Celine's Journey

Celine started her career in the creative city of Copenhagen, returning to Melbourne to work in boutique brand agencies, before leaping into the freelancing world and running her own business for 5 years. Beyond design and branding, she brings to life, purpose, values, and character of a business through brand identities, digital, and packaging.

Celine started her career in the creative city of Copenhagen, returning to Melbourne to work in boutique brand agencies, before leaping into the freelancing world and running her own business for 5 years. Beyond design and branding, she brings to life, the purpose, values, and character of a business through brand identities, digital, and packaging.

Prior to Harvey Celine has worked with some super impactful clients like:

  • Common Ground, who centre First Nations people by amplifying knowledge, cultures and stories through storytelling; 
  • Homeroom, who provide an informative and inclusive directory of local Australian fashion to empower more deliberate consumer choices an;
  • Happy Human, who came up with the brilliant idea of washing tablets; removing water quantity from everyday washing liquor, therefore lowering transportation emissions and reducing waste of household products too.

Now, let's hand over to Celine...

My reflection on working at Harvey. 

We are encouraged to learn and grow beyond our specialised field

One of my favourite things about working at Harvey is how the team encourages each other to keep growing and learning. It's not just about being great at a specialised field, we are also encouraged to dive into other areas that we're interested in, and our monthly development chats with our mentor help keep us accountable.

Open and honest conversations make me feel connected, valued & motivated

Another big one for me is the open, honest conversations we have. It's not just about work; we chat about personal stuff too. Our goals, what we're thinking, feeling, needing. This makes me feel super connected as a team, and when you feel valued like that, you're naturally more motivated to do your best work. The growth mindset and working with purpose-led impact clients are some of the big reasons why I love being part of the team.

Celine's reflections in the end of week wrap

A typical day for me

Check-in; the creative zone; website to brand & water cooler

An ideal workday starts with a big glass of water and a full body session at the gym before logging into work, and checking in on how everyone's doing that day in the daily standup and morning meetings. 

Celine's daily stand up

Then I get in the zone for a few hours of strategic design on projects such as; design reviews for a website (Merry People), helping wireframe content for a new website (CPSN), and bringing a visual identity into the digital space (The Sociable Weaver). I break for lunch, hoping there are leftovers from the night before and go for a quick walk to get my body moving or join a 3 o'clock squat/stretch with the team to get through that afternoon lull. Then maybe a water cooler to end the workday to discuss things like; how schlep is a great word, plan a team Pickleball outing, how Sarah's Endo is going, or talk about our latest finds on Facebook marketplace.

Pickleball outing with Sarah, Hannah, Celine & Rachel 

My recent project highlights

Farm My School: Brand uplift

Farm My School brand uplift Google Slides template

I worked on Farm My School’s website and a brand uplift by designing new Google Slide templates. Throughout the project, I loved learning about urban farming and thought that the whole concept of utilising unused school ovals to grow produce so inspiring. It made me wish I had attended a school that had this urban farming model growing up. See more on the brand uplift in our case study.

KOSI: Packaging

KOSI soap packaing design concepts

I worked with Sarah in designing soap packaging for KOSI.  Through this work, I’ve learnt many things about the Solomon Islands; Solomon Islanders place a high value on community, familial relationships and in-person connection. Also that coconuts are more than just a crop in the Solomon Islands—they are a fundamental part of life, culture, and the economy. I love that I'm contributing in a small way to change people's lives by helping their economy through elevating the design output of local brands.

The Sociable Weaver: Website design

The Sociable Weaver home page design concepts in Figma

I started the website design project by gathering information and collaborating with the team for ideas and inspiration to refresh the existing brand. I learnt some fun facts and interesting things along the way. Sarah introduced me to Harvey's Webflow systems, which helped me improve design systems to help carry over design to build. And I was introduced to Passive House design; an approach/standard to creating beautiful, healthy, and sustainable homes that positively impact people and the planet.

My biggest lessons

“Don’t try to please everyone.” Know your key audience and focus on them; who they are; what they like; & their pain points. 

Something I think is super important but people often find a little boring in marketing is thinking about your key audience; who are they, what do they like, what do they do, to truly get an idea out of what that audience needs, and what their pain points are. This will be very valuable for you in your marketing, it will provide more relevance, therefore higher engagement and give us the ability to gather valuable data and insights. Often I see businesses/brands try to please/talk to everyone but this means that they don’t know their key audience, and their messaging isn't as relevant/effective - it's generic so it doesn't really connect.

I love it when agencies share what they’re learning within the community.

I love it when agencies share their latest projects or what they’ve learnt in the industry, sharing their knowledge with the marketing community. A few updates that I’ve loved recently include:

Brands that inspire me

The world of B.

Celine and Sarah at a B Corp Event

New to the B Corp scene, and I’m learning a lot about the B Corp certification and what they do at B Lab. The other week I went to an event with Sarah and learnt that they certify not only products but businesses too and I was exposed to how they’re reframing their standard of certification for companies that seek to balance profit-making with social and environmental responsibility. I love the community and like-minded people that it brings together, huge fan!

