Creative Journeys with Becca O’shea, Freelance Multidisciplinary Designer & Illustrator
The Creative Journeys series, powered by Squarespace, delves into the experiences of five self-employed creatives – Evie Kemp, Becca O’shea, Mark Easterbrook and Hannah & Nick Ippolito – exploring their creative pathways.
Find out how Becca has crafted a livelihood aligned to her values in the article below and watch her candid conversation with the other creatives on demand.
Kia ora Becca. Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to pursue a career in your creative field?
My mum is a freelance graphic designer and used to take painting classes all the way back in kindergarten. Her influence I believe is what gave me a passion for creativity from a young age. Then later on having a specialised design class in high school with an enthusiastic teacher, really showed me the more commercial side of creativity which is where I found my passion for branding design. So university was quite a natural progression for me.
Over the years of working in various agencies and smaller design studios I gradually narrowed down to the things I really enjoyed doing. Illustration has and always will be an integral part of my creative process.
Having the opportunity to work on more bespoke digital installations and games in recent years was such a nice marriage of illustration and UI/UX practices. This is probably the area I get most excited about.
What are some key challenges or experiences that have shaped your creative journey?
Pivoting from more traditional graphic design, illustration and branding into web was a bit of a learning curve earlier on in my career. But this unlocked so many opportunities for me and enabled me to offer both skill sets. This gives me an advantage when providing both digital interfaces and content to fill it with.
Do you have any work day rituals or routines you find essential for maintaining flow and productivity?
Being a sole trader and only having to manage myself, my work routines are pretty loose. I use Google calendar to approximate project bookings and manage meetings, but I have to keep my days pretty flexible. Often things change last minute, I can go from a quiet week to a busy one after one meeting. Through the years though you get used to reading these waves:
Knowing that work is at least planned out in calendar sometimes months in advance allows me to just focus on my workload daily or weekly. For me it’s essential to have a bit of a buffer, as well as blocking out personal time to retain work life balance. Getting a gauge on when I’m at capacity and when to start turning work away is key, otherwise I take on too much.
Maintaining a work/life balance is increasingly more important to me. Getting up early enough to allow time for me to go for a walk with the dogs, do some yoga or read a book with a cup of coffee means even if the workday is hectic I’ve had some time for myself first. It helps to balance things out when work gets stressful or overwhelming. Having regular lunch breaks (and keeping to them) is also super important. My partner and I have also set a no phones rule from 8pm-8am which has helped a lot to prevent doom scrolling and time wasting.
How have your personal values and lifestyle choices influenced your career and creative process?
I really value directness and being genuine. There are a lot of egos in our industry and I prefer to just “cut the bullsh**” a lot of the time. My clients seem to resonate well with a more down to earth/ transparent approach. I often find it’s a lot more efficient too. It also makes it easier to be more outcomes focused, and more enjoyable when they’re treated as a collaborator. Clients are humans, and their customers are too.
Where possible I prefer working with companies or agencies where there is an element of positive impact on either community, its customer or the planet. It’s unfortunately not always possible to do 100% of the time but working with more companies that align with this, often leads to more work in a similar space. I’ve been very fortunate in recent years to work on more projects with companies “for good” rather than just “for profit”.
Not until recently I also realised the importance of setting boundaries both personally, as well as in my professional life. After gaining enough experience I realised what types of work I’d rather be focusing on as a business, what things I’ll no longer tolerate, or how I value my work.
Having an online presence and spending time promoting your work is a non-negotiable for creatives looking to build their personal brands. Can you share how this looked for you when you were starting out vs. how it looks today?
I definitely think for me self promotion is an obligation rather than a joy, especially when it comes to social media. I think diversifying how you market yourself and not just using one channel is super important. However, more often than not I’ll get work through word of mouth (just doing a good job/ being a nice person) or going to that one event where you happen to talk to the right person.
Relationships are everything in this industry, especially in Aotearoa when connections are so tightly knit.
Having a strong portfolio online to back things up also helps to let the work do the talking for me. I get a lot of inquiries through my website especially from overseas clients.
As a multidisciplinary designer I try to show a broad range, so having at a couple of projects for each type of work I can offer.
When it comes to case studies I think quality over quantity. Showcasing to potential clients more of the work that you personally enjoy has potential to bring in similar projects. For me I love doing illustration so I showcase a lot more of that kind of work.
Having an about page ensures the people can see you are in fact a real human. It also gives you an opportunity to highlight accomplishments or work experience.
As a designer, how do you use your Squarespace website and what features do you find the most beneficial/important for showcasing your work and growing your business?
I’ve always used Squarespace. I think I just found it a lot easier to update, especially when I’d rather spend time doing work than creating a portfolio. It’s definitely evolved a lot and my site along with it. I’ve probably rebranded myself along with my website 4 times now, I find doing my own brand so difficult! It’s becoming increasingly easy to use, and is more like a design application than a CMS. There are a lot of fun features that allow you to customise your site also.
I often use the blank pages in Squarespace so I can customise the layout exactly how I want it. The fluid engine on version 7.1 feels similar to having grids in design software, being able to drag and drop elements. Even being able to put little sketch illustrations around the page allows me to add bespoke touches to the site.
I recently decided to put the enquiry form into the footer also, enabling people to access the form sitewide rather than just on the about page.
I’m also a cofounder of a software start up called Collective Flow. We use our Squarespace site not just for brand awareness but to create pitches. It also allows us to create hidden pages for different audiences, or test different messaging or layouts to see what resonates most.
How do you balance the business side of your work with your creative pursuits?
I’ve always found this balance difficult, when does personal work become client work and vice versa. Especially with illustration. It’s a very fine line between commercial and art. I use my portfolio site to split these up, different pages for each (commercial and personal). But I’m always experimenting with how to do this. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll create another separate site for art entirely.
Lastly, where can people find you online?
Or @beccaoshea.design on insta
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