Kate Brown
Owner of Kurly Creative / Creative Brand & Squarespace Web Designer
Bristol, UK
Q What do you do?
“Hey, my name’s Kate, nice to meet you!”
I run the show here at Kurly Creative. I create colourful, fun Squarespace and Canva templates for new creative, female-run businesses who don't do normal! I also offer personality-packed Squarespace web design, copy and branding packages to more established businesses who are ready to totally transform their online presence. My main goal is to empower and educate my customers so they can ditch the design overwhelm, and go from Bland Brenda to Standout Susan via a fun, stress-free process!
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I’ve been a designer for around 12 years now. After graduating with a BA Hons degree in advertising and graphic design, I dove straight into my design career from there. I come from a background of working in-house for ad agencies, publishing houses and corporate companies. I’ve always had some kind of project on the side including yoga teaching, freelancing and selling yoga clothing to name a few!
Then one day back in June 2018, I was hit by a car and it totally turned my life around. All of a sudden my life was put on hold. As a result of the accident, I ended up having to have hip surgery and was pretty much bed/homebound for over a year (then covid happened so I’ve basically been a hermit for years!). It was during this time that the ideas of my business started to bloom and from the moment it popped into my head, my life totally changed. I really did dive in headfirst and honestly surprised myself at just how much I wanted to make this business of mine a success.
The result of that accident still affects my life today. I’ve lost a lot of physical strength and body confidence. But alongside that, I’ve gained a huge amount of business confidence (is that even a thing?!), skills, and mental strength. As a result of all of this, I’ve built a business that truly lights me up, and for that I will be forever grateful for the guy who was on his phone and hit me with his car.
Anyway, long story short. I’ve realized just how much I LOVE supporting fellow small business owners who are working their little butts off each and every day to support their families, live the life of their dreams and build up their businesses.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I’m obsessed with patterns and colour! My design style is bold and quirky, and I love nothing more than working with other creative biz owners who aren’t afraid to do things differently. However, my design work isn’t just pretty. Each and every thing I create is rooted in strategy and intention. I place a huge focus on educating all of my customers and clients so they know exactly why the designs look the way they do, and they always walk away knowing exactly how to use and maintain their new shiny branding and websites after we’ve finished working together. So all in all, my process has got beauty and brains!
Q What are you working on right now?
I recently launched my template shop that sells Squarespace templates and Canva templates aimed at new business owners. It’s going super well so far and I am so excited to continue to expand on my product ranges. I have lots of exciting templates and training in store for the shop over the next year!
Q What’s your style?
Bold, bright, fun and colourful for sure! All of the products in my template shop are a pretty good reflection of this. You can see a few examples below :)
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I’d love to get back to my yoga teaching side hustle some time in the future. But in terms of design, I would love to dedicate much more of my time to growing my shop by creating new templates and mini-courses for new business owners.
My partner also got me a new shiny iPad Pro for Christmas last year. I’d love to get more into pattern design and hope to work on some fun graphics and Procreate assets to sell on my shop some time in the future too.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Carving out the time to work on my own business! I struggle to keep up with all of my marketing tasks. My own branding and website is also wellllll overdue for a refresh, but it’s so tricky to find that dedicated time to focus on it. I’m hoping I can take a few months off from client work next year so I can focus on a serious website and brand revamp.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Social media management, SEO and blog/content creation. Any chance of expanding that budget?!
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
That it’s ok to do things differently and be intuitive in your business. You don’t have to do what all the other people are doing on Instagram. In fact...it’s actually better to go with your gut and do what feels good for you. I’d travel back to 2019 to tell myself this. That was when I was consuming alllll the courses, podcasts and content I could get my hands on when building up my business. I’d get a big old megaphone out to yell at myself about this, just so it really sunk in! Haha.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
Mindset and working through imposter syndrome and confidence issues. I’ve learnt that this is HUGE if you want to successfully run (and scale) a business without having a breakdown! Also on a more boring note...a legal/tax advisor. This stuff scares the heck out of me and I definitely feel like I need to understand it all better.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I’d love to work with more designers and creatives on their brand and websites.
I love working on longer projects with my custom 1:1 clients that cover the full brand, strategy, copy and custom web design packages so they walk away with everything they need to completely transform their brand and business. I feel like there’s a lot of focus on super quick, speedy service offerings lately with the VIP days and all that (which are great, don’t get me wrong!). But I find I do my best work over longer periods of time and like to give my clients plenty of time to review and reflect at every stage of the process. So my perfect project would probably be a full brand refresh and custom website design over the course of about 12 weeks.
Also, for the DIY’ers - I’d love to help new creative business owners who want to stand out online and ditch the design overwhelm by purchasing one of my templates.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
I love working with super creative like-minded female entrepreneurs who really want to be completely unique and stand out in their field. I just recently wrapped up a project with a fellow designer and it was THE BEST! So lovely to work with a creative who understands and respects the process and trusts your expertise. She also had a brand that’s all about positivity and colour so was right up my street. I’d love to work with more people like this!
I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve for some products geared towards designers too which Im super excited to get started on.
Q: What is your rate?
My signature brand, copy and Squarespace website package is currently £4,500 (approx $6,000)
My Squarespace website templates start from £185 (approx $250)
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Head to the contact page on my website and fill out the form to book a free consult call, giving as much detail about your project as possible.
For my template customers - feel free to send me an email with any questions you have!
You can also head to my shop over on Etsy to check out my full range of templates too, and can send me a message directly on there.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
I LOVE all of Melanie Lea’s content. I took her Powerhouse web designer course which was an absolute lifesaver for getting my processes in order. Her content is always so unique, genuine and relatable too which I love!
instagram @melanieannelea
I am also obsessed with Olivia Herrick’s Insta content. Love her design work and positive mantras.
instagram @oliviaherrickdesign
I am equally obsessed with Melanie Johnsson’s illustration work. Those colours and patterns give me all the happy, fuzzy feels!
instagram @melanie.johnsson
I could go on but I’ll stop there!
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
A trip to a stationery store. I’m usually the weirdo in the corner stroking all the notebook covers to feel the lovely paper stock. :’)
This member profile was originally published in November 2021.