Flo Bayley

Areas of Expertise

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Coaching Qualifications

• Accredited Diploma in Transformative Coaching from Animas Centre for Coaching.
• Member of the International Coaching Federation

Professional Background

I studied graphics at London College of Printing and immediately joined Conran Associates, then London’s leading design consultancy.  I rose to be creative head of the graphics department before setting-up my own studio which still runs today. At Conran, I learnt about the business realities of design.  But I found that these were not an impediment to creativity.  On the contrary, they were a stimulus to it.  A tight brief is a bonus to a creative mind and so too is a tight budget. I was involved in both pitching for new business and creating graphic identities for some of the country’s outstanding businesses, including Mothercare and Next, as well as The Conran Shop itself.  Terence Conran was hugely motivating, while also being a hard – and sometimes capricious – task-master.  Working closely and successfully for the best-known designer taught me lessons in life as well as business and art which I brought to my own studio. 

My personal style as a designer depends on insight, in having the patience to interrogate a business in order to express its personality with economy, purpose and, if at all possible, wit.

My own studio has created some of the most familiar packaging found in shops and supermarkets: my clients have included Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Boots.  But I also enjoy working with smaller specialist businesses, including the perfumers Penhaligon’s and Lyn Harris.  Food is a special interest, indeed a passion, and I was fortunate to be able to combine business with pleasure in designing and illustrating some of the most influential cookbooks of recent years, notably those by Antonio Carluccio, Delia Smith and Anna del Conte.  My illustrations for Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken and Other Storis helped make it what Food Illustrated called the most influential cookbook of the past half century.

What drew you to coaching?

Coaching is not a departure from designing.  It’s simply an extension of the same sensibility into the human area.  I want to understand my clients so I can help them express themselves with style.  But that’s not style at the expense of purpose: in a well-designed object, style and purpose are indistinguishable.  And it’s exactly the same with people: there should not be a disguised or secret interior self.  You should present yourself exactly as you are: everything you say or do should express your personality.  I can help that expression. 

Charm and wit, I believe, are not frivolous commodities, but essential and important ones.  But there is confidence too.  And this is self-perpetuating: acquire a little confidence and you will soon have more!  This demands personal effort, but I make the process not at all onerous.  I will be disappointed if my clients do not feel excited and energised after our sessions.  That’s certainly my intention. 

I enjoy this coaching process and I want my clients to enjoy it too.  It’s an engaging and inspiring conversation, not a wrestling match.  Someone once said design is intelligence made visible.  And that applies to coaching too.  But it’s also about good sense and confidence being visible as well.

Fee Structure