Lottie Russell, L K Designs

Lottie Katie Russell's business is L K Designs, a one-woman graphic design and illustration enterprise. Her services include bespoke commissions such as logo design, pet portraits and watercolour house portraits. Lottie started her business during the pandemic and found BIPC Norfolk's networking sessions particularly helpful.

More about Lottie

What was the inspiration for your business idea?

When the pandemic hit, I was put on furlough at my previous employment and wanted to do something worthwhile with my time. I started an online course in graphic design and decided to start illustrating again which I haven't done since my university days. I forgot how much I loved being creative and rediscovered a long-lost ambition to work in the creative community.

What BIPC services or activities did you use?

I stumbled across the MENTA LinkedIn page where the BIPC Reset. Restart networking events were being advertised to help small businesses during Covid-19. I wanted to learn more about working for myself 'freelancing' and decided to join. They were so informative and filled with a diverse group of like-minded people in very different fields. They were monthly meetings with a guest speaker at each to discuss different topics that we hadn't necessarily thought about before. This helped me to drive forward with my small business and put into practice a lot of the skills I had learnt to create my website, social media pages and Etsy shop.

What are your plans for the future?

My future plans are to work on my social media following to promote my product sales and work on new projects I am currently in the process of developing. Longer term I would love to set up a studio where I could exhibit my work, hold workshops and work on new ideas.