks Auntie Rah. Fucks! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck
Emily: Fuck Fuck Fuck
Elise: Fuck Fuck! And because I'm the auntie, I didn't care. And I was packing myself. Yes. You're
Emily: completely right. Yes. I know. It is a bunch of fucks. Yes. I have a [00:32:00] whole bag of fucks right here for you.
The funniest part is like when, when the kids are off playing and they think no one's listening to them. Yeah. I've heard Harry turn around and say to my daughter, Oh, you're such a fucking idiot.
She'll be doing something and she'll go, Oh, for fuck's sake, let's go. Like me coming out of a mouth and I'm like, Oh God. I was like, please don't say this at your Catholic school. Yeah, no.
Elise: So, Canva. Is not a bad thing anymore. It's not a bad thing. Um, what I've had to embrace for myself is showing people how to use it effectively.
Um, so setting up templates is what I'm working on. I'm trying out some new ideas on how I can make things easier for someone else to just be able to jump in, slot in whatever content they want. And. like not have to do anything. Yeah. Like the design thinking part. It's
Christine: all on brand on point. Yeah.
Elise: Because that's the most important thing is staying on brand.
[00:33:00] Um, like, that's what I see most of the time on, on Facebook and Instagram, Instagram a little bit less. I think people are a bit more savvy there, but, um, definitely Facebook and things like that, where they're just. using whatever they find or whatever they think looks good at the time rather than thinking ahead to, I want my, my content to always look like this.
I want to always use these colors. I always want to use these fonts or it's always got to have this feel about it. So yeah, that's what, um, working with a professional, how that's different is that you will work with someone who can set that up for you. Yep. Whereas Canva is like, it's a great tool for, for people who want to create a birthday invitation and like, don't have to worry about that thing.
But [00:34:00] like, cause you can just pick it up, put it down. But if you're going to use it. To in the most effective way you need to you need to start Make that investment to start with someone who can help you set a foundation. Yep So that's what I like to that's what I'm trying to call it now is like setting up a brand foundation.
Yes your building blocks, um, to, to building something that, uh, people will know is you. Like you want people, you see the golden arches, you know, instantly it's McDonald's. Yep. So you see the, The KFC Colonel oh god. Yeah, we know who it is. Yeah. Yeah the colonel. Sorry. They're both food related. No, that's But that that's that's the thing the Nike tick you see that bloody Nike, yes So that's what?
What makes brands successful is when people [00:35:00] know what they are without even looking like without having to think about it. Yep. And because it's more than just the template that you can find in Canva. Like there are so many awesome, like great templates, but the issue that I found after my first year where I was bootstrapping and just coming up with my own branding, um, was that it was never quite right.
Yep. And I didn't have the skills in terms of the design sense to know. Yep. Like, I'm a fiddler, as Elisa's saying, like, I fiddle with my designs, um, but when it's, if it hasn't got a good base, then I was screwed. And that's where getting a professional to do it, because it's actually more time efficient, to get them to do it and know what colours are correct versus like for your screen versus printing.
That was something that I learnt when I did my branding was how different the colours Yes, which should be obvious to people, but it's not, it's not, it's not, I encourage anyone just to reach out to me, like, [00:36:00] if you've got a question about anything, I'm happy to answer any of your questions. If like, I would rather people ask the dumb questions, which they're not dumb, if you don't, if you don't know, you don't know.
Um, I'm like totally happy for people to, to ask me any questions and I will gladly answer them. Give you the answer because I would rather you get the result that you want, um, then, then get something subpar or be misinformed or be misinformed, like then waste your time, effort. Yeah. I mean, there's so many people like, oh, you gatekeeping the knowledge.
And I'm like, no, no, I want people to know what their options are. There's an
Emily: argument to be said that you are qualified in this. You went and learnt and you got your qualifications and. Yeah, you went through the effort to do that. There should be some gatekeeping
Elise: it to an extent to an extent. I mean, like, again, the, the argument of, um, a carbon to [00:37:00] making a table.
And it's like, Oh, well, I could make that. And it's like, sure, you go by the tools, you go by the years of experience, you go by the, the, um, the materials and spend five hours doing it. You deal with the splinters. Yep. Yeah. The amount of times
Emily: my husband's like, Oh, I can fix the plumbing. Yep. I'm like, mate, you are a trained mechanic originally.
