02 - In Conversation With Annie Bartley: Breaking Barriers in Design with 'I Am Female'

Welcome to another inspiring episode of "Show Up & Shine" with me, Carole Ann Rice. In this enlightening conversation, we're joined by the dynamic and trailblazing Annie Bartley, founder of "I Am Female" - a queer-led design and branding agency that's reshaping the creative industry.

In this episode, Annie shares her unique and unconventional journey, starting from her initial forays into fashion and bricklaying, to ultimately breaking barriers in the design world. Her story is a testament to the power of self-belief, resilience, and the courage to take risks.

We delve into the heart of what makes "I Am Female" stand out - its mission to combat the staggering inequality within the creative industry and to showcase the incredible talent of women in design. Annie's insights on designing with women in mind, addressing the gender data gap, and creating products that truly resonate with female consumers are both eye-opening and inspiring.

Annie also opens up about her personal battles with impostor syndrome, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and the importance of self-care and kindness towards oneself. Her journey is not just about success in design; it's about igniting change and empowering women in all industries.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about creativity, equality, and the pursuit of one's true calling. Join us as Annie Bartley shows up and shines, sharing her invaluable experiences and the lessons learned along the way.

Powered by and edited by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real

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Unknown: 0:04

Welcome to show up and shine, with cola and rice. Uncover courage, resilience and unique stories that inspire us to show up and shine.

Carole Ann Rice: 0:15

Hey, and Happy New Year to you all. Here we are at Rise and shine in January and actually for once, it's actually shining and they've turned the Blade Runner, wet weather off. Thank goodness for that. And so we've got the Archangel Gabriel outside my window, the beaming good vibes into the room here. And yeah, here we are. It's Rise and shine my podcast, which is basically about there is a great quote, the 80% of success is showing up. Well, I know it's a bit of a funny quote. But I agree with that. Show up, show up wherever someone asked you to do something, deliver be there show up, that's 80% of success. And then when you get there, you've got to put it on, you've got to shine, you got to, you know, 34521 Whatever. The producer is saying now let's go action cameras action. How do you do that? Now I'm really intrigued by people like Taylor Swift. He's done like, I don't know, 50 gigs in a year. How does she show up and shine? How do you do that? A Madonna had 85 Juggernaut, Laurie's following her around the world to do her concerts. She shows up, she shines. Now, these are mega stars. But each day we are required to do something whether you're a mother, a partner, you have a desk bound job, you're working from home, we still have to show up. We have to show up for so many things in our life. And the tough bit is putting on the razzmatazz and the shine and someone who puts on the razzmatazz and shines. incandescently is fabulous. Any bodily welcome any.

Annie Bartley: 1:46

Thank you. Thank you for having me today.

Carole Ann Rice: 1:49

You're very welcome. You see Annie from a distance. She's one of those people's almost like if you imagine the Mickey Mouse silhouette, you see it's an unmistakable worldwide or that or the on the McDonald's arches. And he is her brand. When she walks into a room, she kind of stopped time stops. She's either kind of a cyber Matador or she wears sparkly jackets. She is an incredible force of nature. And he you show up and shine every time I see you.

Annie Bartley: 2:20

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it is. I do love to do love to make an entrance, especially especially at an event

Carole Ann Rice: 2:30

once seen never forgotten, I think Valley but the great thing is, and he has a great message, a company is called I am female. And you might think well, what does that actually mean? What does it actually mean? Any? And what do you stand for and models I am female.

Annie Bartley: 2:45

So I am female is a queer led design and branding agency powered by women. So we are branding and packaging experts. And I launched the agency in 2021, to not only showcase how incredible women are in the creative industry, but to also empower other women in the industry to use our voice against the staggering inequality within the creative industry. And the agency's mission is to do that through the work that we do, and to show how incredible and how talented women in Designer sounds

Carole Ann Rice: 3:28

an incredible offer. And I do wonder when it's all Moon working together, what you produce and create, how it differs from a male lead design agencies. What do you think the difference is?

