Built With Purpose. Designed to Perform.
Creating original, distinctive, and desirable brands by uncovering what truly matters.
Founder of Velvet Creative Marketing, Karen brings over 25 years of experience in branding, design, and marketing. She specialises in helping businesses uncover their true identity and express it with clarity, strategy, and creativity, ensuring every brand she touches is both meaningful and commercially strong.
An Intro from Lucy…
Behind every strong brand is someone who truly understands how to bring it to life, and for Blue Amber, that person is Karen of Velvet Creative Marketing. From guiding us through our rebrand to shaping how we show up today, Karen has played a pivotal role in our brand journey. Her ability to listen, translate ideas into something meaningful, and deliver with clarity and creativity has been invaluable.
Karen transformed us. After 26 years as Ultimate Business Solutions, I knew it was time to evolve and create a brand we could truly own and trademark. Karen guided us through a discovery process, captured what mattered most, and brought it to life beautifully. The whole team loves it, and the feedback from clients and suppliers has been fantastic. Ongoing, Karen creates our newsletter, web pages, and marketing materials. She makes everything easy, works quickly, and consistently delivers outstanding results.
In the second of our supplier spotlights, I’m excited to introduce Karen and share a little more about the work she does.
Karen – first, please tell us about your business and what you do
Design and marketing, but really, the anchor point for both of those is brand. Everything is driven by brand, which underpins every aspect of my work – marketing, design, and strategy – even if a client just wants a flyer, I first need to understand their brand and objectives to really do it justice.
Is there a meaning behind your business name?
Yes. A story, really, rather than a meaning.
In my last employed role, I was Marketing & Creative Director for a global fashion brand based in the UK and the USA. When I joined, the investors were 5 years into a 10-year fund (following an MBO), and the brand was stagnating. As a new team of directors, we were tasked with building brand value to exit in 5 years’ time (which extended to 6 years).
As the final year approached, we were offloading assets and offering some voluntary redundancies. Unexpectedly, my PR manager took redundancy to start her own agency, based on the US concept of backstage lounges, in the USA. She wanted to do something similar in the UK and planned to call it “The Velvet Lounge”. She was selling the idea, but sadly, the UK market just wasn’t ready for it. Keen to start my own marketing business, her move prompted me to seek approval from the board to step out early, and they agreed, subject to my staying on in my role on a consultancy basis to maintain stability and progress up to the final exit.
We ended up joining forces and started a full-service agency as partners. We had both liked “The Velvet Lounge”, so our business became “Velvet Agency Ltd.”
The business was going great, then in 2011, my husband was offered the chance to move to Sydney to open a series of buying offices in Aus and Asia. An opportunity we really couldn’t refuse. So, my partner continued with a PR only operation, and we wound up most design/marketing contracts, though I continued working remotely with a handful of clients for a couple of years. After two years, the company decided to ‘localise’ us, and we started our Citizenship applications. At this point, I knew I had to get back to business. After a busy, fast-paced career, I was chomping at the bit to be productive again. I decided to retain the Velvet name and launched Velvet Creative Marketing here in Sydney.
What do you see as your business’s purpose and mission?
Our purpose drew us to our name in the beginning – we loved how effortlessly smooth Velvet feels and how beautiful it looks. We’ve always believed that if our work runs smoothly and looks gorgeous, we won’t go far wrong. Those continue to be Velvet’s two values – smooth and gorgeous!
What makes your company stand out in the market?
Velvet’s point of difference lies in seamlessly blending creative vision with disciplined commercial thinking, ensuring neither exists without the other. Generally, people lean naturally one way or the other, so it’s rare to find both working seamlessly together. For me, they’re not separate disciplines; they’re intertwined. I naturally think both creatively and commercially. It’s an instinctive balance rather than a conscious effort.
I believe our branding process also sets Velvet apart, because it deeply connects who you are, how you operate, and where you’re going, before a single visual is created. The process takes each client on a journey – it just doesn’t happen that a client is unhappy with the result, as they’ve been an integral part of its creation.
What has been your favourite part of your journey?
Surprisingly, it’s probably been starting again in Australia, though I would not have thought I would say that!
It was daunting, having to do it all over again. I’d had a partner the first time around, and a very strong network – and it was still hard. Now I had to establish a new business in a new country with no network at all. I was dreading it. I’m not good at getting myself out there and promoting myself, so, as I’d been a member in the UK, I joined BNI, which I knew from experience is perfect for introverts like me.
It should have been harder, but in some ways, I found it a lot easier to do business here. The UK is saturated with every type of business and service – people want a lot for their money and don’t like spending.
In Australia, most things are a lot more expensive than in the UK. I think because Australians are used to paying what it takes to get whatever they need, there is less resistance, and people are more open to engaging specialists rather than trying to tackle projects themselves.
Also, Australians have a more positive attitude, whereas people in the UK are generally more cynical. Australia is a whole different vibe.
Describe what challenges you have faced along the way, and how you have overcome them.
In the early days, my whole career was in fashion and retail. We wanted to do other things as an agency, but any prospects outside the fashion arena were very sceptical and placed us firmly in the fashion/retail pigeon-hole.
We finally overcame this when we got our first, very high-profile client, in hair and beauty (yes, you’d be forgiven for thinking this might fall in the fashion sector, but no – hair and beauty is a whole industry with specialists that people rarely stray from). The owners didn’t want to engage us, but their investors insisted. We eventually won the owners over, and when the investors left, they kept us on, which got us over a massive hurdle.
