Business Boom Bolton

Today’s feature involves a Manchester-based individual that likes to spread her wings into various different creative fields. Sarah Goodwin of ‘The Broken Doll Collective’ is a photographer and writer as well as a talented designer and it’s clear that she and her colleagues have a bright future ahead. Here’s a little more about Sarah and the activities in which she is involved:

I’m Sarah, also known around these internet parts as ‘The Doll’ in The Broken Doll Collective (BDC). I studied Media at Yorkshire Coast College, Scarborough which was brilliant – it covered everything from design and film to photography and journalism. It was the perfect course for me and I then found myself at The University of East London studying Journalism. As the years have gone on (I’m pushing 30 now) I have played about with different creative outlets and realised that I loved photography, especially model shoots and landscapes and it was from this realisation (plus some time on my hands) that BDC started from small and humble beginnings. I quickly realised it was something that could be turned into a business but to give BDC that edge, I needed something else too and that’s where the graphic design element came in, leading to a range of greeting cards and other products in my online shop ‘The Doll House’.

I guess I like to try my hand at all sorts of creative outlets and so didn’t want to be a straight forward photography business or a graphic designer or a card seller, I wanted to do it all and learn new skills along the way which luckily, is what happened. I work with Luray Smythe Designs who has just as much creative input into BDC as I do and we’ve got two new lines of products about to launch under the Broken Doll Collective heading – I can’t tell you too much about them at the moment but they’re very exciting and include a whole range of household accessories and clothing! We’re lucky that our greeting cards are unique so we’re remembered easily and quickly built up an online presence.

One of the things that both I and Luray Smythe Designs love doing is seeing other people’s work, so last summer we set up The Collective Magazine. We didn’t want it to be a magazine which focussed just on photography or art or fiction so we put them all together with the only link to each piece being two themes ‘addiction’ and ‘funfair’ – they were completely open to interpretation and if you fancy a virtual flick through the mag you can find it on our website. Plans for the second issue are a little sketchy at the moment but we will do one then hopefully as our name gets out there, we can make it a regular thing.

Broken Doll Collective Photography - Lonely Girl

Broken Doll Collective Photography - Sad Clown

For the future, who knows where we will end up. We’re excited about the two new lines we’re adding and one day, we’d like our very own bricks and mortar Doll House shop to sell our wares. Our website, which contains the link to our shop plus our magazine, design and photography work is here:www.brokendollcollective.co.uk! You can also follow me on Twitter @_TheBrokenDoll_.

Example Page from the Collective Magazine

Thank you Sarah, we wish you all the best for the future!

Read more from our Fashion feature; Nadine Merabi, Fiona Macintosh, Livia Lucie, Emma Lee & Top 10 Fashion Icons.