My Work Experience

From the moment I first used layout software I was hooked. I remember helping my Business & Information studies teacher write instructions on how to use the desktop publishing software for the school. Things have moved on a lot from the old school BBC computers - so naturally my interest has kept growing too.

I used to design event posters, tickets and newsletter articles while working in a Clerical job before realising I wanted to go to University to get access to the industry standard tools. Uni taught me that it's best to be self-taught as otherwise you will be limited by the knowledge of your tutors and mine were well behind the curve as far as computers were concerned.

We traded pepperoni pizzas for an old laptop with Photoshop 4 on when I was waitressing while studying Music Technology. I learnt most of my core skills on that P133 and developed a love for Eye Candy filters and Xara 3D. This is when I started doing freelance work for music promoters designing fliers and posters.

I got a bug for print and went to learn journalism at a local Media Company. I was writing the Art events listings when they discovered my design skills on my CV and asked me to help them design their publications instead. My focus was for designing adverts for many different A3 tabloid newspapers and A5 guide books. I also assisted the Games Editor in getting promotional copies of games to review and became the Nintendo reviewer.

I met a fantastic group of people that broke away and started an independent magazine based in the Custard Factory. Myself and the Games Editor moved to the new magazine and found our jobs got much easier. Even though we were only lifestyle press the gaming PR companies supported us so much and we made so many friends in gaming PR.

This lasted for 4 years and print got hit by a wave of magazine closures so I took a job designing adverts for Yellow Book while writing my reviews from home. This was a fantastic opportunity to learn how to use Illustrator as a layout tool. As Yellow Book is the US equivalent of our Yellow Pages the design style was different to what I was used to and this meant learning US spellings and 'making things pop more'. This work was done under a time-management system so I also learnt how to generate ideas quickly as I had to design an advert approximately every 20 minutes.

Eager to learn more I was taking weekend courses in Web Design and paying for Professional Studies courses in Web Design and Graphics for Web Design as I knew I would need to move into other work soon. I also took a course in Creative Business.

The Yellow Book contract was given to the San Diego studio so I was transfered to the Yellow Pages studio downstairs and this work wasn't as much fun. I missed the US work and they soon discovered they now had too many staff and had to let some go.

The magazine and my Yellow Pages work all ended at the same time. A definite sign that print was struggling. I took a 3 month temporary contract working as a Graphic & Web Designer for a property development company in Meriden. I created flag designs, brochures, full pages adverts, printed mini CD business cards, edited their websites and lots of interesting promotional material.

When this job was coming to an end I applied at Codemasters for a QA position as I was missing my connection with the games industry. I never expected to get an interview and was even more surprised when I got the job. I was working on Nintendo products in QA for the first year and moved to Nintendo Compliance the second year. I now work in 360 Compliance. This work has helped me become more organised and given me an understanding for the need for clarity in all user interfaces.

My work in QA has satisfied the side of me that missed my contact with the gaming industry but I still found myself missing my creative work. I found out about a creative online community based in the US that attracts creative businesses from around the world. I signed up and opened a shop and this website documents some of the creative work I've been asked to do since I did this.