MEET BELLA: BUILT BACKSTAGE

Our Creative Director has run five-star front desks, styled 1,000-guest award nights and led brand activations for Disney, Marvel and the Premier League. Here's how it all adds up to Five Six.

Ask Bella to get in front of the camera and she'll hand you the camera. She's happiest back of house, where the work actually gets made. Which is funny, because she's the reason a lot of things look the way they do.

Here's how our Creative Director got here.

IT STARTED WITH A CAMERA

Photography came first. She studied it at school, and in 2016 she was named Photographer of the Year. It gave her the thing she still leans on every day: an eye for the detail nobody else clocks. The light, the frame, the bit that's slightly off. It's there in every brand, shoot and space she touches.

EVERY SIDE OF THE ROOM

Bella didn't go from design school straight into an agency. She came up through retail, five-star hospitality, property marketing and luxury events, and wherever she landed, she got promoted fast. She's run front desks, done 24-hour on-call shifts, planned private dinners and styled award nights for a thousand guests.

That's where she learned how things actually get delivered. How a brand feels to the person walking through the door. What breaks when nobody's written the process down. How to keep a room calm when something's gone wrong five minutes before doors open.

Somewhere along the way, helping style a portfolio of apartments, she fell for interiors too.

KNOWING WHEN TO STEP BACK

In 2018 she did what plenty of people talk about and few actually do. She packed a bag, spent three months travelling Asia and came home knowing exactly what kind of work she wanted next. It's still how she works: step back, get clear, then go.

BUILDING THINGS FROM SCRATCH

Since then, Bella's made a habit of joining businesses early and building whatever's missing. Hired to do the books at one company, she ended up a director, having built its systems, styled its space and grown its Instagram from 4K to 48K. Later she was one of the first three through the door at a start-up, leading brand and creative as it grew into a global platform for underrepresented artists, and running activations for some of the biggest names in sport and entertainment.

Starting from nothing doesn't scare her. It's her favourite bit.

FIVE SIX

In August 2020 she started Five Six. The idea was simple: a high-end, design-led alternative to traditional agencies, where commercial thinking and genuine creative passion sit at the same table. Today she runs it with her sister Lexie from Knaresborough, alongside Inkonography, our hand-drawn illustration service, and her own bespoke site-specific artwork.

WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU

Put it all together and you get someone who's worked every side of the room. She knows what a brand should look like, and she knows what it takes to actually make it happen: on time, on budget, and without the wheels coming off.

That's the "big agency thinking, small studio execution" bit. Bella's lived both halves of it.

She still won't go in front of the camera, mind. That's Lexie's job.

Got a brand that needs a proper eye on it? Let's talk.