It wasn't easy for creative director Caroline Bishop to walk away from The Kit—she's been with the digital beauty and fashion mag since its start in 2010.

She created the look and feel of the digital version and helmed a recent redesign of the weekly print edition, which launched in 2011. "It is definitely difficult to pass the baton to someone else," said Bishop, who transitions to full-time freelance work. "But now that the whole brand is in a good place, I feel it's an appropriate time for me to step away."

Bishop will focus her attention on digital magazines and special interest publications. "At The Kit, brands were still reluctant to add interactivity to their ads. I'm hoping that with my experience, knowing what's possible, I can show beauty and fashion brands that you don't have to just show a plain pair of shoes," she said. "You can add so much more to that, that I don't think brands have even thought about yet."

She looks forward to a work/life flexibility that benefits her as a mother of two young children. "I just felt I wasn't as much a part of their lives as I needed to be," she said. "The full-time, 9-to-5 corporate world wasn't quite for me." 


Bishop was a freelancer when she started at The Kit, so she already knows that working for herself won't be a breezy stroll. "You have to chase your clients and work harder because you don't have the support that you'd necessarily have at a full-time job," she said, noting the "amazing" art department that she worked with at The Kit.

But while freelancing may mean more hours in total, the flexibility is worth it. She can drop work mid-afternoon, pick her kids up from school and spend time with them before getting back on the grind, she said.

As she builds her client base, Bishop has her eyes on opening an office space and taking on an assistant designer in the coming months. Her clients include Joe Fresh and The Presbyterian Record, and she carries on her relationship with The Kit, working with it on custom projects for Murale and Shoppers Drug Mart.

[A version of this article originally appeared on Masthead sister site Design Edge Canada]