Annie Bartley: 3:41

Well, I think as women, we have a different perspective. And I think that offers a lot when we're looking at the creative process. And I think that's overlooked in terms of our life experience. And that's not only with gender, but that's also with race and sexuality. In the creative industry, you need diversity. And I think the way in which we think and the way in which we operate as women lends to such a great process and a great outcome. And I think as well a lot of the clients that we work for are specifically designed for women, and you've only got a look at century old adverts product adverts that you can see have been designed by men because they would not be what a woman would want.

Carole Ann Rice: 4:38

Oh, I love this any you are the future any

Annie Bartley: 4:42

time on adverts. Like who's seen a tampon advert who on their period wants to do any of those things. Were

Carole Ann Rice: 4:50

white shorts and go roller skating not climb ladders

Annie Bartley: 4:54

on a daily daily basis on my period

Carole Ann Rice: 4:59

you might want to do Buying a cup of hot chocolate, you don't want to wear white shorts and go out roller skating. So how interesting I don't know if you know about a film on Amazon called Dead Ringers. Rachel Wright vice plays twin a twin gynaecologist, their twin twin women, and they are trying to raise money to design a female hospital maternity hospital fertility hospital. Most of the crew on the film were all women. And the suit as I say the two characters are twins are paid by Rachel vice. But what was interesting is the design that they had in mind for the hospital for the Fertility Centre for the birthing centre was all designed for and by women. It's an incredible film, because the design of the building is female friendly, the shapes the colours, the comfort of the places where you go and give birth and have fertility treatments. It was a really interesting exercise if it was all left to women, for women, for services, health services for what they would come up with. I'm wondering what would be what would be your take on that? And also, what what is essentially female design? Well, how does it differ? Well,

Annie Bartley: 6:13

I think it's, it's, it's with the thought of female in mind. Actually, at the moment, I'm reading a book called Invisible women, which is actually about the data, the gender data gap, and how as, like, globally, and as honours society, women are always women aren't thought of as default, they're thought of as niche. So actually putting us as like a first thought, is an important step in ensuring that we're actually creating stuff for women, not just as a male default, and as a woman as an extra. So I think it's actually about the process in which we think, before we design, and I think that's where the diff, that's where our differences are, is because we're thinking of us as a as a forefront, rather than an extra.

Carole Ann Rice: 7:12

Even seatbelts are designed for them. The book is great, isn't it, it goes through the

Annie Bartley: 7:18

eyes of the phones, everything, like all the way down to government policies.

Carole Ann Rice: 7:24

So typically, when people come to you, is it? Are they female based companies? Or are you getting like major brands come on board because they're being innovative and wants something different with their products.

Annie Bartley: 7:36

So we work with all we actually work with all gendered businesses. And one of my actual, more natural passions, is working with male led brands. Because when we do projects, and we do projects well, and the team is ran by women, then it encourages men to look at more diverse agencies that they work with, and more female lead agencies that we work with. So it's important to me to show how, as women, we already know how incredible we are, we know our capabilities. So when we work with female led brands, a lot of that is because we align with what the consumer wants. And we were able to fulfil that brief. And we're able to deliver. And that's what's important is our is our ability to translate a brief into an actual design that's needed by that end user. And that's important, and it's

Carole Ann Rice: 8:38

brilliant. You know, I don't even want to say that what you do is courageous because it shouldn't be courageous that we should have women led businesses and design agencies, but your journey to I am female, but there was a lot of rivers to cross and you have done some pretty courageous things. Tell us a bit about your journey to get to that point because you jump in. Even when you haven't always had every kind of degree and diploma and certificate under the sun. You really have a go, don't you? So tell us about your your kind of career journey up till now. Yeah,

