Hi Helen, can you tell us about yourself and what inspired you to set up your business?
I’m a creative thinker and ethical warrior! I trained for a degree in graphic design over 9 years ago and since then have been working in the creative industries.
From an early age I was addicted to drawing and visiting art galleries. I fell in love with the idea that design is a psychological tool which can be used to encourage people to act. I knew I wanted to use that ability to raise awareness and help others.
In 2009 after 3 years in working the commercial design world everything fell apart due to the recession. I was worried about money but also excited that this was an opportunity to put my skills to use in a different way. I wasn’t quite sure how and I’d been jobless for about 3 weeks when I saw a poster in a fair trade shop window: ‘free wine, buffet and fair trade book signing’ you get that I had no money, so the free food and wine was the initial pull :).
It was a very rainy night and I remember it like yesterday I met this really boring guy from the Co-op bank who talked all night about accounting, so I drank lots of wine to make him sound more interesting and then at the end of the night, slightly wobbly, announced myself as a designer to the MD of a fair trading wholesalers. The next day I got a phone call asking if I’d like a job as a designer working for a company on behalf of Oxfam GB.
For the next 3 years I had the job of my dreams designing fair trade gifts and fashion, working on packaging, labelling and marketing promotions. Empowering fair trade artisans through creative product development was the most inspiring feeling I’ve ever had. The economic situation dipped again in 2012. My fair trade employer suffered hugely and all the staff were asked to come back as volunteers. If I could have – I would have. I loved the job, but I had a 1.5hr journey to work and they couldn’t cover expenses. So with the blessing of my MD I asked if I could go it alone and spend some time working directly with the artisans producer groups in India, Nepal and the Philippines.
In February 2012 I took a massive leap of faith. I gave 90% of my belongings to charity and packed the rest into a backpack, got on a plane for Nepal and I’ve never looked back. During the 2 years that I travelled Asia I volunteered with fair trade artisans to improve their product ranges helping them secure orders from buyers in Germany and Australia. If I wasn’t inspired already to support fair trade these 2 years certainly set it in stone. The artisans are the most hard working, kind and smart people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. The way they value people, planet and making a fair profit is in my opinion the only way to run a sustainable business for future markets. The values and policies of my business One Line are based on those fair trade principles.
Design taught me how to use my creativity as a tool. Fair trade taught me that fair and open business models can work. Wanting a brighter future for the family Daniel and I hope to have one day inspired me to put the two together. I don’t ever want to be the kind of parent who says they didn’t try. Plus I remember my Dad telling me one day that the world isn’t fair and you know how powerful little girls trying to prove their Dad’s wrong can be!
What tips would you give other women who are thinking about setting up their own business?
At the beginning I think it was all about taking a leap of faith, about finding something that you’re passionate about. And keep it lean! For the first year I spent very little on the business and worked part time to support it. I think if you can then test the water first to see if there is a market for it but don’t get bogged down in the spreadsheets or you’ll never just do it!
Now I’d say try and be prepared for the ups and downs. Sometimes I have awful pangs of self doubt and worries that I’ll never earn enough money from it but then I think about the alternative and how miserable I’d be if I wasn’t doing something I cared about so much. So keep giving yourself a kick up the backside and this Be Digital course has helped me to remind myself that I don’t have to rush it all.
I also think you need to pick the people you involve in your business wisely. When it comes to mentors and co-workers find people who are prepared to take the time to understand what you want to achieve. There is a lot of free support you can get and having tried much of it some is better than others so don’t think you have to do everything. Be Digital has been great because they’ve taken the time to get to know us and also by being surrounded by other more experienced business women I’ve learned that staying true to my values will be the route to success.
We love your ethical approach to graphic design and running your own business – what are the benefits of the internet for your business?
It started on the internet. The day before I got on the plane to Nepal I was asked on Facebook by the then Director of The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand to help him source ethical products whilst on my travels. He’d seen my facebook status update – we didn’t even know each other he just saw my profile and passion for fair trade, checked out my CV and became the first official client of One Line.
Around the same time Premcrest UK one of the UKs largest supplier of ethical confectionary saw the same post and this project was done on the world smallest laptop with dodgy cable connections from a budget hostel in Kathmandu. (see my fave travel image attached that’s how I had to hold the cables up to get a charge for my laptop!)
That alone is an amazing benefit of the internet – that relationships can be established no matter where you are in the world and the domino effect of those relationships is orders for fair trade artisans, an income for me and beautiful products for consumers across the globe – amazing!
I don’t want the business to be bound geographically. Therefore being able to use things like Skype to meet with clients, dropbox to share work, of course email to communicate and social media to help clients get to know me enables me to work from anywhere at any time. Internet based working has enabled the business to grow a lot faster than it would have done without it… I’d have been driving all over the country like Arthur Millar otherwise..
What are your future plans for One Line?
Currently I have a big eCommerce brand to design and develop for a client in Dubai so mostly that as well as a Travel brand for a UK client who is Midlands based. I continue to work with regular clients, most are based in London. I would love to work with more clients who need branding and it’d be great to support some local businesses with my skills.
In the next few months I’m going to be campaigning on twitter about fair trade handicrafts. I feel like now I’m a bit more comfortable with blogging it’s my duty to help the fair trade producers access a wider market. They often don’t have the digital access that we do. Yet they have goods and services which can improve the value of your business. I think people don’t realise just how much is possible with fair trade. It’s a lot more than just tea and coffee, everything from waterproof packaging to promotional gifts. So by connecting UK businesses with ethical suppliers I hope to help those people who want to boost the global economy in a sustainable fashion.
I have big ideas for a fair trade fashion line. It’ll have to be a lot later down the line but with a digital focus! I’m studying through Future Learn online to help work towards this.
Even in the short time One Line has been set up in the UK I have seen an increase in the very idea of ethical creative businesses being a ‘thing’ and I am so pleased to be part of that and I hope I can continue to raise awareness of just how diverse ethical business can be so it becomes more of the norm.
Photographs by Rachel of RJM Photography.
Name of interviewee: Helen Barlow
Business name: One Line
Website: onelinestudio.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OneLineStudio.hb
Twitter: twitter.com/onelinestudio
Business type: Ethical Graphic Design
Location: Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland