Contingent Workers: Julia
Julia Broughton is a freelance calligrapher and lettering artist. She creates book covers and company logos and has worked for the likes of Selfridges creating Christmas notes for customers.
At a Glance:
On the web: lettersbyjulia.com
Reading: Wayward by Hannah Mathewson
I can’t work without: my iPad Pro
Contingent Works: How has working at Contingent helped you and your business?
Julia Broughton: It's probably more from a mental health point of view, I work alone and I also live alone so I am someone who doesn't mind being on their own and being a freelancer you, kind of have to be but with lockdown it just got too much so just even if I come in and I don't happen to talk to anyone it's just nice having the general buzz of people being around. And one of the nicest things about it is when you walk in and someone says, “Oh, Hi Julia”, that's such a small thing, but I really noticed how much I've missed that from working at home.
CW: What made you choose Contingent?
JB: Well, it was local and these sorts of sort of cool, co-working spaces, they're all in London, and I didn't want to go back to commuting to London every day that was expensive and it takes too much time out of your day. So, to find something that you only find in London in a place like Bromley, which doesn't tend to have the coolest stuff, it was just a joy to find.
CW: How would you describe your business and what you offer to people?
JB: I'm a lettering artist and a calligrapher. So basically, I always describe it as I draw pretty words for a living. I do calligraphy, brush lettering, chalk lettering, all sorts of things digital stuff, and a lot of what I do is in the publishing sector, so I'll create the titles for book covers, or perhaps I'll do some logos. I also publish Christmas cards. I do event work so when the calligraphy side is more event work, say at Christmas someone like Selfridges will bring me in and I’ll create notes for customers to go along with their gifting, things like that. So basically, someone needs something written nicely. I'm the person to go to.
CW: What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
JB: The fact that I kind of created my own job. Obviously, there are other lettering artists out there but it's not something that's really known about is kind of something I discovered by I, used to be a greetings card designer full time and it's just something I discovered a passion for during my work. So, the fact that I had no intention of making it my career, I just enjoyed doing it. I basically once I discovered calligraphy, I told my manager at the time that this is what I did now, thankfully they let me get away with it. It was just purely through my love of doing it I did it so much that people started to take notice and therefore it kind of the career was born just because I loved it so much. And people paid attention to my passion for it so, I got work and eventually I got so much work that I lost money going into my full-time day job, because I'd have to turn down work that was worth more so basically forced me out of a job.
CW: What advice would you give to someone looking to get into a similar role?
JB: You can't expect to be good at it straightaway. I mean I'm one of those people that if I'm not good at something I don't want to do. And luckily when I started lettering I didn't know I wasn't very good at it. I thought I was really good, so that's why I continue doing it. I think a lot of people they'll take a calligraphy class (I teach them occasionally). And they expect because they're a creative person in general can be instantly good at it. Then that weekend, they're going set up their wedding calligraphy website and it's going be great. You have to be willing to put a few years of practice into it and you have to just enjoy the actual act of creating work without almost without having the intention of earning money off of it. You're doing it just because and then the rest once you become good enough, the rest will follow. It's one of those things but you have to love it. It can't just be I do this because it's my job. Because so much of doing it as a job isn’t actually creative. It's all the spreadsheets and the accounting and all that rubbish. So, your love for the actual act of doing creative work has to sort of carry you through all business side of it. Be patient.
