Now in the handover state of the project, this is the period where we do a mini-retro and look at the outputs, how we delivered them and, in modestly how much we smashed it out of the park!

More importantly, I have let it be known far and wide that I am on the lookout for my next challenge, and friends, followers and just nice and lovely people have helped me in my quest - as of yet, I am still available but it’s been so nice to see how lovely this community is in such a tricky time.

I have availability for a new freelance design contract from the start of April 2024. If you'd like support from a seasoned designer who has seen a lot of things, it would be great to hear from you hello@michaelcattell.com

What did I enjoy:
Instead of talking about FCA first, let’s change pace and discuss my work for Bobbin and Bumble, we are in the stage of no return, the growth phase and whilst it’s exciting as hell - it’s also a heck of a lot of work, no one ever told you that doing barcodes for products is as much work as this is. Let me be the first person to let you know.. when doing barcodes - get ready to be wowed by how they are done.
I have taken it upon myself to look into our Etsy side of the business, if you use Etsy - you’ll know how badly understood it all is, if you think no one has a clue about Google rankings, wait till you venture into Etsy.
Going onto YouTube heeds 1000s of results, all ranging from “do your listings in 10 minutes” to “spent your life doing the content and tag stuffing and investing in crypto”.

Wildwest stuff.

Let’s move over to the Financial Conduct Authority, it’s been a fortnight since I wrote about them, and in the last week I’ve met with endless teams around closing the gap between design and developer, which is a HUGE but often overlooked piece of work when all you hear about is how important visual consistency is (it is.. but user and business needs need to meet somewhere.. and soon).
I’ve trained multiple designers on how to use the HTML prototype kit, and given additional training to the new Design System Manager and it’s been really fun doing it all, even writing up the documentation for it! As a bonus and an extra deliverable, I’ve designed a Figma version of the current design system which includes variables, all styles, components and patterns with the added

We presented our hand-over, which went down really well and now we are just winding down to the end day, which is weird just to write as it’s been an interesting project with great deliverables!

What am I looking forward to next week?
The only good thing is knowing we completed the brief and smashed it, but it’s going to be strange not going into the FCA office any longer.
I also can’t wait for time off though, it’s been a shift!

Watch of the week
One of the best documentaries I’ve seen for a while, it’s called Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God, and it was so interesting. Warning: the opening scene is graphic and not for the faint-hearted.

I also took my kids to the cinema at the weekend for crafts and to see Migration, we loved it!