In 2002 Carlisle was hit by a tornado all the way from The US of A, in the form of Anni Hamer.
Anni with her New Orleans style and flair has spent nearly 20 years pursuing her design hobbies through painting, dressmaking, singing and a whole host of ways to channel her creative energies. This included design and web design since she was 17.
For those familiar to Carlisle you might recognise Anni from Fun 2 do the haberdashery shop, where she used her passion for making and creating to help others choose designs and helping them to realise their artistic capabilities.
In 2016 Anni decided that she wanted to take her talents and hobbies and passions to build a business that would translate into the new digital age. So, she took a huge leap and started a course at The University of Central Lancashire based in Carlisle and studied a degree in Science of Computing to get her knowledge and experience recognised officially.
Studying modules like rapid application development, human computer interaction, web and programming gave Anni the outlet to push herself into the technological realm of arts and crafts.
“I have always been a creative person, I loved arts and crafts and painting and quite physical forms of creative expression. I got to a place in my life where I wanted more control over my future so I looked at how I could use my hobbies and talents to create a sustainable business. I was intrigued at how physical forms of creativity had gone digital and the course at UoCL in Carlisle was a perfect fit to explore that.” Exclaimed Anni.
Over her 2 years of studying Anni has built a substantial portfolio including work for Lakeland CBD, Cumbria’s first cannabis company, CL Body Therapy – Sports massage therapist and MI Aesthetics.
Friday 5th July, sees the launch of Anni’s company Flying Fox Creative that will offer services such as:
- Web Design
- Branding
- Graphic Design
- Copywriting
- Social Media
- SEO
- Online Marketing
Along with her University course Anni has spent the last 2 years being mentored by various members of the Cumbria Women’s Enterprise organised by Helen Render owner of Candy Print.
Amanda Ryan aka Social Elf has supported Anni with social media and business start -up support.
“Anni has a wonderfully creative mind, through small business mentoring we’ve been working through strategies for building her business community online and reaching her ideal clients. She’s really attracted to working with Start up businesses, help them go through the journey of building their brand and growing alongside them.”
One of Anni’s first clients as the Flying Fox Creative was Lakeland CBD, Nic the Executive Director had this to say
“Anni very quickly helped us realise our dreams and get it onto screens. I felt that Anni listened to what we wanted and was able to translate that onto the web and through her designs we have been able to create a buzz about our business and she has offered us an end to end service from design through to websites, to flyers to merch. Anni is a pleasure to work with and without her we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Anni states; “I’ve got to say a huge thanks to all those at Cumbria Women’s Enterprise who have supported me. I have evolved and have a deeper understanding who I am as a designer and I am confident that Flying Fox will be a huge success. Helen Render has been an endless resource of support and expertise and Pauline Wright has provided some brilliant sessions at the meetings on how to be successful in business. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it”
Flying Fox Creative is based at the Atlas Works in Denton Holme, Carlisle and Anni’s website is available for viewing.
