Hi, I’m Ruth, with a vision to empower SDG and IDG supporters. This is why I founded and initiated Creative Space — a community and ecosystem collectively nurturing impact solopreneurs, freelancers and changemakers.
I’m originally a Communications Designer with a passion for design and creation. At my graduation from the htk Academy in Hamburg, I was offered a job at a top Hamburg agency. This was the start of my career in advertising and packaging design, and then as a self-employed designer.
I’m British-born, with a family tree going back to 1690 with Scottish, Irish and French ancestors on my mother’s side. We moved to Trinidad, my father’s home, in the 60s, building our house in the middle of the rainforest. So I was literally very close to nature, with a love for forests, mountains, the beach and animals. I grew up with diversity being a natural part of my life, not only in nature, but also socially; my father was 13 years younger than my mother, and at the time, one of the few couples from different ethnicities. We also had a large patchwork family and would share our table with estate workers, the archbishop, LGBTQ artists, Sikhs and whoever other good people we knew.
My love for nature supported my decision to leave advertising at the height of my career and do more meaningful work. I began working for Greenpeace and delved into a deep learning journey about our environment and the repercussions of our individual and collective actions, and mainly the way we use our resources: natural, human and mental. At Greenpeace, I was a frontline campaigner and public speaker for all age groups, cultures and backgrounds on all environmental topics.
Further knowledge came from Planetary Boundaries with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and books & materials from Dr. Richard Oppenlander and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. I was brought up as a vegetarian like my mother, and made a conscious decision to become vegan. This led to being a certified Vegan Nutritionist with ecodemy®, and took me to animal rights activism and doing cubes for Anonymous for the Voiceless. This was the loneliest journey I ever had, as family and friends never fully understood what I was doing or why. The worst was feeling so alone in supporting values that support us all.
I wanted to learn a different way of communication and became certified as a Solution-Focused Organisational Coach with the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and the EMCC (European Coaching and Mentoring Council).
These are some key points which connected at the right time to form the idea of creating a community that supports the very people whose work supports the SDGs. After experiencing how profound it is to be coached by a solution-focused coach, I strongly believe that any solo would profit from professional coaching. Being a Designer, I know how frustrating it can be to need clients, and at the same time, wanting to stay true to our values. So, I thought it would be a good idea to create more of an ecosystem community than another monoculture.
Our space brings people together from all around the globe who are working on their own and supporting a liveable future with their work and their values, and we are now representing 14 countries, and open to many more. I imagine a world where we turn on the news and the wrongdoers have no voice and therefore no listeners. Instead, we hear all about the good being done. Creative Space is not just a community, but also a movement of being stronger together — not in anger or finger pointing, but in strengthening one another and creating and co-creating solutions.
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