31/07/2025
📖 STORY TIME ☕️
Bit nervous to post this but I want to give some insight into who you work with when employing Caliba Studio.
1️⃣ That’s me on my dad’s shoulders 🐥. I’ve always been curious, creative, and just a little obsessed with how things work. In Grade 5, I was asked to teach the class how to draw a 1700s ship 🏴☠️. Most kids were still tackling stick figures—I was out here illustrating naval history ⚓️.
2️⃣ In high school, I sold paintings 🎨. I drew fashion figures, seascapes, birds, waterfalls—whatever stirred something in me. I sketched a bonsai tree once that my teacher proudly pinned next to the whiteboard for years. That moment stuck: maybe I had something real.
3️⃣ My very first paid design job was for Coastal Locums 🏄🏼♂️ while I was still at uni. I was terrified—and excited. When they said “We love it,” it felt like I had cemented my career path and was on my way.
4️⃣ Getting my first junior design role was tough. I couldn’t get a shot, so I kept doing online courses, pushing myself, learning the Adobe suite inside-out. Eventually, I landed a role at a print house—and I haven’t looked back.
5️⃣ I later went back to uni to refine what I’d learned on the ground. I got deep into typography, layout, photography—and one of my projects was featured at AGIdeas Design Conference. I started to really understand the why behind good design.
6️⃣ I freelanced under the name Creative AF Designs (thought it was witty), working on van wraps, packaging, invitations, and branding for small businesses. I learned to strip things back to the bone—not just making things pretty, but purposeful. Because when the foundation is clear, everything else falls into place.
7️⃣ Now I run Caliba Studio. I specialise in strategic, minimalist branding for thoughtful founders who care about meaning, clarity, and impact. My work is rooted in hierarchy, intuition, and precision—because design isn’t decoration. It’s communication.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned—it’s this:
Sometimes it’s the very people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.
(Thanks, Alan Turing.)
I’ve been underestimated. I’ve felt invisible. And I’ve also built something that makes people feel seen. That’s what Caliba is about.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
🖤 Let me know which part resonated—or tag someone who needs to hear that quiet persistence is still powerful.