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Expat Wannabe Freelancing Graphic Design London Mental Health

24 Things I Did When I Was 24

posted on November 8, 2014

24 Things When I Was 24

Because if you can’t reflect on what you’ve accomplished on your birthday, when can you?

1. Started a design business — or started freelancing as a designer, whichever. I filled up my Etsy shop in the wee hours of November 8, 2013, and hopefully I’ll have redesigned all the graphics by the end of the weekend. I’m also raising my prices tomorrow, so if you’ve been thinking about hiring me, today would be an excellent time!

2. Discovered print design via media kits, and realized if I could only ever do print design with the occasional logo and larger project thrown in, I would be a happy designer.

3. Designed a magazine cover with my face on it. This was last week, but it counts.

district-cover

4. Modeled professionally — i.e. for money — for the first time in my life.

5. Was on a boat also for the first time in my life. For a shoot. Wore a wedding dress for the first time in my life, also for a shoot. Modeling is kind of awesome, but can be terribly exhausting, too.

self-portrait-boat-1590

6. Attended my first ever blogger event. It was interesting. My social anxiety reached highs (lows?) I’d forgotten it could reach, but I’m glad I went.

7. Met my best friend in person again for the first time since 2008.

8. Photographed a fashion shoot with a full creative team for the first time in my life. It was one of those experiences where you learn a few things the hard way — both about yourself and about other people, the creative industry, the importance of agreements and so on. I haven’t shared this shoot on the blog yet, but I will sometime this month. I’m proud of those photos, and I enjoyed working with the creatives on that team.

9. Photographed products for money for the first time! That’s another shoot I’m dying to share with you guys. Not only did I photograph them, but I also modeled them. Self-portraiture commercial photography is so much fun when you’ve got a little bit of help.

product-photography

Click to book!

10. Photographed real-life people who were actually there to be photographed. Not for money, yet, but hopefully sometime soon. I’ve posted two bits of shoots so far: Christine Cherry and Leigh Travers. But there’s a fair bit more.

Beauty Photography by Lix Hewett London Portrait Photographer

Another beauty shoot I need to post: Paulina Maria (model) styled by herself and made-up by Bethany Owen, who styled and MUA’d and organized the boat shoot above.

11. Volunteered to photograph a Pride event. Need to share those photos on the blog, too, probably. This list may be a list of posts to come, ha.

12. Got used to getting out of the house and walking at least ten minutes every day again for the first time since I dropped out of college (again) in 2009.

13. Went off antidepressants. It was horrible. I needed a change, and I stabilized eventually, but I had some of the worst days I’ve ever had. I was suicidal and crying and couldn’t do anything.

14. Had a lot of breakdowns over money. Had some of the truly worst days of my life. Survived them all.

printrbook - lix hewett

And made a book to remember it.

15. Started making money regularly, if only because I needed it to stay housed and fed. Didn’t always make it on time, but things worked out somehow. In this new year of my life, I would like to take the “somehow” out of the equation.

16. Flathunted for the first time in my life. It was horrible. It did a number on my mental health. It really was my least favorite thing I did this year. The thought of having to do it again sometime makes me understand why people pay exorbitant agency fees. Then again, I’d probably have had less trouble flathunting if I’d had that kind of cash. Things worked out, anyway. Somehow. Stroke of luck. I don’t want anyone to think there’s a trick or a way to make it through flathunting in London on a tiny budget unscathed. There isn’t, unless you have a stroke of luck.

17. Lived in Ciudad Real, Spain, with my parents and sister and cat; lived in Belsize Park with my best friend for a very short time; lived in Leicestershire with a friend I met through this blog for another short time; lived in Ladbroke Grove with two cats and a puppy (and a landlady); lived in Streatham with a kitten (and no one else); lived in Crouch End with a flatmate whose father was the owner of the flat; lived in Hampstead Heath with a host family (and another lodger); lived — live — in Belsize Park in a rented room in the landlady’s flat, with said landlady and two cats and another lodger (and as of today, one besides).

There was a lot of moving. A lot of temporary solutions and things that didn’t work out. I have a year-long lease now, and I’m hoping it will last the year, at minimum. See #16.

There were also quite a few cats.

streatham-elliot-face

This is the one I was tasked with keeping alive for a week.

18. Wrote for money for the first time in my life. Truly never thought I’d be able to make money off my writing, so it’s been an interesting turn. I need to be more consistent about it, because I truly suck at that bit, but there’s potential for regular income and that’s really important to me.

I also designed an infographic.

