Reflecting On My First Six Months At Cayr

Six months ago, I joined Cayr as Social Media and Content Assistant. Looking back, it’s been a whirlwind, in the best way.

I joined right in the middle of our new brand launch, which meant learning the ropes of social media, email marketing and website design, all while helping shape how Cayr Charity shows up in the world. There’s been no shortage of things to get stuck into. What started as a junior social media role ended up growing into something much bigger: a genuine learning experience that’s fuelled some incredibly valuable professional development.

One of the biggest highlights has been being trusted to help lead the redesign of Cayr’s brand identity. Before this, I’d done some design work for smaller projects and workshops, but nothing quite on this scale. Working with Hannah, our CEO, on shaping Cayr’s new brand identity has been one of the most rewarding parts of the job. From proposing fonts and colours to rethinking our marketing strategy to reach a wider audience, I feel incredibly grateful to have been trusted with such an important part of Cayr’s digital presence. But it wasn’t all a straight line. The brand went through several rounds of change before we landed on where we are now, including a brand-new logo developed by a graphic designer and a fresh website.

Another creative challenge and professional milestone has been redesigning our website around the new brand identity, while prioritising a user-first approach and reflecting the full range of Cayr’s programmes. It wasn’t simply about giving the website a new look; it was about thinking carefully about how people understand and navigate the charity online. Taking a user-first approach meant stepping back and considering the website from the perspective of someone encountering our work, and terms like ‘creative health’, for the first time. One of the solutions we developed was to create four colour-coded visual identities, giving each programme its own distinct look while allowing the identities to remain flexible as our programmes evolve, and ensuring they all sit cohesively under the wider arts and health umbrella.

Our new brand identity, together with a more intentional and regular digital presence, has also helped Cayr’s reach grow beyond our usual audience. We’ve had content shared by two influencers, including Hannah Ashman (@hanmade.art.studio), who shared her experience as a volunteer at the dementia café, and Debs World (@debs_w0rld) , who helped showcase Calverton Calling. We also had the opportunity to see Cayr featured on BBC East Midlands, giving us the chance to introduce the charity to people who may never have come across us before.

For a charity with a relatively small digital presence, this kind of exposure feels huge. It has helped us reach new audiences, raise awareness of the work we do and, importantly, show that even as a smaller charity, we can create content and campaigns that capture attention beyond our existing community. Seeing that wider reach has been incredibly rewarding and has made me even more excited about the potential for Cayr’s digital presence moving forward.

There’s still plenty more to develop and keep working on, new audiences to reach and new partnerships to explore. It’s all a work in progress, and that’s exactly what makes it such an incredible learning experience.