This is the bit where I give you my life story.
Have I mentioned I like telling stories? In the spirt of precisely that (and because it's my page, I can be self-indulgent) here’s the chapters of my story that all hit a different tone. All of this is 100% true.
Chapter 1:
In what would be her first and final occasion of arriving early to any social gathering, Katherine Fischer made her entrance into the world some ten weeks ahead of schedule.
It was a dramatic debut. Her mother took a 400-kilometre emergency helicopter journey that crossed state borders to Melbourne, rendering Katherine quite unceremoniously the sole Victorian among a family of proud South Australians.
Thus, she began her life with a prevailing sense of dislocation.
She was raised in the country, in a township of such modest scale that most recreation of note was ostensibly river-based. Fertile soil makes for good farming, but not quite fertile opportunity for a young girl who wanted to write for a living.
And so, she gathered herself and journeyed to the nearest city that would have her.
In the style of Charles Dickens. That guy loved beginning the story at literal birth.
Chapter 2:
I'd made it Sydney, a place whose seedy underbelly always seemed to roll over and present itself for a scratch. And while I was stuffing around between higher education and a grown-up job—I found myself working as a receptionist in a brothel.
I now had all this under-the-belt experience under my belt. And after the world of hookers and blow, getting into marketing seemed like the next logical career move.
Both also seemed to share a certain sense of desire-driven, late-night madness.
In the style of Hunter S. Thompson. The second act means you have to answer the call. And if you're feeling a little gonzo, let's go for a ride.
Chapter 3:
Now being a number years into the industry, I carry a title most people don’t understand: Verbal Design Director. For a long time, it didn’t feel right. Like language had been placed in a lesser category.
Because design, around these parts, means visual. And then there's 'verbal design'. An afterthought. Like qualifying someone as a ‘female doctor’.
But in branding, no matter the discipline, we all begin at the root. We build from nothing, or we reshape what’s there. We move things from what they are, to become what we can imagine. We all do the work of design.
It is foundational, but it rarely bears our names. It gets handed over, and finished by someone else; to end up on a highway, or on your TV, or in aisle three. We're like parents who are constantly waving goodbye as yet another child goes off to university. And you can only hope that what you did in the early years is going to be good enough to see them through.
So I guess that is what I do with words. I design them.
And then I let them go.
In the style of bell hooks. The present. Time for contemplation.
Chapter 4:
For hire: brand writer, never worn (out)