I haven't been on the tools in a little while. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you can now fix
Elise: plumbing. We've had that recently. We're fixing the bathroom of, Oh, I can fix the grouting. Actually when
Christine: YouTube didn't knew. I can't do We totally, totally outsource. But again,
Elise: that's, that's the thing, like you, it's the same with the, same with the design.
Well, it is. If you look at it and you can totally learn how to do it. If you want to learn how to do it, that's fine. And Canva can give you access to learn how to do it. But it takes time and you have, you have to start somewhere. So, um,
Emily: You can tell the difference in a [00:38:00] business straight away when they haven't spent the money on a proper graphic design.
Yep. It's, or if they use a Canva template, yeah, like it's having a proper branding kit done by a graphic designer and having logos built properly, having all of it done and it just makes, it makes you take, it elevates your business to a much, much more professional level.
Elise: So you're saying that Canva isn't the evil that you once thought it was?
It's not evil. Episode title. It's just one. It's not as evil as you think. That's awesome. But it's just one,
Christine: it's, it's an item in your toolbox, right? Yes. Yeah. And that's a great way to put it, it's a tool, like ChadGBT is a tool, uh,
Elise: Adobe Photoshop is a tool, without the knowledge behind it, knowledge or skill behind it, then it's not useful.
I, uh, Wrench is a tool, but I don't know how to use it, so it's not a tool to me. How to wield it. Other than hitting someone over the head with it, like. Yeah, we've all got something like that, absolutely.
Christine: Okay, Elyse, I've got a [00:39:00] box and it's filled with all the things that you've lost over your lifetime today, until today.
Is there anything that you would like to grab out of that box?
Elise: I don't think so. Nothing. Yeah, I mean, I've lost a few things, but nothing that I think I've lost. I need back. There's probably a few things I could add to the box that I wouldn't mind losing. But yeah, no, I'm pretty, pretty content. Yeah, pretty
Christine: happy with who you are, where you are, that kind of thing.
Elise: Yeah.
Yeah. I think like a good wine I'm getting better with age. Oh my god, yes, absolutely. I hope it's sparkling. Yes. Sparkling wine. I said doing spirit fingers over here.
Christine: Yeah, I was just thinking I was a bit thirsty. Sorry, I drank all my beer. [00:40:00] Damn, yes. Well, Elise Lawler Design, Graphic Designer extraordinaire.
so much for coming. Yeah. Where do we find you?
Elise: EliseLolaDesign. com. au is the best place to get me. Um, I am sort of on Facebook.
Emily: I hear you can outsource them. Oh,
Christine: I hear that too. I might know somebody. I definitely should outsource this. Yeah, absolutely. so much for joining us today here. for having me. I love it.
Emily: Star Hotel, a few things as well.
Elise: Yeah. Such a great space. I know, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Emily: Guys. Invest in a graphic designer. Absolutely. Yes, please do. That's the short version. Do it. Yeah. Do it. At least Lolla designs. Yeah. But,
Christine: um, yeah, they were some great tips. So we'll make sure that we've, you know. Got all of that happening in show notes, and I mean, I could do, Emma and I could do a whole episode on just tips
Elise: Oh, I know. Uhhuh I, exactly.
Emily: Yes. We're gonna put together a [00:41:00] social media post release's. Top tips. Yeah. Oh, to go This one
Elise: I think sounds good. Oh my God. We could do another webinar. We could do another, I say another as if we've done the first one list, a webinar list all the time. This
Emily: episode goes live.
Perhaps we'll ,
Elise: I do have our listener in Scotland who's requesting to join. One of the ones that we were talking about in a previous episode. So that's awesome. Okay. All right. We better get to it. Yeah. Can we have
Emily: a free trip to Scotland to give
Elise: her a webinar? Well, it's time to stop. Well, she's in Lincolnshire, so we don't have to go all the way North.
Oh, I mean, but we could, I know that's part of the goal. I mean, we'll just go anyway. She knows the best ice cream shop in Edinburgh, so yeah, Mary's
Christine: Mary's milk bar.
Elise: That could well be it. I've been there. Me too. You definitely have to go in summer. I've not been there. Yeah, definitely in summer. Yeah. I don't want to be there in winter.
I went in late. Oh, I went in winter and still got ice cream.
Christine: Yes. I had ice cream in December. Oh
Elise: my gosh. [00:42:00] No queue. But yes, so thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Wasn't it fun? It was
Emily: scary wasn't it?
Elise: No.
