James Delin Creative

10/08/2022

KEYSTONE HABITS - PERSONAL GROWTH HACK or POWER TOOL?

Creativity is a strange, wonderful beast. I’ve taken 4 or 5 of these photos at different times this year to present the “6:31am” series. I didn’t know why I wanted to create this weird little series until this morning, then it hit me. Growth.

As for so many of us, this last year has been about growth. Growth as a society, adapting to a (more or less) post-COVID world, and growth as individuals to maintain our place in that society. With all the bewildering methods of achieving personal growth, where the hell is anyone expected to start?!

Well, for me, I started with Keystone Habits. A Keystone Habit is a seemingly small habit we can form that benefits other elements of our lives. This image represents my own keystone habit of making an effort to get up early.

My growth as an individual has been rapid and profound over the last year. There’s nothing groundbreaking here - if I’m up earlier, I get more done. More admin, more work, more tea made.

As someone who is clinically inconsistent, winning back some regularity has improved my mental health, which in turn improves my ability to focus and remain consistent, which cycles back to maintaining and improving my mental health, which then works to improve my physical health and so on and so forth.

If you are struggling with growth or you’re feeling left behind by what feels like EVERYONE experiencing their own growth around you, first of all that’s totally OK, be kind to yourself, it’s not as easy as people make out.

Secondly, when you’re ready, identify your own potential keystone habit and work to form it. An earlier wake-up time, a morning smoothie, a meat-free day, 10 minutes longer walking the dog, something that you can see will have benefits elsewhere in your life. Then forget everyone else’s growth, focus on your own and, with a bit of patience, celebrate your results!

Save this post to remind yourself of the power of Keystone Habits.

28/07/2022

Behind All Great Graphic Design Is a Strong Layout

A layout is the arrangement that brings together all the aspects of a design, like text, colour, and typography.

Its job is to make the message aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand. Layout design achieves this by manipulating aspects such as hierarchy, alignment, space and balance. If you would like to learn a bit more about what makes a good layout, let’s take a look at some of these points head over to this post on all things layout - https://bit.ly/3Q2T4PU

Incidentally - this poster was nominated and made it to the finale of the Poster Stellars Awards, held in New Jersey, USA.

06/07/2022

The Sale That Took Two Years To Close

A Post from James Delin

This is Alex Lane.

Alex is a personal trainer and entrepreneur, based in in the UK. He is not one of my clients - in fact, I am one of his.

Just before the pandemic gripped hold of the country, I made contact with Alex to book some personal training sessions. I was one of those who was so “head-in-the-clouds” I genuinely believed it would all blow over quite quickly.

Naively, I was quite surprised when I didn’t hear back from him straight away and, as COVID-19 swung its swift and terrible sword across the population, me reaching out to him faded into the obscurity of my long-term memory storage, unlikely to be recalled.

Fast forward to June 2022 I received a call from a number that wasn’t stored in my phone.

It was Alex!! He was immediately apologetic for not getting back to me, explaining that the pandemic had destroyed his business and he’s just getting back to piecing it together.

There was something I deeply respected about that phone call.

Simply that he had the fortitude and courage to call a prospect out of the blue a whole two years after they had initiated contact with him was massively inspiring to me.

Alex had done what I’m sure many of us have found difficult in the past and just got on the phone to warm up leads that had gone ice cold. And do you know what…he closed at least one sale!

Whether I signed up with him because I was inspired by his determination to reinvigorate his business, I felt empathy for a fellow business person or I had just eaten an entire big bag of twiglets and hadn’t moved from the sofa for 2 hours will always remain a mystery.

What is certain, is that every time I hesitate to engage business development, I will remember Alex! Thank you Alex for this valuable experience!

You can follow Alex at or and if you want to book directly with him you can visit his website www.thefitnesslane.co.uk

05/07/2022

DONE!! - Week 1 of filming for an exciting new digital training programme, on behalf of our wonderful clients 🎬

Such a great week of content production - cast and crew worked so hard to get the best footage possible! Shooting in and , at the Barker Langham Recruitment offices and the One Zero One green screen space, we were privileged to have great locations, great talent and great training material!

Thank you to everyone for your fantastic efforts on set and a massive thank you to all of you behind the scenes, tirelessly prepping to ensure the shoot goes smoothly!

On to the next week!

P.S. as this is a "mobile first" platform we shot everything in orientation. A first for us.

Wonder if Blackmagic Design will design a sensor that rotates in their next camera lineups…? 🤔🤔 The ball’s in your court now guys!

