Birds flying high, you know how I feel…
Welcome to my new website, I really hope you like it and find it useful!
Thanks to the talents of Web Developer Martin Ingram and Copywriter Louisa Sando-Patel, the new site means I can focus on posting and updating on a more consistent basis. Both were great to work with! The site is fantastic, and I hope it will help my business grow further.
My branding has also changed. I agonised for a long time over whether or not to use Chris Cooper-Hayes as my business name, or CCH for short. Having looked around at the websites of other designers I admire – Tom Stuart-Smith, Andy Sturgeon, Jo Thompson, Dan Pearson to name but a few – they all practice under their own name too. I hope to be considered among their their ranks one day, so CCH Garden Design it is!
What is the new logo all about?
My new branding is a lot friendlier and fresher now. It depicts a bird on a branch, reflecting my desire to put nature at the heart of every project. Wildlife is the fourth dimension to every garden, something that can’t be designed on paper, only encouraged. Wildlife is unpredictable and exciting. It appears so long as you have soil, trees, water and plants. Equally, nature will disappear just as fast if we don’t provide for it, evident in the gloomy news we are now observing on a daily basis. UK gardeners are still blessed with a fantastic array of visitors and residents, seen and unseen, but this shouldn’t be taken for granted.
The solitary bird on the branch is also a reflection of my journey to where I am today. It is a rather corny idiom say I went out on a limb to be a garden designer, but true. At times the branch nearly snapped. Despite a lifetime working as a designer, my transition to creating gardens was harder and more frustrating than I anticipated. Being the best I can be, not just to clients but myself, means everything. Running this business has proved to be a lonely game over the years, and still is much of the time, but I wouldn’t change this freedom to chart my own course for anything. Creatively and philosophically I have entered a new chapter of my life.
This little bird is on a journey somewhere, pausing to choose where to head next, ready to fly into a brighter future. To quote Nina Simone…it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life… and I’m feeling good!
