Vicki Lovegrove: Designer, coach, and champion for creatives who are tired of playing small.

By Tricia Scott 

Vicki Lovegrove is a seasoned graphic designer and creative coach on a mission to help talented creatives stop playing small and start showing up whole.

With over two decades of experience running her own design agency, she knows first-hand what it takes to build a business from scratch and the emotional rollercoaster that often comes with it. But she’s not just a designer. She’s a confidence-builder, a havening practitioner, and a truth-teller for creatives stuck in the “feast and famine” cycle.

Vicki’s coaching focuses on what most creatives avoid talking about: confidence, conditioning, and the invisible weight of doing it all, often with caring responsibilities, health challenges, and zero days off. Her clients are usually women in midlife, gifted but burned out, showing up for everyone but themselves. She helps them reconnect to who they really are, not just what they produce.

Her no-nonsense wisdom, grounded in decades of lived experience (including surviving the very un-female-friendly design world of the ‘80s and ‘90s), meets her warm, intuitive approach. She won’t sugar-coat things, but she will remind you that you are enough, just as you are, and that your creativity deserves space, support, and visibility.

You’ve run your own design business for over 20 years, what made you start coaching other creatives too?

I felt like something was missing. 

One day a client called me. They had been hard to get hold of during a branding project, so they called to tell me why. They had had some awful stuff to deal with personally involving their children. As they walked and talked, I listened and afterwards I put the phone down and cried. 

A few weeks later I was telling someone I was seated next to at a business lunch, I asked the question: why do people feel they can tell me these things? He responded, “have you ever considered being a coach?”. And that is where it started.

Coaching people who are also running creative businesses seemed natural progression. 

Not long after that we had a tragedy as a family, which led me to look at trauma therapy and train as a Havening practitioner. This has a very holistic approach and suits me as a tool in my coaching.

You say confidence is the missing ingredient for most creatives, why do you think that’s the case, especially for women?

I have a photo of me as a child, around 8, sitting at a table drawing. That is the only photo of me at that age. In my house being quiet and creative was rewarded. As I got better, I got more praise for my creativity. 

I think a lot of creatives will have a similar story, people praise them, they want to please more. We can end up putting our value on how happy we make other people feel by what we produce.

Often men in creative settings can be quite outspoken and able to push themselves forwards for things, they are more likely to ask for more money. They are encouraged to be brave, and work hard, to be more go-getting.  

Women have grown up with different values thrust upon them. Being forward and confident might have been described as being a show off. I know when I was a kid whenever I started to make myself more seen, I was often told not to and put down – usually by other females. Its perpetual if we are not careful, sometimes you need to step out and walk in your own lane to break the cycle.   

I use Havening to clear these past events that get in our way and keep us stuck. 

Your clients are often midlife women juggling life, business, and care, what’s one shift you help them make that changes everything?

Approach all change in small steps. 

One client worked from home, and felt they never had time for anything in the home. She worked full time, had a kid, and a partner who was sick. 

So, we started doing small things when the kettle is on: tidying the surfaces in the kitchen; watering the plants in the garden; reading that book you don’t have time for – these things just kept bouncing around her head making her feel overwhelmed and not letting her put her full concentration in her work. It’s the start of time management, and that is key to everything.

Lists are great for this too, and an exercise I use called the circle of concern. To do the circle of concern, draw a circle on a sheet of paper, by putting only the things you can absolutely change now in the circle, and then all the other things around the circle, you have acknowledged they exist and given yourself permission to let them go for a while. 

You talk about showing up as a ‘creative whole’ what does that mean and why does it matter?

When I start working with a client, they often think that they can solve all their creative problems by only discussing work. 

What people forget is that we are one person. The work stuff is part of the person, life is another part, to keep them apart is denying yourself as a whole person. It takes a lot of energy to do that. By admitting that work and life sometimes cross over, and life worries can affect your creative output at work, you can solve the problems much quicker. 

Nine times out of ten, once the personal side of life is brought into the mix, then the rest starts to make sense. It’s easier and who doesn’t want more ease in their life?

You’ve been through the highs and lows of the design industry, what’s one truth about creative life you wish more people knew?

Don’t define yourself by your creative role. 

I stopped saying “I am a designer”. I am not a designer. I WORK as a designer, I run a design business, that is not who I am. ‘I am’ is a belief, and by assigning your work role as your primary belief, you are limiting yourself hugely. 

I see it all the time. We get a lot of criticism/feedback as professional creatives. That’s OK. People pay for our time they should get what they want, but when you have given a part of yourself to each job, which often we do, the feedback feels personal. The work can then feel unfulfilling, and because you have told yourself that you are the work, then you feel less than.

It takes a lot of practice to stop this, but I feel it is one of the best places to start. 

Describe your business in one word. 

Friendly. 

Quickfire round: 

Favourite creative ritual? 

Daily manifestation and affirmations. Game changer.

Most rebellious business decision?

To start a business in the first place. 

One thing you wish every woman in business knew? 

You are the expert in the room, no one knows what you know, and no one can do what you can do. 

You can find out more about Vicki and her work at www.vickilovegrove.co.uk and www.seventy-three.co.uk or over on LinkedIn