Annie Bartley: 9:10

it's actually quite, it's quite unique. I didn't go down the normal career path. I actually initially started out being a bricklayer went to learn to be a bricklayer I used to the only way I could get money out of my dad was for him for me to work with him and he was a landscape gardener. So I thought I can do this. That's what I'm gonna do. I had no idea what I actually wanted to do as a job. But before I started that course, I dropped out and I ended up doing fashion and I studied fashion at college and I studied at uni, that's where I fell in love with illustration. But when I went to uni, I focused more on journalism and the PR side and fashion marketing. But it was actually whilst I was doing that, that I fell in love with magazines, and as a default magazine design. And a lot of my projects were round magazines. But I still didn't even consider being a designer. As a creative. I've always been creative, whether it's companies are set up to make dog clothes, other clothes, loads of bits and pieces. And then when I left uni, I worked a lot as a waitress doing a lot of different weights in jobs and a housekeeping. And I had a contact in a magazine. So I went to I went to that lady to do some free writing. It just happened that the magazines or showed her that I'd done that I designed. Her designer was leaving the next week. And she offered me the job. She said, Do you know how to use Photoshop and Illustrator? And I was like, yes. But I was like, no, but I'd like also, yes, I do. And then she offered me the job as a freelance position, which I had never heard of. And then I took it, and I jumped in foot, like feet first. And I started to learn how to use the programmes to design. But it was really natural to me designing. And I realised, oh, actually, not only do I really enjoy this, but I'm actually good at it. So I started to invent companies. I had no portfolio. I hadn't studied design. I had no, I had nothing to go and get any design jobs. I also didn't understand the industry. I didn't know what was expected of me. What is the career path? What are your jobs, what even as a graphic designer, I really had like no idea. So I just started inventing companies and doing their branding. And then just pretending that I was hired by them to do these branding. And that's how I started getting active on paid contracts. And I moved around a lot from Northampton, to Essex, and then eventually to London. And then once I started getting contracts in London, I worked for the Royal Academy of Arts, I did some bits for Olympus camera. And then I started working as an art editor on a beauty commerce website, which is where a lot of my experience lies is within beauty, hair, and cosmetics. And, and then randomly alcohol. But But yeah, I, I think once you get into an industry and people know you and they know your work, you then it's then easier for you to be recommended. And I think all of my work built up there from recommendation. But during that time, I experienced some really, like quite traumatic experiences as a result of me being a woman. And that was down to men stealing my ideas quite blatantly stealing ideas like in interviews. And not being paid having to fight to be paid, what I should have been paid, or finding out that somebody that had didn't have as much skills as me was being paid more than me than they were a man. And there was no other reason that they should have been paid. So there was a lot of compounding issues around that. And that is very prominent within the creative industry. And I didn't talk about these, because also I didn't know, I didn't know the industry. I didn't know what to expect. But it wasn't until I started sharing my experiences with other women that I thought this was like a me problem. And it isn't a me problem. It is it's an industry problem. And it's in a problem in a lot of industries. So I think I then started to just to get angry, and pissed off, I was paid, I was pissed off. And I think as my career progressed, and as I started working for larger companies like Unilever and getting bigger contracts, I just started to have a vision of wanting more and having an agency eventually. And it wasn't until I had my daughter. And I was pregnant, and I was I was taking time off on maternity leave. And I had to try and find cover for one of my contracts that I was asking for a pay rise and they kept saying the money wasn't there. They couldn't find anyone to fill my position that that had would we able to do the responsibility or the skills that I was doing for that money? Of course they couldn't because they weren't paying me enough for what I was being paid anyway. And then I found out that they actually hired a guy for 50 pound more a day. And that that was kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back. And I just wanted to create something that a younger me would have needed and not just from a Not just from her like, oh, you know, you can get x y Zed. What do you like? Okay, so how do we address this? Like, like, what do I need to do? Like, what is the actual realities of being in this industry? And why isn't it set up for? Like, why isn't it set up for women? So I wanted to I launched I am female with the mission. And that was, and that has always been at the core of everything that I do. And this is a design agency that is mission led. And that is that what powers me every day to push forward for women in design. And to showcase what we can do

Carole Ann Rice: 15:43

more. I'm just going to scrape my drawer off my desk here. And I'm sure the listeners will be to an awesome story, Annie and I bet so many women listening going Yeah, right on who hasn't been traumatised by misogyny and covert nicking of ideas and undermining over the years. Hopefully, that's on the change now. But certainly, when I worked in journalism, it was a daily battle, to be heard to be taken seriously and to not be sort of micro bullied into doing rubbish jobs, because they knew the set you up for failure, basically. But what I love is your rocket fuel is finding justice for women and representing women and female design and female branding in a new light. And so that I'm going to ask you is that what motivates you is that what gets you out from under the duvet every morning, this this value that you want to bring to branding and marketing?