Sennheiser Universal Audio

01/07/2022

The Visual Arts Commission (VAC) is part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture. Contributing to the VAC Mentorship and Guidance Program was a major highlight of 2022!

This special program was devised by VAC to support emerging Saudi artists improve their skills, grow their audience and enhance their careers.

Initially we were engaged as consultants to develop a social media advertising strategy. We created and presented a comprehensive report, detailing the most up-to-date ad practices and strategies and making recommendations to them about budgets, placements and demographics that would best suit their needs. Understanding the culture of VAC, their goals for the program and the two target demographics for mentors and mentees was crucial for us to tailor a strategy that would give them maximum results. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach here.

Our report, presentation and approach chimed with the project leader who invited us to create the ad content and the organic social media content. Three platforms, two languages and forty-odd pieces of content later we completed our three week engagement and we couldn't be more proud of the result. We wish all your mentees the best of luck in their careers and our humblest thanks go out to all of the mentors generously sharing their industry knowledge and expertise! 🙏🙏

29/09/2021

Just before the summer I shot, edited and delivered this promo piece for Bewdley Sixth Form - part of the The Bewdley School.

Such a great team to work with! Thanks Bewdley School, best of luck with your

26/05/2021

📣 DEFINING BRANDING 📣

When we are trying to define what branding is, it can often be easier to start by identifying what it isn’t. Let’s keep running with the fizzy orange drink example. Branding isn’t just the large Fanta logo that looks like an orange. It’s not just the font the word is written in. It’s not just the packaging. It’s not just the price. It isn’t even just the actual stuff inside the can.

To read the full article head over to https://www.jamesdelin.com/website-blog/why-is-branding-hailed-as-the-most-important-first-impression

24/05/2021

If you’re unsure of the meaning and the concept of branding, then don’t worry. Branding, and making the distinction between a product and a brand, can be confusing.

In this blog post we’re going to explore a little about brands and ask some important questions. Why are brands important? How do we use branding? How can branding benefit me and my company, service or product? Let’s take a closer look.

To read the full post head to

If you’re unsure of the meaning and the concept of branding, then don’t worry. Branding, and making the distinction between a product and a brand, can be confusing.

26/02/2021

🎙️📈PODCAST EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT 📈🎙️

💰If the option to use a recording studio and engineer to record your podcast isn't available to you, and you want to record something at home using something a bit more "professional" than your smartphone, you can take the opportunity to invest in some great recording gear of your own. 💵

🏦So you could go nuclear and spend £100k on a recording facility and a decent course to learn how to use the stuff. Or you could be sensible and set aside between £500 and £1000 for some equipment and some time to learn it. 🎓

We've outlined our suggestions on our blog for some fantastic equipment to get your podcast up and running. You can check those out here 👇
https://bit.ly/3uq4bZn

25/02/2021

🗓️💵Pay Monthly Approach To Podcasting 💵🗓️

🤝 You can strike up some great partnerships with local recording studios and recording engineers when planning to create a podcast
and they might not be as expensive as you think. 💸

🎵You could work out deals for unique theme music, jingles, other sound effects, advanced editing etc, but ultimately you can make this sort of service work for you and your business. 🎶

We explore the pay monthly approach in our Podcasting blog over on our website, which you can read here 👇
https://bit.ly/3uq4bZn

22/02/2021

💰 THE ZERO BUDGET APPROACH 💰

💬 We've already discussed the function and form of your podcast and how to plan its success. Now we're going to shift our focus on how to record it.

📱If you already have a smartphone you can create and release a podcast right now. You can speak into your phone’s microphone and distribute your knowledge to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and every other podcast provider out there without really lifting a finger.

⚓ Your best bet is to use a service like Anchor.fm or download the app. Anchor will let you record straight into your mobile and upload through their distribution service. For free. Not. Even. One. Penny.

We've devised a few more tips, tricks pros and cons about the Zero Budget Approach on our blog post. You can check that out here 👇
https://bit.ly/3umh6vp

Podcasting is fast becoming a really effective way of keeping an audiences attention and delivering a lot of value in one hit. Listeners are engaged for the duration and can consume your content easily on the move. But how do you get started? Would you believe me if I said you can start right now,

21/02/2021

🎙️ FORM 🎙️

💬 We've already discussed the function of your podcast, but what form will it take? What structure will it follow?

✅ Only you can really answer those questions when it comes to using a podcast to impart your knowledge and market your business. However, we've run through an example structure over on our website. 🖥️

You can find it by following the link below ⬇️
https://bit.ly/37t4wkf