My background
Since October 2010 I have been working as a self-employed graphic designer, trading as Carline Creative. Carline is my family name and represents a rich heritage of artists and writers. I grew up in central Oxford and have now settled down in Cholsey, a thriving village in South Oxfordshire. I have three children (10, 14 & 15) who keep me on my toes. I am a friendly and sociable person, I love to be on the move, walking, running, organising or planning events. I am also a cub scout leader, which I love.
Prior to self-employment, I worked for a design agency for 3 years and before that as an in-house designer for a large publishing company. This wealth of experience has given me great insight into all aspects of the design process from start to finish. I thrive in a team environment but am also extremely self-motivated and hard working.
I have a Masters in Design Management and more recently a PgDip in Graphic Design at Falmouth University. This refreshed my creativity and pushed me to try new things. I love to learn and I am always on the look out for new opportunities to progress my career and broaden my skill set.
I have designed for many different industries and can adapt my skills to suit the project in hand. This portfolio site showcases my work from the last 6 years much of which has spent working on projects with Oxford Brookes University, the Tim Henman Foundation, Allmakes 4x4 and more recently, Thames Valley Police. Please visit www.carlinecreative.co.uk for previous work including branding, packaging, retail and exhibition design. Through my time at ArtHaus I worked on global client projects for Diageo, Centrica, Bupa and others so I am well tuned to working with large scale brands to small scale startups.
I am motivated by the power of good accessible design to inspire action and positive impact.
My working process
I use the Design Council's Double Diamond methodology when approaching a design brief. First is the discovery phase in which I find out everything I can about the client's objectives, the problem they are seeking to solve, the target audience they intend to reach with the impact they hope to achieve. I distill the research and define the design parameters including application,format, craft, trends and create a series of visual explorations. These are presented back to the client i.e. moodboards, mock-ups and visuals. Through an exchange of feedback the designs evolve as we move into the development phase. Once tried and tested and all stakeholders are in agreement, the designs are finalised and delivered in formats optimised for the intended audience. Overall, I enjoy an agile working process with lots of collaboration and communication along the way :-)
Mindmap of the problem
Moodboards to capture the benefits
I follow the Gestalt Principles of Perception
Wireframes (XD)
Site Architecture for website
Trend spotting mood board