Annie Bartley: 16:38

Absolutely. Like, for me, this is actually like my life purpose. Like I am driven to make change. I wish I was more driven to make money, but it would make my life easier. I am surprised as an ADHD ear, I think any other people watching that have ADHD are very much like they feel injustices slight a lot more intensely. So and I've always wanted to make a difference. boys wanted to sort of help or to change. And for me, in my brain, it doesn't make sense for me to sit here and just accept what I what are blatant injustices for women in an industry that is full of so much talent, and so much like specialist skills that we have in our hands that are being ignored or passed for opportunities, purely because of our gender. So that is definitely what gets me up in the morning. And when I have those days where you're like, oh my like, Well, God, like the duvet feels like, like, seven weighted blankets. It's, it's that, that makes me peel it off, and then step out of bed. Wow.

Carole Ann Rice: 18:05

It's like you've plugged into your life purpose. And it is the kind of it's in your blood, it's in your it's your energy, it's your life flow. And how wonderful to be able to find that. But the journey was a kind of the route success is never A to Zed. It's always a bit spaghetti ish. And you found your path, or you went through doors, I love to fake it till you make it bit where you invented brands and, and commissions. And you know, but all the time though Annie having the faith that this is going to lead you somewhere. And I think that is the most bravest thing of all, not knowing there's any certainty on the path, but creating the path, one step at a time with what you believe in. Yeah.

Annie Bartley: 18:48

Do you know what I think? Obviously, at the beginning, I didn't really know what was going to happen next. And I didn't really know where things were going or, you know, really what it is, I should do. You know, there was a lot of years I spent last because you'd see people and they have career paths and they know what they want to do. And I never did. I never was an even as a child. I never had an idea of what I wanted. So what I've done is I've just taken opportunities as they've arisen for me, but I think the flip side of that is that I was filled with, you know, intense imposter syndrome syndrome because I haven't studied design. I haven't gone down a normal route. I you know, I don't know the technicalities what I do now, but like at the beginning and even like a few years into my career. I didn't know what you know you other designers get taught in in like a course. And I think that was quite compounding to have that alongside everything. But I think as I realised what I think as you get hired, and even as I started getting hired I'd buy bigger companies is difficult to lose that impostor syndrome. But I think your career is a path that you just take individually. There is no correct correct career path. I think because as individuals we learn differently. We have our brains are made up of different ways in which we absorb information. So I think it's almost restrictive. And it's negative on us as individuals to think we have to do X Y Zed to get to x y Zed, because when you're not in that journey, you're doubting yourself whether you're doing it correctly. And that's not, you know, that's not productive for you. So I think it's important that if there's anyone there going, Well, I haven't done this. I haven't studied this, neither have I. And you can make it just by I think, determination, and also just taking risks and taking chances are,

Carole Ann Rice: 21:04

I think I really believe that and I think it takes a lot of courage to take a chance. I mean, I got a break into journalism. I'd never studied journalism, and I'm sitting opposite Oxbridge graduates, I faked it, but I had impostor syndrome, like I sweat blood with fear every day that I was, I was going to be found out. And the more I put into my writing, and of trying to be perfect, so I wouldn't be found out the kind of higher up I got, I ended up being a columnist on the paper, and I was thinking, they're picking on me, making me a columnist, actually, it was like, some kind of praiseworthy prize to be given a column. But I always found it was such a such a risk that I said, I could do it, and then I had to follow through. I don't regret that. And I would say, listening to your story. And I would say to anyone listening, if someone offers you something, if you see something step in first, and then learn how to do it often, it's because if you really think you stand a chance, and you think, Well, why not me? I could do this as good as anybody else. Go for it. Because you know, life is too short to have regrets. And it is scary. Annie and I do hear that, you know, you were very courageous on your journey, but it has paid off. And my big question to you is, do you still have the imposter syndrome? Yeah,

