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erica james is a strategic creative.

You know those people who have a knack for anything creative? Yeah, I'm one of those people, and I always have been. I started playing with graphic design tools on a gumdrop-shaped, semi-transparent purple iMac in the early 2000s and by the time I got to high school, I was a certified MySpace magician. (My profile had a lava lamp background and a Mickey Avalon song on auto-play.) When I wasn't editing new photos for MySpace, I was blogging my teenage heart out on Xanga. That teenage heart was set on being a writer, so I went to university and got my bachelor in journalism. I caught the death rattle of that industry before I made my way into marketing and communications, where I worked for more than a decade.

 

I learned a lot about strategy from my time in the corporate world but I felt stifled by office culture, so a couple years ago, I decided to start working as an independent creative. I now share my creativity and strategy with businesses, organizations and professionals who want to their brands to be playful, meaningful and memorable. Most of what I do is online but it's the real world—books, music, art, nature and people—that inspires my work. I love combining these unique elements to capture a feeling, create an emotion and tell a story. I bring a tactile quality and modern nostalgia to digital spaces in a way that stands out on saturated platforms.

TLDR? I'm a multi-hyphenate millennial who grew up in the dawning age of the Internet and cut my teeth in Corporate™, so I can design your brand, build your website, write your copy and manage your social media, strategically and effectively.

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BRANDING

stand out from the crowd with a brand identity as unique as you

WEBSITES

turn clicks into conversions with beautiful design and functionality

SOCIAL

strategy and support to help reach your goals on social media

EDITORIAL

storytelling that impacts people, inspires action, and drives results

EXAMPLES OF WORK

ABOUT THE PROCESS

We have a conversation

In person. On the phone. Your place or mine. Whatever you prefer! Let’s start with a casual (free) conversation about your business challenges, opportunities, and objectives to figure out if we’re a good match for each other.

Once I have a better idea of what you need, I’ll put together an outline of the deliverables and a breakdown of costs. At this point, you can decide how you want to move forward, put down a deposit on the deliverables you want me to provide, we both sign and agreement, and I can get started!

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Time to get creative! Depending on the project, I’ll start sending you all kinds of imagery (fonts, colours, logos, photos, etc.) that I think should inform the visual direction, and you tell me what you like and don’t like. Once we have a sense of direction, I’ll start working on some concepts...

...and we'll go from there!

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I send you

a proposal

I send you some concepts

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