Graphic Design isn't just about making something look pretty. It's seeing my projects develop and grow past my initial input, which I cherish seeing. That's why I aim to make everything I create easy to implement and alter for future uses.
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This Esty shop needed brand guidelines, including logo plus cards, created for their grand opening. This is the project I had the most fun on due to the creative freedom I had. I worked with the owner to establish the tone of voice/atmosphere they were aiming for, and I echoed this in the design.
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Over four years, I've created a wide range of assets for the e-learning platform 8 Billion Minds. I've worked closely with the marketing team and developers to make the platform the best possible before it launches. Resulting in me gaining a great understanding of how a range of people use brand guidelines and the needs of guidelines in the long term.
Read More →The Adapting is a Twitch Streamer who wanted to bring his channel to the next level and gain more followers. We worked together to determine their required assets and the brand's angle. The core assets needed were a logo and branding for their channel, social media, and shop. With the focus on their fanbase, referred to as the Kingdom.
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This project was to build a portfolio website from scratch to show my previous projects. The goal was to design/build an easy-to-use responsive site. The challenges for version 1 came with the software's limitations and having to develop solutions quickly for designs it couldn't do. I saved these designs for version 2, where I coded the site.
Read More →The project aimed to strengthen my UI/UX skills and ensure I was ready to create version 2 of Vicky Charles Design's site. This exercise was to design plus build with HTML and CSS code; a home page for a cafe in seven different web personalities. The key challenge was to make the sites different styles but with the same content.
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This project for the social club Open Circle was to create a new logo, redo their branding, and create a low-tech poster template for them to use. They want to appeal to more members of their community to gain more followers. A significant challenge was keeping their old font, as it was a Mac font with limited assessability.
Read More →I'm a freelancer Graphic Designer with experience in designing for a range of brands and assets, both digital and print. I have a firm background in creating brands from scratch, mock-ups and Social Media posting material.
After the initial meeting to discuss the project in detail (or if there is no meeting, then when I get the brief), I start by researching the client. Plus, their competitors and what they do regarding the assets for the brief. ideas down so I can refer back to them later and create the concepts.
I create a mind map from all the information I've gathered to get all the ideas/angles for the project. Mind maps help get all the ideas down so I can refer back to them later and create the concepts.
The first thing I do after research is to create a site map ( if not given in the brief) to figure out the pages for the site and how they link together. Afterwards, I list sections on each page and the elements for each section. From this, I sketch rough ideas for each page to help me quickly visualise ideas and play with different layouts.
When I have the initial ideas written down, I hand-sketch several concepts based on the mind map. Sketching by hand helps me quickly narrow down what ideas work and help me figure out styles. I often select a couple of sketches to show the client so they can choose which one they like for the final design.
From the sketches, I create wireframes for the pages, which helps give a skeleton layout for the page. One of the critical uses of a wireframe is for the development team, as it can break down the final design layout into components. I use a desktop-first approach for responsive sites, so the wireframes are desktop-focused.
When the design is agreed on, I will then create the design digitally in black and white. I hold back the colour to start with to focus on balancing the other design components. When I'm happy with the design, I'll add brand colours. If there is no brand colour, I'll create the design in several colour schemes for the client to choose from before starting the next stage.
When I've solidified the wireframes with the client, I create mock-ups on Figma. I start with creating the page and site layout and placing all the components down. With this, I have a space and font size scale; this helps keep consistency throughout the design. I then add all the styling elements (e.g. colours, shadows and border-radius).
Before polishing the design, I will add any typography needed for the asset, using what is in the branding. Suppose the client's branding doesn't cover typography. In that case, I'll search for fonts that suit the company so the client can have a say before working on the typography.
When I complete the desktop design, I'll start looking into the responsive design. By looking into how the site looks at all screen sizes and finding what sizes, the design begins breaking. I then figure out what needs altering to work for the smaller sizes ( e.g. reducing the grid column number). I reduce the number of sizes that things change to a minimum for the smoothness and cleanest responsive design.
The final stage is double-checking that all the elements work together perfectly and going over the details with a fine comb.