19. Had a crush on a real live person for the first time in ages. I forgot about it until a few weeks ago, and then I was like, wait, no, it wasn’t that long ago that I last had a proper crush. I was still on antidepressants, so it was a bit different from crushes past, but it was definitely a crush. It’s just good to know I haven’t lost my ability to be attracted to real-life people, you know? Years of basically being a hermit can make you wonder.

20. Was on my own for my birthday for — the second time, actually. First was in college, the first time, when I was in a dorm. Similar bad place, similar journaling bits, only now I depend on myself, and I mostly make it work. But I haven’t cried in a really bad way yet, and that’s kind of amazing.

21. Skipped the Spanish summer, and could not be happier about that. Finally. (Sorry I missed my sister’s birthday, but you know. I wasn’t in the country.)

Not that summer skipped London, but it wasn't awful nearly as frequently.

Not that summer skipped London, but it wasn’t awful nearly as frequently.

22. Designed a mockup of my ideal blog, and delegated the coding to a friend. This was also last week, and it also still counts. I’m straightening out my branding and I’m very, very happy with the way it’s turning out.

23. Invested in a few things — was able to invest in a few things — starting with a tripod and a tablet, and ending with a flight to another country for the purpose of a trip to see my best friend or maybe staying, if I could make it work for me.

24. Made it work for me, and stayed in London. Six months last week. When 2013 started, I’d made that the year I got out, and it never happened — but it happened four months into 2014. Despite all the stress, all the worrying, all the breakdowns, all the times I’ve missed my cat and my guitar and my mom, not necessarily in that order; despite how hard it’s been, I’m so, so, so proud of myself for taking the plunge and getting that flight ticket.

I try to keep that in mind, because it was a true display of bravery that I didn’t think I was capable of. I really thought it would never happen, not on my own. But I’m here, and I’m finding my footing, and all through the pessimistic bits, all the hopelessness, this is where I want to be. This was my dream move, and I made it happen.

—

So, those are some things I did when I was 24. I still need to go through my 25 Before 25 list and see how hard I failed at it, but I did make progress on some of it. And then I’ll see about putting together a 26 Before 26 — or maybe not until I’ve accomplished at least 50% of the 25 list. That seems doable, yeah? I think it does.

Back to work now — that’s what I’m doing for my birthday, trying to use the motivation of a new beginning to get on track. I blogged about this on Tuesday, and my birthday wishlist is still open if anyone wants to buy me anything. Like I keep saying: book me for a shoot and I’ll buy that 50mm lens and use it on you. Do it for my birthday. Or for yourself. I do take excellent pictures, and I do excellent design things with them.

40 Comments

Giveaways Graphic Design Portfolio

Recent Work: Lo Bosworth Media Kit + Giveaway!

posted on October 23, 2014

Lo Bosworth Media Kit - designed by Lix Hewett (preview)

As part of my attempt to share more of my work on this blog, I wanted to show you guys some of my print design work. The bulk of it is media kits for bloggers, and it is genuinely one of my favorite things to design.

If you’re a blogger or an influencer of some kind, you probably already know how convenient having a media kit is; it’s so much easier to offer up or attach a media kit than list your stats over and over, not to mention it’s cleaner, harder to lose, and more professional — and it gives you the chance to show off your blog and branding and really catch people’s eyes.

But today I am not just showing you a sampling of my media kit design work — I am also giving away a 2-page custom media kit design, valued at £75, to one of my readers!

I’m lucky to be joined by a few lovely ladies who have graciously agreed to co-host this giveaway and introduce their readers to my work. In return, I would love if you guys checked out their blogs as well. It’s a very diverse group, which I love because it shows that media kits aren’t for just one particular type of blogger or social media influencer. Bloggers small and big can benefit from one, and I am really really excited to punctuate that sentence with one of the most recent media packs I created — my longest, my first horizontal one, and my first for someone whose blog isn’t any more important than her other social media channels.

Media Kit Design for Lo Bosworth by Lix Hewett

Some pages taken out and details blurred for privacy.

These are some other media kits I have designed:

Media Kit Design by Lix Hewett

And many can be viewed as PDFs on Issuu.

And without further ado, here is the giveaway!

Media Kit Design Giveaway with Lix Hewett Creative

(In the spirit of sharing my work, that is my photography, my design and my freehand writing.)

It is open until October 31st at midnight, and open worldwide to anyone who has a blog or social media influence of some kind. Basically, if you could use a media kit, this giveaway is open to you. Winner will be emailed within 48 hours of the giveaway ending, and will have 28 days to claim the prize before another winner is drawn.

