I have always been fascinated by the idea that there are so many different parts to who we are. The things we naturally gravitate towards, the way we make decisions, what makes us feel most like ourselves + how much all of that can change throughout our lives.
Astrology and Human Design have become interesting ways for me to reflect on those things. I don’t read them as a set of instructions, but every so often, I come across something that makes me think… well, that explains a few things (hehe).
So, I thought I would use them as a slightly different way to introduce myself.
I’m Niobe, the woman behind Studio Kynd. A designer, a former NHS nurse, a traveller, a lover of beautiful little details + someone who has never been particularly good at having just one interest.
My Virgo sun + Venus feel like a fitting place to begin.
I can spend an unreasonable amount of time looking at two almost identical shades of a colour. Beautiful packaging makes me ridiculously happy. And I will absolutely interrupt a walk to look at an old doorway, a lovely shopfront or the lettering on a window.
A beautifully set table, the texture of a piece of paper, the typography on a restaurant menu… these are things I have always noticed and enjoyed, long before design became my work.
Now, I get to bring that attention into Studio Kynd. Choosing a typeface, refining the space between letters, finding a colour palette that feels right for the person behind a business. I love seeing how those individual decisions come together to give a brand its own character.
Of course, that attention to detail can also mean knowing when to step away from the screen. Sometimes those two shades really are almost identical, and a cup of tea is more useful than another twenty minutes of comparing them.
Then there is my Sagittarius moon, which feels very familiar to the part of me that always wants to see what is around the next corner. I love exploring somewhere I have never been. Wandering without much of a plan, finding a little café, taking the longer route because a street looks interesting. I am happiest by the sea, and there is something about being somewhere new that makes me feel especially curious and open.
One of the things I value most about working for myself is being able to take my work with me.
When I imagined the life I wanted, travel was always part of it. I wanted to experience places beyond a short holiday, to find a little routine somewhere different and let exploring sit alongside ordinary working days.
There are still emails to answer, projects to deliver and all the less picturesque parts of running a business. But being able to close my laptop and walk somewhere unfamiliar means a lot to me. Travel also gives me so much to notice. Buildings, colours, menus, textiles, the way a place feels at different times of day. I take photographs of details I probably couldn’t explain my interest in at the time, then find myself thinking about them months later.
My Gemini rising + Manifesting Generator energy give me another way to think about my curiosity and the different directions my life has taken.
Before Studio Kynd, I was an NHS nurse.
There were parts of that chapter I loved, but I also knew there were other things I wanted to explore. Creativity had always been there, and eventually I gave myself the chance to find out where it could lead. I taught myself design and started my own business. Six years later, I am still finding new things I want to learn, make and try.
I haven’t reached a point where I feel completely finished figuring myself out. Running a studio has helped me understand so much about the work I enjoy and how I want my days to feel, but it has also introduced me to interests and possibilities I couldn’t have anticipated.
I have never really understood the idea that we have to choose one version of ourselves and stick with her forever.
You can care deeply about something and still become curious about something else. You can be proud of a chapter and decide it is time for another one. My years in nursing are part of my story, and so is the decision to teach myself an entirely different profession. There is something reassuring about allowing both to belong.
Then we come to Mercury + Mars in Libra.
This makes me laugh because I spend so much of my life considering different perspectives, looking for balance and trying to make things feel just right and that can be useful in my work. I enjoy thinking through how a brand will be experienced, listening to the person behind it and considering why one direction might suit them better than another.
It is slightly less useful when I have 37 tabs open and cannot decide between two typefaces.
I am learning to recognise when I have given a decision enough thought. Sometimes I need more information. Other times, I have everything I need and am simply hoping another round of looking will make the choice feel completely certain and working for myself has given me plenty of practice in making a decision, trusting it and moving forward.
I don’t think a birth chart or a Human Design profile can tell us everything about who we are but I do enjoy having another way to reflect, ask questions and find words for things I have felt for a long time. The detail-loving part of me and the part that wants to book a one-way flight both have a place in my life. So do the former nurse, the designer and the woman who is still curious about what she might do next.
They all come with me into Studio Kynd: in what I notice, how I work with people and the kind of business I am building.
So, that is a little introduction to the woman behind the studio, through a slightly different lens. Now I am curious… do we share any placements? Or have you ever read something about your own chart that made you feel incredibly seen?
Niobe x