I absolutely love businesses and brands that give, and you’ll be reading more about my favourite ‘giving brands’ in the future. Today though, let me introduce Ethically Creative.
A crazy, quirky testimonial
My much-loved graphic and web designer, Shona Maitland, has started another business – Ethically Creative.
First, to understand my admiration of Shona’s work, please read the below testimonial. (At the time of writing the testimonial Shona was working with existing Slogan Creator branding, since then I’ve hired her to rebrand the Slogan Creator logo, which you can see at the top of this website.) Shona has referred many of her clients to me for taglines, and I’ve referred many of my clients to her for graphic design.
“Shona Maitland is a rare find because every aspect of working with her was an absolute joy. She has amazing graphic design skills but she’s also professional, friendly, competitively-priced, responsive and relaxed. Added to this, she is a genuinely warm and wonderful person with a beautiful heart (yes I did surgery on her, it was messy but rewarding).
Although Shona was working with my existing branding, she still took the time to really get to know my business, and she was always so generous with her time and wisdom. I can see myself working with Shona over and over and over again. My fear is that she’ll get too busy to work with me, so please cancel everything I’ve just said … she’s awful. She says mean things about kittens and I’m pretty sure she’s 3% cyborg. After working with her, she tattooed her business details onto my chin, all the while spreading vicious lies about ponies. If you like kittens and ponies and your chin, I wouldn’t work with her.”
The irony of course is that Shona is an enormous animal-lover who wouldn’t say a mean thing about any animal, not even those slightly unstable Amazonian piranhas.
The heart of Ethically Creative
Shona works with businesses and organisations that contribute in some way to the greater good of all humanity. At the heart of Ethically Creative is a business with heart.
This is how Shona describes Ethically Creative on her website:
“Ethically Creative is my legacy. My mark. I will develop it and love it for my entire life because it is a perfect blend of how I want to spend every day. Creativity through graphic design is my talent, whilst knowing that I’m helping to make a difference in the lives of others (human or animal) and contributing my share to the larger world keeps me fulfilled. Ethically Creative isn’t a ‘day-job’ to me; it’s a way of life. I found a way to turn my career into a passion that impacts on more than just me.”
Not a fan of starvation
Ethically Creative is not about pro bono work though.
Like most of us, Shona is not a fan of starvation, so rather than doing work for free she donates a portion of the design fee back to charities, or to a client’s own donation department. As Shona writes:
“We only design for people or businesses who exist to support our world for the better. Through this commitment, Ethically Creative and all our clients form a community of ethical services who help to grow and give back to each other.
Whether you’re big or small; our collective includes many remarkable people with exceptional services. Each organisation is listed within our ethical directory so they receive the limelight and promotion that they deserve.
If you are devoted to helping others and making a difference, then we want to help you build your brand. In fact, we love getting involved with your goal so much that we revolve around a very exciting loyalty program.”
Ethically Creative’s Tagline
Although I’ve done copywriting work for Shona in the past, she’s a great writer and takes sole credit for her tagline and all the copy and headlines on her website.
Some of her cool tagline-esque headlines:
So there you have it, Ethically Creative is one of the brands I love, because it loves to give.
What are your favourite giving brands? Join the conversation on Facebook!
Exciting footnote, May 2015: I have been asked to join the Ethically Creative team on a freelance basis and I jumped at the opportunity. This doesn’t affect my work at Slogan Creator in the slightest, only that it perhaps makes me more ethical? Oh well, I guess we have to make some compromises! 😉