Klean Kanteen, Nimble Activewear & Goldi.

And, some brands I recently stumbled across in my online window shopping; Klean Kanteen and Nimble Activewear. Both B Corps and more considered, impactful brands on the journey to help the planet and people. Super cool! In a very different industry (my foodie research) I found this brand called Goldi a local Victorian olive oil brand with a focus on sustainable farming and quality products. 

The content I consume

Ingredipedia podcast on Spotify

As an everyday foodie, I love a lighthearted deep dive into food and ingredients!

This next piece of content will expose the fact that I’m a big foodie! I love the podcast, Ingredepedia—a fun deep dive into food and ingredients. The episode on plums (in season as I write this) introduced me to a bunch of varieties, including European and indigenous. And did you know you can make mashed potatoes from chips in the microwave? I haven’t tried it yet, but stay tuned!

No items found.
No items found.
22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Evee
Farm My School
Gewürzhaus
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE
No items found.
22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Evee
Farm My School
Gewürzhaus
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE

No items found.
No items found.
22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Evee
Farm My School
Gewürzhaus
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE

Targets

Results

Clients | Help conscious business grow

No destructive clients. Revenue breakdown: 15% Good, 60% Great, 25% Amazing (Here’s what the classifications mean)

🟢
  • No destructive clients.
  • Revenue breakdown: 10% Good, 66% Great, 25% Amazing

Client survey metrics

  • 3 /5 value for money
  • 8 / 10 likely to recommend
🟢
  • 3.4 / 5 value for money
  • 8.8 / 10 likely to recommend

Maintain current revenue

🟠
  • Revenue down 16% YoY

Team | Be the best versions of us

  • All staff spend 70%+ of their time on clients
🟢
  • Spent 71% of our time on clients (over by only 76 hours).
  • Regular, honest check-ins about how we feel
🟢
  • Stand ups, development sessions, watercooler chats, impact updates and more.
  • Targeted and clear personal growth, if we are better our clients will be
🟢
  • Lots of on-the-tools growth, structured learning through weekly Lunch ‘n Learns and Intro to Programming at RMIT.
  • Improve and increase capability across team
🟢
  • Elevated our tool nerd level. See here.
  • Expanding output skills: Market research, Web design, strategy & development, video editing, and automation strategy.
  • 9 day fortnights, with option for 4 day weeks
🟠
  • 40% work 9 day fortnights, 40% part-time hours, 20% standard working hours.

Community | Lift the communities we’re part of

  • Protest and boycott important issues (Australia Day, Melbourne Cup)
🟢
  • Buy with intention from local and discriminated groups
🟢
  • We continue to be intentional about our suppliers as outlined in our policy and report the details in the Community chapter of our report. We took it one step further this year with a public call to pledge to audit suppliers in this campaign www.supplier-impact.com
  • Invest $20k in impact businesses plus $20k of 100% pro bono time
🟠
  • We delivered some pro bono time but dropped the ball and had no official measurements in place. We also did not invest $20k in impact businesses because of the reduced revenue with Becky on maternity leave.
  • Sarah personally donated her photography equipment valued at around $7,500 to empower a content and brand producer in the Solomon Islands.
  • Have a RAP, engaged stakeholders and implemented more change
🔴
  • Due to competing priorities and limited time (no lack in desire) we de-prioritised our Reconciliation Action Plan as we want to do it meaningfully and have the capacity to follow through. However, we took a few first steps outlined here.

Environment | Crank up the action on climate and environment

  • Be climate positive at work and at home
🟠
  • We don’t track our CO2 emissions, rather we take a much more general and high emissions view. However, this year, we didn’t donate to the environment (see above) so we can’t say we countered our CO2.
  • Donate 5% to the environment
🔴
  • We fell short here, we didn't make the donation. More details here.
  • Re-use, recycle and manage dangerous waste
🟢
  • We continue to implement our hazardous waste policy and are on a continuous learning and improvement journey.
  • We repair damaged hardware and minimise purchasing of new equipment.
  • Personally we're all Facebook Marketplace fans.
  • Advocate for climate change / inspire sustainable living
🟢

Governance | Operate fairly and squarely as an impact business

  • Maintain current ownership and governance
🟢
  • Harvey is 100% owned by the Smallchua Family Trust and Rebecca Smallchua is our sole Director.
  • Share templates, documents, insight into business for good
🟠
  • We haven’t actively done this publicly, but when people have asked, we have shared. And we’re sharing a series of things as part of this impact report.
  • Re-use, recycle and manage dangerous waste
🟢
  • We continue to implement our hazardous waste policy and are on a continuous learning and improvement journey.
  • We repair damaged hardware and minimise purchasing of new equipment.
  • Personally we're all Facebook Marketplace fans.
  • Maintain B Corp score from 134.1 with workers included
🟢
  • We applied for our B Corp re-certification at the end of this financial year and are pleased to report we achieved the same score (to the decimal point). Wild!
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