2011 - 2014

After completing a Graphic Design Degree at Salford University (2:1) and in high spirits for a career in design I set off looking for some experience.

I landed my first design job as a Junior at De Vere Hotels & Village Hotels. Here I started at the bottom, soaking up as much knowledge as I possibly could. The job involved a lot of new brand creation as the company was going through changes at this time, so I got to witness and have a hand in creating brands that have a deep meaning. This 'deep meaning' is something I've learnt more and more over time, after all a brand without it's golden thread will never last and can make it awkward to design new collateral on a daily basis.

Keen to impress, I looked for ways I could be useful. I went away and taught myself how to code emails from scratch; after presenting my work and reasoning De Vere took all it's email creation in-house and I taught the rest of the team how to produce them.

Industry experience in Photoshop / Illustrator / InDesign / Final Cut / After Effects / Email template coding / Brand creation / Print / Digital.

2014 - 2016

In late 2014, I moved cities to Liverpool. Here I got a role in an agency called Harry, Larry & Gary (hlg) as a Middleweight Designer.

As part of this role I became a manager to several Junior Designers. The agency gave me lots of freedom to grow my skillset which was fantastic. I spent a lot of time self learning in my free time to see if I could use those skills to gain new clients for the business.

I thought it was about time I learnt how to code properly as the world is so digital it would at least help me to understand how to design better for digital platforms. Turns out I liked it a lot. So not only did I get to design the UI / UX of a website, I also got to build it.

I started out with static sites and quickly moved over to Wordpress as a CMS framework.

Managerial experience / Creating brands from the ground up / Custom Wordpress development

2016 - 2022

In 2016 I got promoted to Senior Designer at hlg after my efforts in training up juniors and helping the business grow.

As part of this promotion I was tasked with growing the team. I went from managing a team of 4 designers to a team of 7.

During this role I've learnt a lot about brands, what they need to start, grow and flourish.

Business growth / Brand creation / Client relationships / Javascript / PHP / APIs

2022 - present

In 2022 after being recognised for business growth and skill set improval of not only myself but those I've trained around me, I was promoted to Lead Designer at hlg.

Since taking on this role we've won more business and on a larger scale in terms of projects. I also grew the team by 2 more and hired a full time developer who I've trained up to help me tackle larger web application projects.

At this point in my career, I've created lots of brands and the one thing I've found is that I just absolutely love getting under the skin of a company, whether that's creating the brand, print & digital campaigns or designing the UI and coding their website (I even made this one from scratch too).

I revel in the details of a brand, thinking about how I can refine it, help get the message across clearly (and easily) and ultimately help the business flourish.

Salesforce API integration / Client relationships / Figma / XD / Business growth

My future

So, why the move Dave?

As you can see, I've been at my current company for a while and I think it's time for something new, I want to experience a new challenge and help more companies with their brand.