Celine started her career in the creative city of Copenhagen, returning to Melbourne to work in boutique brand agencies, before leaping into the freelancing world and running her own business for 5 years. Beyond design and branding, she brings to life, the purpose, values, and character of a business through brand identities, digital, and packaging.
Prior to Harvey Celine has worked with some super impactful clients like:
- Common Ground, who centre First Nations people by amplifying knowledge, cultures and stories through storytelling;
- Homeroom, who provide an informative and inclusive directory of local Australian fashion to empower more deliberate consumer choices an;
- Happy Human, who came up with the brilliant idea of washing tablets; removing water quantity from everyday washing liquor, therefore lowering transportation emissions and reducing waste of household products too.
Now, let's hand over to Celine...
My reflection on working at Harvey.
We are encouraged to learn and grow beyond our specialised field
One of my favourite things about working at Harvey is how the team encourages each other to keep growing and learning. It's not just about being great at a specialised field, we are also encouraged to dive into other areas that we're interested in, and our monthly development chats with our mentor help keep us accountable.
Open and honest conversations make me feel connected, valued & motivated
Another big one for me is the open, honest conversations we have. It's not just about work; we chat about personal stuff too. Our goals, what we're thinking, feeling, needing. This makes me feel super connected as a team, and when you feel valued like that, you're naturally more motivated to do your best work. The growth mindset and working with purpose-led impact clients are some of the big reasons why I love being part of the team.
A typical day for me
Check-in; the creative zone; website to brand & water cooler
An ideal workday starts with a big glass of water and a full body session at the gym before logging into work, and checking in on how everyone's doing that day in the daily standup and morning meetings.
Then I get in the zone for a few hours of strategic design on projects such as; design reviews for a website (Merry People), helping wireframe content for a new website (CPSN), and bringing a visual identity into the digital space (The Sociable Weaver). I break for lunch, hoping there are leftovers from the night before and go for a quick walk to get my body moving or join a 3 o'clock squat/stretch with the team to get through that afternoon lull. Then maybe a water cooler to end the workday to discuss things like; how schlep is a great word, plan a team Pickleball outing, how Sarah's Endo is going, or talk about our latest finds on Facebook marketplace.
My recent project highlights
Farm My School: Brand uplift
I worked on Farm My School’s website and a brand uplift by designing new Google Slide templates. Throughout the project, I loved learning about urban farming and thought that the whole concept of utilising unused school ovals to grow produce so inspiring. It made me wish I had attended a school that had this urban farming model growing up. See more on the brand uplift in our case study.
KOSI: Packaging
I worked with Sarah in designing soap packaging for KOSI. Through this work, I’ve learnt many things about the Solomon Islands; Solomon Islanders place a high value on community, familial relationships and in-person connection. Also that coconuts are more than just a crop in the Solomon Islands—they are a fundamental part of life, culture, and the economy. I love that I'm contributing in a small way to change people's lives by helping their economy through elevating the design output of local brands.
The Sociable Weaver: Website design
I started the website design project by gathering information and collaborating with the team for ideas and inspiration to refresh the existing brand. I learnt some fun facts and interesting things along the way. Sarah introduced me to Harvey's Webflow systems, which helped me improve design systems to help carry over design to build. And I was introduced to Passive House design; an approach/standard to creating beautiful, healthy, and sustainable homes that positively impact people and the planet.
My biggest lessons
“Don’t try to please everyone.” Know your key audience and focus on them; who they are; what they like; & their pain points.
Something I think is super important but people often find a little boring in marketing is thinking about your key audience; who are they, what do they like, what do they do, to truly get an idea out of what that audience needs, and what their pain points are. This will be very valuable for you in your marketing, it will provide more relevance, therefore higher engagement and give us the ability to gather valuable data and insights. Often I see businesses/brands try to please/talk to everyone but this means that they don’t know their key audience, and their messaging isn't as relevant/effective - it's generic so it doesn't really connect.
I love it when agencies share what they’re learning within the community.
I love it when agencies share their latest projects or what they’ve learnt in the industry, sharing their knowledge with the marketing community. A few updates that I’ve loved recently include:
- Superkeens’ year in review was brilliant, I loved the transparency. Harvey does a similar thing with our Impact Report.
- Software like FIGMA, which is growing and making things better, specifically their new multi-edit function.
Brands that inspire me
The world of B.
New to the B Corp scene, and I’m learning a lot about the B Corp certification and what they do at B Lab. The other week I went to an event with Sarah and learnt that they certify not only products but businesses too and I was exposed to how they’re reframing their standard of certification for companies that seek to balance profit-making with social and environmental responsibility. I love the community and like-minded people that it brings together, huge fan!
Klean Kanteen, Nimble Activewear & Goldi.
And, some brands I recently stumbled across in my online window shopping; Klean Kanteen and Nimble Activewear. Both B Corps and more considered, impactful brands on the journey to help the planet and people. Super cool! In a very different industry (my foodie research) I found this brand called Goldi a local Victorian olive oil brand with a focus on sustainable farming and quality products.
The content I consume
As an everyday foodie, I love a lighthearted deep dive into food and ingredients!
This next piece of content will expose the fact that I’m a big foodie! I love the podcast, Ingredepedia—a fun deep dive into food and ingredients. The episode on plums (in season as I write this) introduced me to a bunch of varieties, including European and indigenous. And did you know you can make mashed potatoes from chips in the microwave? I haven’t tried it yet, but stay tuned!
