When in doubt, create.

That’s the motto Rachel lives by.

  • From a young age, my ‘real life’ challenges I imagined away into pictures or dances complete with music, backdrop, and props.

    Living with HSD and chronic pain in recent years, I've designed a way of working to support my nervous system and lead sustainable brand building.

    My creative vision combined with twenty years in the movement and wellness industries as a teacher and small business owner, and the last eight years in brand development and marketing to create products that support the soft edge.

  • My influences range from artists Robert Rauschenberg, Giacometti, architects Zaha Hadid and Luis Barragan, feminist thinkers Kelly Diels and Aubrey Gordon, choreographers Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch, musicians Air, Daft Punk, Leonard Cohen, Annie Lennox, Boy George, Jon Batiste, Fred Again, my parents who are both painters, and travels to India and the United States. 

    My calm business coaches who keep me on track are the wonderful Caroline and Jason Zook from Wandering Aimfully.

    When not creating, I’m enjoying time with my husband, raising three boys, walking our two fabulous poodles Peppy & Truffle, drinking chai with my husband and friends, jumping in the ocean, and delighting in finding, wrapping and posting presents to loved ones. 

  • Word Nerd, Change Advocate, Ideas Fairy, explore Rachel's portfolio here

BROWSE ART

TESTIMONIALS

"We are very impressed with Rachel's work on our official website copy. Rachel is highly professional and efficient. She takes the time to understand our values and the details of what we do. She extracts the main content and then crafts it into compelling and easy-to-understand words. Her outstanding communication skills were proven by some of the challenging and sensitive topics we covered, where she was able to navigate the discussion and produce accurate and insightful summaries.”

"We are very impressed with Rachel's work on our official website copy. Rachel is highly professional and efficient. She takes the time to understand our values and the details of what we do. She extracts the main content and then crafts it into compelling and easy-to-understand words. Her outstanding communication skills were proven by some of the challenging and sensitive topics we covered, where she was able to navigate the discussion and produce accurate and insightful summaries.”

MS LAUREN WANG. FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF KANA WALA, AUSTRALIA

PHILOSOPHY

I believe in Soft Edges; that is, approaching the edge, the threshold, the boundary, but in a soft way. There exists an edge, but with softness mediating it, it’s not harmful but generative.

  • We, as humans, need contrast, push-pull, opposition, in order to thrive. Too much though, and we’re overstretched and can lose our center. Too little, stagnancy and fogginess set in.

    We need to feel the edges but not be on edge. 

    We need softness but not stagnancy and fogginess. 

    We need contrasts but not binaries. 

    We need oppositional pull but not fracturing.

    We need both the hardware and the software.

  • I support businesses to feel their soft edge again after it’s been overstretched like a rubber band. I help them create brilliant brands that hold tension, that are a container for their precious efforts. 

    I ask, what can we do to make your work generative, sustainable, and rich? 

    What gems are hidden in the soft middle that could be brought to the fore, to the healthy edge? 

    I believe every gender should be paid equally.

    As a white woman born into privilege, it is my work to check my biases and use the good fortune being born into this position to help others who are not. 

    When I see injustice and it is safe to do so, I will speak up. I will advocate for people who don’t have the means to advocate for themselves. 

    I take a 360 approach, a whole ecosystem approach to work. That means respecting mine and my fellow human’s boundaries, time, and rest.

    I continue to build justice practices into my work. That means if I identify ethical blind spots or work I am not trained in, I’ll seek out professionals with marginalised identities who have an expertise in the field.  

    I work to abolish within my body of work and the way I work with clients cultural appropriation, perfectionism, and binary thinking.

    I don’t believe in the No pain, no gain mentality. I believe in No pain, No pain instead. 

    I don’t support grin and bare it mentality. It freezes us, blocking momentum and action.

    I don’t work with businesses or people that: 

    • Maintain sexist or racist business practices

    • Under pay staff (when I hire contractors to help, I hire for their skills, not how little they charge)

    • Overwork staff 

    • Are anti-science 

    • Are militant about natural alternatives always being better

    • Keep quiet (when bravery is called for)

    • Sell products and services that promote thinness and ableism

    • Use bombastic marketing that crowds out critical thinking and debate

    • Bury their head in the sand in order to maintain the status-quo (e.g. them staying in the up-power position)

    • Will put profit first over care of the environment 

    • Are disrespectful to animals.

  • I believe naming and labels around gender identity can be used as an affirmation or a form of oppression depending on the source and intent. 

    Affirming : when the person decides and owns their naming. Oppressive : when people are given a name under duress or without their consent

    I am here to support and affirm all genders, all humans in their diverse forms.

Before meeting Rachel, I had tried working with a number of virtual assistants and graphic designers to help move my ideas forward, but very often it felt like I was adding more work to my plate rather than less -- and the results weren't quite right. Not the case with Rachel! Finally I've met someone who can think at a high creative and strategic level, while also being able to execute the necessary copy and graphics. All of that combined with her conscious, ethical, and feminist approach to marketing make her the perfect partner for me and my biz.

Before meeting Rachel, I had tried working with a number of virtual assistants and graphic designers to help move my ideas forward, but very often it felt like I was adding more work to my plate rather than less -- and the results weren't quite right. Not the case with Rachel! Finally I've met someone who can think at a high creative and strategic level, while also being able to execute the necessary copy and graphics. All of that combined with her conscious, ethical, and feminist approach to marketing make her the perfect partner for me and my biz.

JESS GRIPPO, DANCE AGAIN

BROWSE WORKS