Co-hosts: Marielle / This Flooded Sky · Miranda / A July Dreamer · Abbie / The Pink Paper Doll · Samantha / Coco Butter Blog · Dawn / Leroy Lime

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! And if it’s something else you’re in need of — a blog design, some category buttons, a logo — feel free to head over to my Etsy shop and use the code YAYFALL to take 10% off your entire order!

51 Comments

Closet Cosplay Fashion Modeling Outfits

Halloween Style: Little Witch Costume

posted on October 17, 2014

witch-costume-1

I have this admittedly ridiculous problem where I don’t like parties, but I love to dress up. Cosplay is obviously the best option, but costumes and cons are expensive, which is why closet cosplay is always on my mind — dressing up in your day-to-day life using items that you can wear in the rest of your day-to-day life is a winner in both my heart and my budget.

But sometimes it’s fun to really, properly dress up, and I like that modeling allows me to do that. In that spirit, a while back, I was sent a witch costume — a tiny colorful witch costume with a Playboy logo on the ribcage. I’m not much for sexy Halloween costumes because they don’t remind me of anything, and like I said, I’m into cosplay — and what I like about that is portraying characters, not generic archetypes. Generic archetypes bore me to tears.

But I saw this costume and I immediately thought of two things:

  1. Bubble Witch Saga, the kids version
  2. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the cartoon version

Plenty of reason to play around with it, right?

It got a bit cold before I was able to get the shoot I really wanted in, but I did have a shoot with photographer Darren M Gomes one night in Hampstead/Hampstead Heath, and we did get some cool shots!

Photography: Darren M Gomes
Model, Makeup, Styling, Some Retouching: Lix Hewett
Witch costume c/o Joke

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Freelancing Graphic Design Portfolio

Recent Work: Blog Design for The Luminous Kitchen

posted on October 13, 2014

I’ve been meaning to share some of the design work I’ve been doing since I last shared any design work, and it’s kind of piled up. I was having trouble picking a place to start, then decided to just do it chronologically. The blog I’m sharing today I finished designing in early June, between Streatham and Crouch End. The moodboard — which is not something I make use of very often — was created between designing the logo and designing the blog. The design in general sort of ran around the light gray wooden pallet texture; I drew some breezy, beachy vibes from that, and of course sunny from the name of the blog, The Luminous Kitchen. I also used Jo’s gorgeous photography to drive some oomph into the color palette.

It was a really satisfying project — frustrating at times, on my end, because I’m more of a designer than a developer and getting the header to work gave me a bit of a migraine, but I was and am really pleased with the end result, and the way I was able to communicate with Jo to figure out what she wanted the website to look like — she actually provided sketches at one point, because, when words fail you, you doodle. I think that’s a rule somewhere.

blog-design-tlk

I really am super happy with how this one turned out. I think it’s my favorite blog design I’ve done so far (though I’m hoping the next two will blow it out of the water!). There’s something so seasidey about it that’s only enhanced by the beautiful photographs on the blog. I also loved the little tricks I learned, like styling the Recipeasy plugin and installing a floating Scroll To Top button. It was also my first time using the Foodie theme or the Genesis Framework, and I wouldn’t call myself a convert or anything, but I do see why so many developers make use of it.

Hope you like this design! If you’re interested in working together, I offer blog design packages on my Etsy shop, and I also offer custom packages for portfolios and e-commerce websites. You can also get just a logo, or just a header, or just a media kit. Get in touch!

34 Comments

Photography

Photography: Portrait & Fashion Photography with Leigh Travers

posted on October 5, 2014

Leigh Travers | Photography by Lix Hewett | London Portrait Photographer

Back in August — last month, practically, as it was the 30th — I had the opportunity to do a little shoot with fashion blogger Leigh Travers from Fox and Feather. She just posted the first set of photos I edited, so I thought I’d do the same. We shot another two outfits and a variation on this one in a different setting, so there’s more coming, and I’m excited about that — this was by far the hardest batch to edit!

I had a real blast shooting these with Leigh. I’d gone a few weeks without shooting anyone and I always forget how incredibly relaxing it is for me until I do it again. For this outfit, which was the third one we did, we found a lovely nook in a driveaway just off Haverstock Hill, and it was gorgeous, but also kind of dark! I wish I’d had my tripod with me. It also made me wish I had a 50 mm lens, but that’s every day really.

Image-heavy, so click the ‘read more’ to have a browse!

