About me

Over the years, I have worked in many different sectors of graphic design. Whether it be charities, education, newspapers, music artists or even myself, I eat, sleep, and live all areas of graphic design.

No matter the project, the finite details make all the difference to how successful a campaign is, and consistent and strong an organisation or brand presents themselves. My meticulous attention to detail is something I pride myself on as a designer and is a part of the reason why, during my time in the newspaper industry, I won back-to-back awards for Specialist Publication at the O2 Media Awards.

Building and growing brands with design consistency is something that I am immensely passionate about. In recent years I've been a part of several successful brand designs and relaunches, including Hull Daily Mail, Nottingham Trent Students' Union and their biggest campaign of the academic year Freshers' Week - in which this year we've taken a whole new approach to the brand to transition to focus on Gen-Z under my art direction leadership.

As a designer, I've been the senior design lead and sole designer within organisations, and I'm comfortable working independently, remotely and as part of a team. Some of the leadership roles I've undertaken include junior training of designers, interns and senior designers in aspects of design they are not familiar, or confident in. Completing my ILM Level 3 in Coaching and Mentoring has provided me with the insight into what it takes to be a fair, understanding, and competent leader.

Through day-to-day design work and freelancing, working closely with clients and members of organisations to develop their briefs from concept to finished product is something I'm able to do confidently on my own or as part of a team. Having such good relationships with clients allows for confident presentation skills to present a variety of solutions to their brief. I love to push clients out of their comfort zone where possible, but always put their needs first and tailor my design styles to their project.

Working within the charity and entertainment sectors are excellent examples of areas of design where I've pushed clients out of their comfort zones. With Pelican Park Community Trust, they approached me with a basic brand guidelines and minimal marketing presence. I provided them with a hybrid approach of photography options, illustration, and social media templates to market themselves and develop their brand. Another example is working with independent theatre companies, such as Middle Child, that want to stand out as a niche entertainment but lacked a strong visual. Approached with the intention of highlighting the energy they want to capture with their live performances, I encouraged them to used bespoke hand-lettered typography opposed to standard typefaces to set them apart from competing companies.

As I like to be busy, juggling multiple projects at once gives me time management skills that do not interfere with the quality and standard of work I produce. If anything, the more projects on the go, fast-paced environments, or last-minute deadlines. Day-to-day I manage up to 15 jobs a day, servicing NTSU as an organisation as a whole within the communications department. These jobs range from social media design, poster design, website design and management, marketing, photography, videography and animation to name a few.

On a personal level, freehand design with my Wacom tablet is something I really enjoy and is a service that I provide to freelance clients. Most recently I've been able to integrate this skill into my current job role for the redesign of Freshers' Week 2021 with a bespoke illustrated festival landscape. I am keen to explore this side of design further in my day-to-day work.

In all that I can offer as a designer, I bring extensive knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite including, and not limited to, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro and After Effects. I also provide experience as a Mac user in Final Cut Pro. I have experience of managing and designing websites with HTML, CSS and Wordpress, including two of my own for personal businesses. In the last year in particular, the use of Microsoft Office has become essential. This includes Microsoft Teams and setting up branded templates for social media and posters in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word for departments to create their own updates while remaining consistent and on brand throughout the organisation.

I pride myself as a designer with a style that defeats trends and stays ahead of the curve. In recent years I've evolved in photography, videography and animation skills that make for engaging marketing campaigns. I'm frequently researching ways to develop my skills professionally and personally, implementing them in both my day job as a graphic designer and as a freelance designer.

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Caitlin's work

Watford FC Branding

Papa Johns Campaigns

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