Time of your life with Sam Murdoch, Pretty bird Creative
Sam Murdoch knows better than anyone that life throws curveballs. Some of hers include diagnoses of anxiety, depression and a chronic health condition. But above it all, Sam’s thirst for knowledge and drive to keep trying new things has led her to a life fuelled by design, family and that ever-calming coastal breeze.
Sam is a graphic designer, a mentor for the Billy Blue College of Design and, once upon a time, a high school design and technology teacher after a (very) short stint studying PR. She has a deep connection to nature, place and community – so unsurprisingly found herself regularly returning home to the Mid North Coast during her varied creative pursuits. Here’s how her travels, from Bellingen, around the world and to her new home at Valla Beach, unfolded…
1985 – CASINo
Sam struggles to say it out loud, but she was actually born in Casino.
“We didn’t live there long – my parents' marriage broke down so we ended up moving to the coast. We lived in Burringbar and Mooloolaba for a few years, before moving on again to Bellingen.”
1992-1997 – Bellingen
By school age, Sam called Bellingen home and found herself exposed to a more creative, artistic side of life.
“It was the best place to grow up as a kid and I still consider it to be my home town. We’d spend long days by the river and had a big extended family with my mum’s close female friends – my little sister and I called them our ‘other mums’. It was incredible to be part of such a creative community – I was always drawing and making things at home. My mum had studied fashion when she was younger too, she was always sewing and making clothes. I’d sit and pore over her fashion design folios, trying to copy the illustrations.”
1997-1998 – Paddington
If Sam thought Bellingen was a worldly place, she got the shock of a lifetime when the family upped sticks and headed for the city.
“Mum needed to get out of a work rut, so we moved to Sydney. I cried for three days when she told me we were leaving Bellingen. It was a crazy jump. One minute we're in this little home in the country, the next we’re sharing a Paddington terrace with my aunt and uncle – it was such a culture shock. But it ended up being the best thing because of an art teacher there called Fiona Xeros-Marks. She was an incredibly strong woman, a feminist and single mum, and she invited me to take part in her adult art classes. She was the first teacher I’d ever known who saw something in me and made me feel like I was talented.”
1999 – Sawtell
One year later, just as Sam’s world was opening up, she felt it shut down again. The city was no longer a financially viable option for the family and Sam found herself at Toormina High.
“One minute I’m on track to hopefully go to Sydney Girls High, I had great friends who were so culturally diverse and creative, and I ended up in a school that was really different to what I’d previously experienced. My anxiety increased, I felt alienated from my peers and I was making bad decisions. But when I moved to Coffs Harbour Senior College, life changed. I met one of the most influential people in my early life, a teacher called Ian Rushforth. He was so encouraging and guided me through my HSC art. All I wanted to do was get back to Sydney – I had laser vision. I knew the score I needed to get into a Bachelor of Public Communication at the University of Technology, and nothing was going to stop me from getting there.”
2004 – sydneY
Despite facing grief twice over during her HSC, Sam scored the marks she needed and without taking a moment to breathe, headed straight back to the city.
“Both my grandma and my great grandma passed away that year. Looking back now, I should have stopped, I should have given myself some time. But I was so fixated on being in Sydney that I kept pushing. I started the degree I’d longed for – then dropped out in the first trimester. I realised pretty quickly it wasn’t the course for me; I didn’t want to learn about conflict resolution! I also wasn’t in a good place with my mental health. I hadn’t grieved and I needed to slow down. I spent the rest of the year working in hospitality, then headed back home to the coast.”
2005-2008 – Coffs harbour,
then Newtown
In the first year she returned home to her mum and sister, Sam rested. She breathed in the coastal air and eventually took on a one-year fashion design course at TAFE. Twelve months later, she knew it was time to go back… again.