Then, I joined BNI, and the business grew in a wide range of sectors. Seems in the SME world, sector specialisation wasn’t so important. Our first client from my first BNI referral was a (well-funded) start-up. A new pet food brand that needed everything created from scratch. It went on from there.
How would you describe your leadership style, and how does it influence your team?
I don’t have a team now, but I have led many. I would say I lead by example. I work hard and never ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself. I think my enthusiasm is infectious, which makes people want to help.
To be honest, it’s not a style I’ve cultivated consciously – it’s just the way I work. When I had a team, people would say “Karen is such a hard taskmaster”, which surprised me – I think, because I put in long hours to get things done, and made sure every detail was just right, they assumed they had to do the same, though I never expected it.
Please share a little about your purpose and aspirations for the business.
My purpose is to make as many businesses as I can more beautiful and more compelling, positioning them to attract more of the right clients. To elevate their business and brand perception.
I’ve chosen to keep my own business intentionally small and flexible, supported by a trusted network when needed. It allows me to do my best work while maintaining balance. In the future, I’d love to grow more retainer-based work, giving me the freedom to travel – not to retire, just to enjoy life alongside work.
How would you describe your core values?
Genuine and passionate, I want to do the right thing and help people – whatever it takes to get them the result they need. And to always create work I feel proud of.
What drives you every day?
The work itself. Whatever the task or project, I’m genuinely excited to work on it and throw myself into each endeavour, wholeheartedly.
What feels most important about the service you provide?
The feeling people have once everything aligns, and the brand feels ‘unmistakably theirs’ – when we’ve captured exactly who they are, and they can step forward with renewed confidence, ready to take their brand to market.
We even had one client that delayed their launch, saying, “I am not launching this yet – we have more work to do internally so we can authentically live up to our new brand”.
What innovations in your industry are you most excited about?
I’m warming to the idea of AI. But, if anything, for me, it’s highlighted a need for real, genuine, creative – and writing from the heart. I feel like people already yearn for real things, for example, how people are seeking out vinyl over Spotify. There are many examples, and I see the demand increasing as our world becomes ever-more ‘artificial’. In the world of design & marketing, I’m the vintage option ;).
What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received from a customer?
A client rang me on a Sunday, just to say thank you after I’d delivered a brand refresh late the Friday before. We’ve worked together across four businesses, and he’s referred many others to me. He said, “You always go above and beyond – and I know you don’t charge for that.” Hearing that he now felt confident and ready to scale was incredibly rewarding.
Another example is when a client recommended me to a friend starting a new business. She didn’t want to go through the whole brand exercise, but my client told her, “OK, we are sitting with Karen, doing the workshop and committing to that. I will host it at my office, and if you’re not happy with the result, you can walk away, and I will pay her fees”. She was happy, and I am still working for them.
I was pretty humbled by his total faith in me.
How do you define success for your business?
Success is seeing happy clients and creating work I’m genuinely proud of. It’s waking up and enjoying what I do, working with people I value, and having the freedom to say no to what doesn’t feel right.
So, choosing your clients wisely is important to you?
Yes – we actually fired our first client back in 2005. They were a large UK sportswear brand and would have been great for our portfolio, but from the very first meeting, the Marketing Director was incredibly rude and arrogant. My instinct was to proceed, but my business partner insisted we walk away – and she was right. It set the standard for who we choose to work with, and, ultimately, it was quite liberating. She taught me to be more selective.
What’s one thing you wish more people knew about your business?
Not so much for my business, but I wish more people understood the damage they can do to their own business, unwittingly, because of the brand image they have, particularly the lack of consistency. They wonder why they can’t attract the customers they want, but cannot see how the image they are putting out there is woefully misaligned with the audience they seek.
Working with Blue Amber
Can you share your experience working with Blue Amber?
The whole process was incredibly easy and smooth. Lucy was decisive and kept things moving with prompt feedback and approvals throughout. It was a very easy and enjoyable experience.
How did your relationship with Blue Amber begin?
We have been in the same BNI group for around 9 years now.
What services or products do you provide to Blue Amber?
Branding initially and now ongoing newsletters and other communications as needed.
How would you describe your working relationship with the Blue Amber team?
I mainly work with Lucy. It’s an easy relationship built on mutual respect.
What do you value most about partnering with Blue Amber?
Working with someone lovely – and someone who is so good at what she does. It’s easy to market a business that’s doing everything right for their clients and at such a high level. It is the kind of relationship I love, and it can be hard to find that. There is just the right amount of interaction and communication – I never need to chase for information – Lucy is always ahead of schedule.
Lucy on Velvet Creative Marketing
What were you looking for when choosing this supplier?
I didn’t shop around. When I decided to rebrand, I had known Karen for about 8 years, knew several of her clients and had observed the results she got for them.
What made you choose this supplier?
I wanted Karen’s process, her professionalism and talent.
How would you describe the value of our product/service in one sentence?
I learned a lot about myself, the business and my team during the whole branding process. Karen asked some tough questions that really got us thinking.
How has this supplier helped Blue Amber be more successful?
The rebrand has refreshed us and really aligns with the professionalism of our service. And our business is now protected with a trademark. Ongoing, Karen creates our monthly newsletter, reminding everyone we are here and ready for business.
