Every so often you meet someone whose story stops you in your tracks. I met Anja Drop at a recent Meet the Media evening, where I was on the panel offering media and PR advice to those starting out.

As it turned out, Anja was already well on her way — and her route into the creative industries is one of the most refreshing I've come across in a long time.

Anja is the founder of Notch Media, an award-winning brand design and illustration studio based in Scarborough. The studio, she happily admits, is a team of one. She has no formal graphic design qualification. What she has is a lifelong love of art, a granddad who taught her to draw, and the determination to work the rest out for herself.

That granddad is Graham Chambers, a professional artist who ran a studio in Bishop Burton and taught watercolour painting for years. Most Saturdays of Anja's childhood were spent at his side, painting quietly while he taught his class. He showed her, by example, that a creative life was not only possible but sustainable — selling his own paintings and greeting cards at markets and major events. "I have always painted and drawn," she says. "It has never not been part of who I am."

She studied fashion at college and costume design at university. When the moment came to rebrand her illustration business and she couldn't find a designer she could afford, she taught herself graphic design and branding from scratch. That leap became Notch Media — and the recognition has followed fast.

The studio was named Best Graphic Design Business at the UK Small Business Awards 2025, holds SBS Winner status, and is shortlisted for Creative StartUp of the Year in the North East, Yorkshire and The Humber regional final of the UK StartUp Awards 2026. The final takes place in Leeds this June.

In just over two years of full-time trading, Anja has delivered branding for around twenty-five businesses, built roughly sixteen websites, and worked with clients across Yorkshire and beyond. In 2024 she self-published a children's book with her granddad, The Girl Who Bounced Too High — bringing the story full circle to those Saturday mornings in his studio.

What surprises people the most, she says, is that none of it came from a traditional route in the industry. It came from determination, from Saturday mornings with a paintbrush, and from a family who believed that making things was worth doing.

On the evidence of Anja's story, they were absolutely right.

Find more about Anja and Notch here