Hi, I'm Sophie Bell.
And I've been obsessed with branding and creative worlds my whole life.
Sixteen years creating branding worlds. Three kids. Hundreds of clients. And one life I designed entirely on purpose.
Sophie Bell
.
Peppa Hart
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Sophie Bell
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Peppa Hart
Sophie Bell . Peppa Hart . Sophie Bell . Peppa Hart
THE BEGINNING
I grew up on a farm where
normal wasn't really a thing.
My dad was a professional polo player. My mum played for Australia too. Which meant my childhood was spent moving regularly to follow the polo seasons, more than twelve schools, travelling overseas to watch my parents play, riding horses and playing polo before most kids had decided what sport they liked.
It was an unusual Australian childhood and a little tricky to explain to kids when I would start at a new school. They would always think I meant water polo and were so confused by the need for all the horses for water polo! But I'm so grateful for every wild big move and beautiful moment of it. But the thing that shaped me most wasn't the travel or the adventure, it was watching my dad do what he loved, every single day of his life. He didn't have a "normal" career. He had a passion that became his whole world, and he built a life around it.
That ruined me for anything else. In the best possible way.
Even as a tiny kid I was aesthetic-obsessed. I set the dining table with handmade name cards. I laid out my dad's clothes before he went to do jobs on the farm, fully styled, even when he was just feeding horses. At boarding school I ran the unofficial hair and makeup station for anyone who'd let me. I was always curating something. Always making ordinary things more beautiful than they needed to be.
It turns out that's not a hobby.
It's a calling.
"I watched my dad build his whole life around what he loved. I decided very early on that I would do the same. I just didn't know yet that it would look like this."
THE TURNING POINT
I walked into a uni lecture and instantly knew I was in the wrong room.
I started university studying Commerce. I thought maybe a career as a Stockbrocker would be a smart financial move. I lasted a few semesters. On my first day I looked around the lecture hall, every single person had a grey HP laptop and I was sitting there with a bright pink Mac, and I just knew. These were not my people…
One marketing subject later, I changed my entire degree to Communications, majoring in advertising and PR. My creative brain exploded. I had found my place.
After graduating, I landed a job at the Gold Coast SUNS, a brand-new AFL team, still in the bid phase to even exist. What came next was the most exciting thing a marketer can ever do: build a brand from absolute zero. We got to name the team, get community buy-in, choose the colours, build the website, design the stadium brand and go on to produce the game-day TV. And we did all of this right at the moment Instagram and Twitter were first coming to life, pioneering what game-day sport could look like on social media. Being a new club we were not bound by traditional rules around media and how the team shows up online, it was the perfect time.
My incredible boss Jason, believed I could do anything. He let me run wild. I was young, in a room full of coaches and players and executives, doing things I'd never done before like produce live TV in a packed stadium with no background in TV and that confidence he gave me shaped everything that came after. I still chat to him regularly; he was a really important part in shaping my career.
THE BRAND
Peppa Hart started as a blog.
The name was a dream — literally.
While I was at university I started a little blog and needed a name. I landed on Peppa Hart, Peppa being the name I'd always dreamed of giving my daughter one day, and Hart after my mum’s maiden name. The two most important women in my life, before Peppa had even existed.
I had absolutely no idea it would become my business name, my online identity, and my whole entire work, still going, nearly twenty years later. And I certainly didn't know I'd eventually have not one but two beautiful daughters and a son. Life has a way of making the dreams literal.
While I was working at the AFL, I started sharing photos of my home, dinner parties I would put on for friends and outfits on Instagram. The blog and Instagram were a way to express the wild and creative side of my brain whilst working in a male-dominated football world. People started emailing and messaging asking me to brand their businesses, style their homes, even plan their weddings. The snowball became unmanageable. I was working until 1am, holding an already hectic career and building something else entirely on the side, I was living two very full lives.
In early 2014, my husband Bell sat me down and said: you need to make the jump. Give yourself six months. If it doesn't work, you can always go back. You have nothing to lose.
I never went back.
THE BRAND
Once I left the AFL world, people had seen the work. The retainer clients started to come quickly. I said yes to absolutely everything that came my way, even things I had no idea how to do and figured it out as I went. From Styling Matt Blatt store windows to fitting out Pacific Fair food courts to digital campaigns for Swarovski, David Jones and more.
One of my earliest clients was Three Birds Renovations. They had renovated one house. They needed a logo. I said yes, and for the next eight years I grew alongside them as they built one of Australia's most beloved renovation brands. The TV show, the schools, the whole empire. All built using the same approach I'd honed at the AFL: strategic, creative, digital-first.
