For years I've been helping companies communicate with their subscribers. I've built email design systems, solved accessibility challenges, spent more hours than I'd like to admit fighting Outlook, and somehow even learned to enjoy the strange puzzle that is Dark Mode.
Yet despite all of that, I never sent a newsletter of my own.
In fact, I had almost forgotten that I even had a subscriber list. It had been sitting there quietly for years because I never really intended to become a newsletter writer. Whenever I had something to say, I wrote a blog post or shared it on LinkedIn. That felt enough.
Then something changed.
Over the past year, I've noticed that the posts people respond to the most aren't necessarily the polished project showcases. People seem to enjoy the stories behind the work—the conversations with clients, the challenges, the lessons learned, and the little details that don't always fit into a conference talk or a portfolio case study. More than once, people encouraged me to keep writing. A few even suggested I start a newsletter.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
A blog is great when people are looking for you. A newsletter is different. It creates an ongoing conversation. It arrives quietly in someone's inbox, waiting until they have a few moments to read. There's something much more personal about that.
Eventually, I realised I wasn't short on ideas. I was simply missing a place to collect them.
That's how The Margin was born.
If you're wondering about the name, it's inspired by the margins of a page. The centre of the page is where the finished work lives. The margin is where ideas begin. It's where we scribble notes, question assumptions, connect unrelated thoughts, and capture observations before they disappear. Sometimes the most interesting part of the page isn't the polished content in the middle—it's what's happening around it.
That's exactly what I want this newsletter to be.
I don't want it to be another newsletter full of tips and best practices. There are already plenty of those. Instead, I'd like it to be a place where I can share the thinking behind my work—the observations, the experiments, the conversations, and the lessons I pick up along the way. Whether it's email design, accessibility, Dark Mode, running EmailBoutique, or simply something I've learned from a project, I hope you'll find something worth taking away.
The design follows the same philosophy.
A few people have already asked why there are no images. After all, I'm an email designer. Shouldn't my own newsletter be full of beautiful layouts?
Maybe one day.
But for this newsletter, I wanted the opposite.
I wanted it to feel more like receiving a letter than opening a promotion. Clean typography, generous whitespace, and no distractions. I wanted the words to do the heavy lifting. If a story needs an image, I'll include one. Otherwise, I'd rather let the content breathe.
Ironically, designing something this simple took more restraint than creating something elaborate.
I'll admit something else.
When it came time to press Send, I was surprisingly nervous.
Suddenly, years of memories came rushing back. I remembered being responsible for client campaigns, checking every link one last time, wondering if I'd overlooked something important. The funny thing is that I've done this countless times before, but somehow this felt completely different.
This wasn't someone else's brand.
It was mine.
When I looked at the results later that day, I found myself smiling. Not because I was chasing numbers, but because people had actually opened the email. They had taken a few minutes out of their day to read something I had written.
That meant more to me than I expected.
Behind every open and every click is a real person. Remembering that made this first newsletter feel far more meaningful than any statistic ever could.
One decision I made from the very beginning is that you'll never receive an email from a no-reply address.
If you have a question, disagree with something I've written, have a suggestion, spot a typo, or simply want to say hello, please hit Reply. I genuinely enjoy those conversations. Some of the best opportunities, collaborations, and friendships in my career have started with a simple email exchange.
So, thank you.
Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for following along on LinkedIn. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to stop overthinking and finally press that Send button.
I honestly wasn't sure anyone would want to hear what I had to say.
I'm incredibly grateful that you do.
📩 Connect with me on LinkedIn or send a message.
With Love from Kitsilano, Vancouver
Annett
Founder, EmailBoutique.io
