ABOUT

I was commissioned by Carer support organisation 'Forward Carers' who provide support and services to unpaid carers, people who look after loved ones, family, children, close friends, disabled, elderly or in need of support for other reasons. The challenges faced within their role means they have little time left to for their own needs however are often uncomfortable leaving their loved ones with people they don’t know. ‘Forward Carers’ were eager to rebrand their organisation to make their goals clear, and approached me in search of some friendly illustrations that invited carers to their services. I visited their offices in Birmingham to get a clearer understanding of their intentions for the website and to meet their team, which was extremely helpful when getting clarity on how to meet their needs within my illustrative style.

Their new service/website called 'Caring for Carers' would be a service where family carers could find reliable, trustworthy professional (paid-for) carers/sitters who could look after their loved-one for a few hours, days or overnight, to give the family carer a well-deserved break. Within the illustrations, we were aiming to encourage people to give them the confidence that their loved ones would be in good hands so they could take a much needed break. While they would not be providing any medical or ‘personal’ care, they would be acting as a friend and that needed to come across clearly within the illustrations.

The illustrations they commissioned me to do were designed to give family carers the reassurance that their loved-one would be in good hands, so they were confident and would be inclined to book a professional carer via their website. Importantly, they would take some time out of their caring role so they could return replenished and able to continue their caring role happily and healthily.

I thoroughly enjoyed working closely with their Graphic Design team and Website Developers to create illustrations that fitted within their brand guidelines, but with enough creative freedom to demonstrate my personal style of characterisation.