Experience

• 

  Connected Places Catapult

  • Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom

  • Graphic Designer

    • Jul 2017 - Present
    • Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom

    I work in the Marketing department and closely with the in-house events team to produce a variety of event assets such as lightboxes, social media banners, vinyls and name badges in a timely manner. I also work to produce reports and case studies, infographics and logo design and the production of insightful and attractive powerpoint presentations.Having extensive knowledge of Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Powerpoint and Acrobat means I am able to utilise these programs to follow a specific brief to create fresh and exciting design options and solutions. I am able to design high quality press-ready artwork following a particular companies corporate guidelines or design criteria. I am happy to be customer facing and enjoy interaction with people and clients to establish good working relationships and to gain an insight into what design elements would be appropriate for each project.

• 

  Merry Printers

  • Luton, Bedfordshire

  • Studio Manager

    • Aug 2016 - Feb 2017
    • Luton, Bedfordshire

    A highly flexible customer facing role working closely with clients and suppliers to produce and deliver high quality artwork for a variety of print requirements.• Professional and personable; customer feedback and annual reviews exceed expectations showing strong work ethic.• Working with stringent design requirements. Liaise with customers to gain the best possible compromise of design and customer satisfaction.• Using excellent time management to effectively prioritise and meet customer negotiated deadlines. Implement relevant cost efficiency.

• 

  Adare International

  • Dunstable, Bedfordshire

  • Graphic Designer

    • Oct 2013 - May 2016
    • Dunstable, Bedfordshire

    I was employed by Adare International as a contractor working on the Whitbread account which encompassed producing press ready artwork for Costa, Premier Inn, Table Table, Beefeater and Taybarns following corporate guidelines for each brand.Whilst working at Adare, I created many Training Manuals and Guides from supplied copy, ensuring that relevant images are placed correctly in relation to content of each article. I ensured technical guides and manuals are clean, uncluttered and precise with tables and information legible and easy to read. I have excellent skills with regard to attention to detail and quality control. I ensure that I use master pages and character and paragraph formatting to ensure consistency of design and typesetting across projects, particularly in brochure work. I also work on creating POS material, leaflets, flyers, posters and menus, web banners and logo design. I am also able to retouch and manipulate images using Photoshop.

• 

  Abstract Group

  • Dunstable

  • Pre-Press Artworker

    • May 2011 - Oct 2013
    • Dunstable

    I was employed by the Abstract Group in the Studio and Digital Printing Department as a senior member of the pre-press production team, responsible for creating artwork and visuals for items such as stationery, booklets, brochures, flyers and prospectuses, invitations and posters.I worked with high-end companies such as Dior and Guerlain, and produced a monthly magazine for The Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors. These companies expect nothing less than a polished and professional finished product which is both well designed and typographically accurate.Other roles included preparing and checking artwork to produce press ready pdfs to send to print on the HP Indigo Digital Press. Should a customer provide artwork, typically in the form of pdf, to be printed on our digital presses, I was responsible for pre-flight checking and preparing the files for print. As much of our work was personalised or direct mail, using our Smartstream software, I was able to apply a supplied database to artwork to produce personalised pdfs with both images and text.On a daily basis I worked closely with my manager and assisted in liaising with clients and internal personnel. I booked in jobs and followed their progress to ensure that expected delivery commitments and consistent quality control expectations were met.

• 

  Annodata Print Services

  • Dunstable

  • Creative Artworker

    • Feb 2004 - May 2011
    • Dunstable

    My role was as a creative art worker in pre-press digital production.I was solely responsible for designing and setting a 180 page Car Parts Catalogue which was produced yearly. From initial brief and first concept ideas I designed complete page layouts, manipulated pictures and finally produced print ready pdfs for forwarding to Litho printing. I applied skills such as my excellent time management and good organisational practices to deal with a large project such as this. I liaised with the customer to maintain excellent relations and to give advice regarding design options. I fully to understand planning and and make full use of comprehensive master pages when embarking on a brochure or catalogue. This means my own projects are easy to manage and my consistency of design is maintained throughout.

• 

  Turner Typesetting

  • Dunstable

  • Proof Reader and Typesetter

    • Jun 1983 - Feb 2004
    • Dunstable

    I began my career as an apprentice proof-reader and typesetter at Turners Creative. I spent three years attending Dunstable College alongside my in-house position. I hold a City and Guilds in Print and Origination.Over the ensuing years, I have adapted to the many changes and advances in the reprographics and origination industry. My role progressed to became more design and finished artwork based. I am able to easily adapt to change; I familiarise myself with new and evolving software packages to ensure continuous improvement and to maintain the ability to work as efficiently as possible. Following the introduction of a Digital printer in-house in 1997 my skill-sets were expanded further to encompass preparing press ready artwork to send straight to print.