Who are you and what do you do?
Firstly, I’m a mum to two girls, one dog and one cat. I left school at 16, stumbled into the creative industry via an apprenticeship and was lucky enough to love it. I’ve learnt something from everyone that I’ve worked with, good and bad, and on the back of all that I started borne 5 years ago.
borne now employs 25 mega-talented people from all walks of life who have either started and decided to continue their career in Norwich, or who relocated to Norwich because they love the lifestyle this City gives them.
Passionate about creativity, we work with businesses to offer creative, strategic, digital and social solutions and work across all sectors with a client roster including the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Médecins Sans Frontières, Virgin Wines, Portsmouth University, Mental Health Foundation, Norfolk County Council, Suffolk Building Society and Sowerbys.
How and why did you settle on nozza to place roots for your business?
I’ve lived in Norwich since I was five and I’ve never had a desire to live or work anywhere else because I’ve always loved it here. It’s also been the best place to start a creative agency as we are surrounded by a huge range of creative talent. Especially with the likes of NUA and the UEA on our doorstep but also because Norwich is a city that celebrates creativity, individuality, success and is full of people that support others in its community.
I’d say borne employs about a 50/50 split now of homegrown talent and talent that has relocated from all over the UK. It used to be a lot harder to attract people from outside Norwich to work at borne but it’s become such a vibrant city that offers a lifestyle that’s hard to replicate anywhere else. borne is lucky to be based here.
What has been some of your favourite projects to work on?
There have a been a bunch of projects we’ve done in the last five years that I’ve loved – whether it’s sending a YouTuber to the bottom of a super sewer to learn about construction careers, rebranding some of the iconic local businesses on our high streets, picking up awards for our work during Covid to get teens engaged in the vaccine, or raising nearly £1million to support MSF’s work treating people in Yemen.
Before I started borne I was lucky enough to run a department for a much larger agency that had a dedicated charity arm. So for a couple of years, I produced creative comms for tiny charities for free. I spent a lot of time with all the charities we worked for and learnt about what they did. I collaborated with a designer to produce the strategy and comms they needed to either raise awareness about their services or raise vital funds to deliver their services, and then I got to see the real difference our work had made to their service users.
So not the biggest or most glamorous project but during that two-year period I worked on loads of projects that made a real impact to me and lots of other people and even now ensure borne are able to support charity communications by donating our time and skills to a dedicated partner each year.
Where’s your favourite place to visit in Norfolk and why?
Easy… Wells. Me and the kids try and stay there every year in a caravan on the beach with no wifi or 4g and it’s heaven. Just quality, family downtime.
How can people find you?
Our offices are at St James Mill right by the river which we love, it’s a great spot for a lunchtime walk or to head into the city, it’s enjoyable being so central and being able to support our independents.
You can find out more about the team and our creative work, including design and digital, on our website: https://weareborne.com/ or get a feel for life at borne on our social media channels, often featuring Buddy (my dog) we’re @we_are_borne
on Instagram and TikTok.