Annie Bartley: 22:20

I do. And I think it's something that I think it's something that's always there, like the intensity changes, sometimes it doesn't feel like it's there. But you know, as well, I've never ran an agency before. You know, I've, you know, I've never tried to scale a business. But there's always stuff that you've never done, there's and you always have to learn stuff. So I think I'm a lot more Kinder on myself. In terms of the stuff I don't know, when I started the agency, it was just me. And then I brought my sister on board to help run it in the back end. And we spent the majority of like the first three months just going, Oh, my God, we need this Google, how do you write an employee contract? Like it was just that because neither of us had done this. But I think that is a massive part of entrepreneurship is just unless you're just gonna study loads of stuff, loads and loads of courses to know, but you never know what's going to come up next. So I think being adaptive, and being solution lead, in terms of trying to find solutions is important. And, yeah, I get it, I still get it a lot of the times, but I think the way in which I respond to myself is a lot kinder, because I always, there's always going to be stuff I don't know, that I need to learn. That's just that's just life.

Carole Ann Rice: 23:46

I love that because that is a form of self care being kind. And I've suddenly adopted being kind to, which is, instead of giving punishing myself for not knowing or not being good enough or not being at my best. I'm always learning at least I'm having a go. I did the best I could at the time. And I think that kindness and self compassion is key, especially when you're in a scary place. You know, the imposter syndrome. I've coached CEOs I've coached top top top athletes writers, and it's always there I've I'm coaching a guy at the moment. He's written many, many best selling books. And he said he always feels dread about the next book, because you don't know when it's going to run out the Muse the inspiration, and I think maybe the imposter syndrome is just self doubt in a different guise. We might always have it, use it push against it, don't get on with it anyway, which sounds like the sort of thing you do on a daily basis whether under the duvet or not. And so any last words for anyone listening to your story in thinking go Annie is such an inspiration but I couldn't do I can't do what she does. What would you say?

Annie Bartley: 24:54

I do you know what I think as a person are yet when Meet me, I think, you know, I'm a high energy, I have a lot of positive vibes, as I like to say. And that is that is that is true as me as a character. But I think, as any entrepreneur, anyone wanting to start something, you know you are constantly wrapped, like wrapped with self doubt and low confidence. And whether you think you can achieve something or that you're not in the right place to do something. And you know, there's never really a right time to do anything. And I think one thing that I've learned through years of therapy, I've had a lot of therapy through my life is believing in in myself and actually listening to what it is that I want. Sometimes that gets lost in the chaos, and you can you can feel it. But I think ultimately believing in who you are, and your capabilities, but and telling yourself that daily, what you what you have as skills and what you can do, and then just strive to do it in in however that, however, that materialises, whether you do that slowly, or whether you do that quickly, your journey is your journey. And I think you have to not compare what you're doing to other people. ROAs you'll never get there. You'll never start. So just do what you're doing at your pace. Ignore everyone else and do what is right for you. Because that's all that really matters.

Carole Ann Rice: 26:40

I've got goosebumps. It's such a fabulous message. Annie, you're unique. You are your own person. And you are your own brand. I absolutely love what you do and what you stand for. You know, when Annie walks in the room, the whole the whole room shines. Amy does it show off and shines. Thank you so much for joining us today. And I'm sure the listeners will be really inspired and motivated by your energy. Be yourselves trust yourselves. Everybody here has a life path. Just take the next step. And even if it's bizarre, weird unfashionable, unmarketable. still do it because it's a message. It's a dream. It's a creative thought. It's a gift. Work it out. Take the next step. Who knows you could be running your own big agency like any one day or something similar or something completely, wildly unique. Thank you so much, Annie, for showing up and shining and have a fabulous day. Thank you, Kara. Thank

Annie Bartley: 27:38

you so much for having me and have a wonderful day.

Carole Ann Rice: 27:40

Yeah, you too. Thank you so much. Bye bye now.

Unknown: 27:44

Thank you for listening to sharp and sharp with Caroline rice. We'll see you in the next episode.