In 2019, my husband and I built our house, Casa Campana, a Mediterranean-style home in Northern NSW that became a brand within itself. We had to limit how many shoots we took because it was also our family home and design studio. David Jones, Cotton On, Triangl, reality TV, all shot there. I designed large-scale artwork for Pacific Fair shopping centre's fit-outs and food courts. I collaborated with brands on homewares, fabrics, fashion, jewellery, and art. My work appeared in Marie Claire, Domino, Real Living, Vogue, and more. We even filmed a pilot for a reality show at one point.
And then I made the decision that changed everything again.
I'd scaled the agency. I had a full team. And somewhere along the way, I'd accidentally scaled myself out of the thing I actually loved, the designing, the creating, the making. I was running people and client conversations instead of designing and creating worlds. So I pulled it back, deliberately and proudly. Moved to Bali. Started fresh and in a boutique way. Chose clients carefully. Got back to the work I love.
From one house to
a reno empire.
LANA TAYLOR, FOUNDER - THREE BIRDS RENOVATIONS
“Sophie Bell didn’t just create the brand identity for Three Birds Renovations, she helped shape its soul. Her creativity is unmatched, with a style that feels elevated, distinctive and instantly recognisable. Beyond branding, Sophie played a key role in our marketing, content, and growth across every platform, helping us build our online renovation and styling schools to over 40,000 students worldwide. She’s not only incredibly talented, but an absolute dream to work with. I’d collaborate with her again in a heartbeat”.
THE WHY
It was my dad's. A silver buckle with a polo player on it. I rub it every time I'm overwhelmed, or facing a big decision, or need to feel like someone's in my corner. I know he's here with me, guiding me, he’s in my thoughts every single day.
My dad was a professional polo player and I'm a creative director, but the principle is identical: we both chased our dreams, travelled the world with our families, and chose a life that isn’t "normal." My kids are growing up on a tropical island, surrounded by children from all over the world, watching their mum build something she loves. They are wild and free and they watch me just like I watched him.
That's the whole thing, really. That's why I do all of it. My family.
There's a belt buckle
on my desk in Bali.
TEAM OF TWO
Without Bell,
none of this exists.
My husband saw something in me before I could see it myself. He always made me feel completely invincible, like anything I put my mind to was completely achievable. He was the one who told me to jump in 2014. He's the one who made it safe enough to try.
During the 8 years when he was working in mining, four weeks away at a time, I was solo-parenting, running a photoshoot location that had to be immaculate every single shoot, managing a design studio with six to eight people working in it daily, doing daycare drop-off and pick-up, and running client work and meetings galore around all of it. Those were the years that showed me exactly what I was made of. My capacity was a mindset that I can do anything I put my mind to.
When our son started primary school it changed, there was no way I could fit it all in and be at school pickup by 3pm. Daycare allowed me to have a few extra hours that helped me squeeze in all the things. I called Bell and said "you need to come home, I cannot do it alone anymore" he came home the next day. And everything changed for the better. He does more than I could ever explain, and I want everyone reading this to know that behind the brand, the busy work schedule, the collabs, and the beautifully curated Bali life there is a partnership that makes all of it possible. For 5 years now we have spent every single minute together, and I can’t imagine living my life any other way. We are raising our kids, growing businesses, chasing dreams and living what our version of our dream life is. At the core of it all, family.
Peppa Hart Manifesto
THE THINGS I BELIEVE IN
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It's the soul of the business. You could have the most incredible, ground-breaking product in the world, but if your branding doesn't speak to your customer, no one will ever know it exists.
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In the age of AI, taste and curation are the only true differentiators left. Anyone can generate a logo. Nobody can replicate your point of view.
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If your brand could belong to anyone else, it's not a brand. It's a template.
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Branding isn't a mystery. It's a method. One you can learn, follow, and repeat, once someone shows you the blueprint.
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Creativity, taste, and curation are the antidote. There is one big boring mess of identical brands out there and yours doesn't have to be part of it.
WHO I’M FOR
If this sounds like you,
you're in the right place.
You're a small business owner or founder either brand new, or years in with a brand that feels like it was put together by three different people on three different days (because it was). Your friend did your logo. You use Canva but your Instagram, your website, and your emails all have a completely different vibe. You're trying to do it all and not quite doing any of it well.
You know your branding matters. You just don't know where to start, or you've started and restarted so many times the whole thing feels impossible. So you freeze. You scroll other people's social media at 11pm and feel like you're falling behind.
I want to show you, step by step, how much easier this actually is than you think. A beautiful brand. A consistent one. A memorable, powerful one, with systems in place, a brand bible, content pillars, and the confidence to roll it all out without losing your mind.
You don't need a big agency. You don't need a huge budget. You need the blueprint.