“I took a huge left turn and ended up doing a Bachelor of Art History and Theory at UNSW College of Fine Arts (COFA). Some friends and I moved into a danky terrace in Newtown where rats died beneath the floorboards. But I was finally happy, it was fun and I seized the opportunity to learn about photography, feminist art and really learn the language of how to speak about creative pursuits. I drank too much coffee, smoked too much, but it was a messy, scary, beautiful and expansive time and I’m so happy I got that experience.”
2009-2012 – Bellingen
Then the GFC hit and work prospects in the city were limited to say the least. Sam returned ‘home’ to Bellingen to join her mum and sister, who had also recently moved back to the village. She pressed the reset button again and shifted into teaching.
“I did a Bachelor of Technology Education, majoring in graphics multimedia and textiles. My earlier studies contributed to the course, so I ended up completing a four-year degree in two. By then study fatigue was setting in. Looking back now, I can see I was terrified of making the leap into adulthood – the constant study was a self-sabotaging cycle. Something switched in my body. I’d previously experienced panic attacks, but this time they were lasting four hours at a time. I needed help. Thanks to a great psychologist I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder and clinical depression.”
2013-2014 – London, englanD,
then Bellingen, again
It had been building up her whole life. Sam faced serious health issues as a child, spending weeks at a time in hospital. She also believes she has a genetic predisposition to anxiety and depression. But it wasn’t until a psychologist said the word ‘trauma’ to her that everything seemed to fit.
“So I was diagnosed as anxious, but I’m also too anxious to take the medication to fix it. Speaking as someone who’s now very happily medicated, I wish I could go back and shout at my younger self to take the damn drugs! Still, I made the decision to leap to London to try and further my teaching career. I scored some temp work, but after four months, I didn’t want to be there anymore. I went home to Bellingen. There’s a theme here, right?”
2014-2017 – SYDNEY
Three years – that’s the longest block of time Sam had spent in one place in her entire life. She was teaching art, she was happy, then she became unwell… again.
“I was teaching design and technology at a senior college in Western Sydney. The community was fantastic and I just loved working with HSC students. But I became unwell – I was exhausted, falling asleep on the train, in constant pain and couldn’t eat anything without being in agony. When I finally worked up the courage to get some tests done, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. As hard as it was to leave, I knew city life wasn’t conducive to living with a chronic illness. I also missed my family, so I moved to Ballina where I had aunts and uncles nearby – it was time to head back to the coast.”
2017-2018 – Lennox Head
Sam secured a teaching contract split between Lismore and Ballina. While she was grateful for the opportunity to connect with students and guide them in their creative pursuits, something was still missing.
“So a friend and I formed The Well, a meeting place for women that focuses on mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and their connection with running a business. It was based in Byron Bay and I met some beautiful humans, but by the end of 2018 I felt something pushing me again, like a guiding hand. By that time my sister had her first baby and was living a beautiful life in Valla Beach. I wanted to be close to her and my mum, and be around while my niece was young. So I followed them there and boy am I glad I did.”
2019-2023 – Valla Beach
Soon after her move, Sam’s region was hit by fire, then floods, then COVID. Grateful to be close to her womenfolk during such challenging times, Sam felt ready to upskill in the graphic design field and enrolled in a Diploma of Graphic Design at Billy Blue.
“It feels like everything I’ve done, every subject I ever studied, every move I ever made was leading me here. I’m now a student mentor for Billy Blue and contract with an incredible local agency led by Marty Brown. He's been a huge support and influence on my work. Since I started white labelling for him, I’ve also gone out on my own and launched Pretty Bird Creative. Finally, I feel a sense of freedom, of peace and fulfilment. I work on projects that feel connected to me, that truly align with me, and while the ride to get here might have been bumpy at times, it’s also been magic. I feel so lucky. But I also know that without hard work and the support of my family, mainly my incredible mum, I wouldn’t be here.”
Pretty Bird Creative focuses on intuitive business, conscious design and creative solutions. Sam is passionate about the power of design in making social and environmental change and knows her work will always be inclusive and sustainable.
Photography Ella Fletcher, Bella Bellucci Photography
