Emma Charleston , London, United Kingdom

I’m a graphic designer and illustrator with over a decade of experience working both in-house and freelance for a range of clients, with predominant focus on Education, the co-operative movement, third sector, and music/arts organisations and individuals.

As a graphic designer I pride myself on fast, perfectionist design and artworking skills across InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. I am just as comfortable working to established brand guidelines as I am developing and conceptualising one-off styles or entire brand-worlds from scratch.

I am passionate about print processes, print terminology, paper stocks, print/binding techniques, specialist finishes (foiling, spot UV, cutouts, tip-ins etc), and working with printers and other external contractors to achieve the best possible results.

I have extensive experience in the creation of vector graphics and icons, as well as image retouching/editing in photoshop. I have also frequently worked on typesetting projects in other languages, including Welsh, Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Arabic. I am fluent in Welsh.

I have overseen full spec signage design from initial site survey through to artwork creation and oversight of contractors on final install. I have worked for many years in a collaborative studio environment, as well as from home — across these environments I have proved my skill both as a team-worker and a self-motivated freelancer, capable of managing multiple projects and clients at the same time. I like a tidy desktop, an empty inbox, and a well structured filing system — these things have stood me in good stead throughout a career which has involved frequent collaboration and sharing of files, as well as managing my own work.

I love working both digitally and with more traditional processes, including screenprinting, linocut, letterpress and riso. I use these both for client work and for personal projects, including prints, zines and other items.