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Modeling

Modeling: River Boat Shoot, Thames, Abingdon: Photos by Chris Drury

posted on September 25, 2014

Back in August, my friend (I think I can call her a friend by now) Bethany Owen organized a little pinup and swimwear shoot on her inlaws’ boat on the Thames. It was a long, grueling day and also really, really fun because working with someone you get along with and who cares about how you feel is great. Obviously. But modeling for money can be severely lacking in the latter, which I’ll go into further in a couple of other posts I’ve got planned — one about modeling in general, and a follow-up to this one, because Bethany and I got a lot of pictures besides the ones the photographer took (I think she actually enjoyed herself after the first couple of times I arranged all the manual settings and handed her the camera!), and because I want to do that little ‘what you don’t see in the pictures’ blurb on all my modeling shoots, just like I did when I posted my bridal shoot photos from Pagli Rajkonna.

But today I am very busy and did not have a post scheduled, so I thought I’d begin by sharing these.

Photography: Chris Drury (editing and retouching for web by Lix Hewett)
Makeup & Styling: Bethany Owen
Model: Lix Hewett

Lix Hewett | Makeup & Styling by Bethany Owen | Photography by Chris Drury

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Photography Portfolio

Photography: Casual Portrait Photography With Christine Cherry

posted on September 24, 2014

Christine Cherry by Lix Hewett Photography | London Portrait Photographer

Is this my first time posting portrait photography on the blog? I think it may be! These are just some snaps I took at the end of a shoot with a fellow photographer — I actually modeled for her, and I shot these in about ten minutes just before she headed back to the tube station. You can see what we did together here and here.

I finally got around to editing the photos I took that day, and I wanted to share them here. I’ve got quite a sizable backlog of photos to edit, portrait and otherwise, and a new portfolio launching soon, so these posts are going to become a regular feature here in the coming weeks, months… possibly years. Photography is currently my least profitable line of work, but somehow, it remains my favorite. A sign that I need to keep working to make it profitable, right? Right.

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Poetry

Poetry: The Last Poem I Wrote Before I Quit Writing

posted on September 19, 2014

IMG_5849

November 2012

Untitled

You’re standing in front of a cliff. You’re standing in front
of something steep and you have to climb it. The ultimate metaphor, the go-to
for pop songs and speeches alike. Your two thumbs go for it.
Can you imagine truly being outside, and having
to sink your nails into soil and the space between pebbles,
the dirty side of the great outdoors? Maybe in the right outfit, you say.
Outfit is the wrong word. It’s not. I’m not talking about equipment. We go
back to the stand-in issue, the simile and the allegory and the— Channeling,
you say. I call it channeling. For as long as the world’s gone round, there’ve been
heroes. Some lives are less stained than others. Some lives are larger. Some
people are eclipsed by their own talents. And would you like to know them?
Would you like the record to reflect the disparities between
man and feat? Human and feat. Either way. It’s a tricky subject. And
choosing yes won’t change a thing. Most likely not. What if they don’t exist? What if
they’re a creation? Aren’t they all? But we call some history, we call some real.
We put up a sign and it says, ‘here’s a true story.’ Precisely. We claw out their eyes.
Snow’s falling and we’ve clawed their eyes out. We’ve climbed their point of
view and stuck a flag at the top. And there’s snow on the flag. There’s snow on the top.
It melts by summer. The log is done for but the snow has gone. It won’t rain
for another eight months. You’ve come down and you’re standing
in front of something steep and it’s dressed so you can climb it. You’re dressed
so you can climb it. The ultimate metaphor. The go-to for everything.
Your two thumbs go for it.

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Life + Style Modeling Wedding Inspiration

Modeling / Bridal Shoot with Pagli Rajkonna

posted on September 15, 2014

modeling-bridal-1

Photography: Pagli Rajkonna
Makeup/Hair: Aria Hussain
Location: Hill Garden and Pergola, Hampstead Heath/Golders Hill Park

modeling-bridal-2

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Fashion Modeling

5 Ways To Wear A Long Scarf

posted on September 9, 2014

scarf-header



5 Ways To Wear A Long Scarf

 
Scarf used: Handprinted scarf (Persuasion quote: “I am half agony, half hope”) from neenacreates on Etsy
Photography: Paul Harrison

Standard Double Wrap Scarf

scarf-mid

Long Scarf

scarf-long

Wrap

scarf-wrap-front

scarf-wrap-back

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Meet Lix

Welcome to my blog! I'm Lix: full-time graphic designer for bloggers and freelancers, and part-time photographer. I'm an unapologetic cat lady and perpetually angry feminist nightmare. I like attention and pretty things, and that's why I run a lifestyle blog. Learn more.
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