Meet the Team: Emily
Welcome to Meet the Team: Our blog series where we get chatting to each and every member of the GRIN team.
1) What’s your name and what do you do?
Hi my name is Emily and I’m GRIN’s newest Junior Designer! A creative thinker and lover of quirky colour palettes, I consider myself to be a bit of an all-round designer, but want to specialise in branding and digital design. As a newbie on Birmingham’s creative scene I am excited to work with the team and get stuck into a wide range of briefs!
2) How did you end up working in the creative industry?
So I’ve always been a pretty creative person but I kind of fell into a career in design after studying Graphic Design at A-Level on a whim and loving it! After that I studied at Loughborough University, earning a BA in Graphic Communication & Illustration, interning alongside my studies for a range of agencies/non-profits to gain some experience in the design field.
3) What has been your favourite project you’ve worked on to date?
My favourite project has to be my D&AD ‘Just Check It’ project where I created a hypothetical NIKE campaign which raised awareness of skin cancer in young people of colour by designing a ‘UV Detect & Protect’ sport collection which helped indicate when people were exposed to high levels of UV radiation. I had so much fun creating bold patterns and striking visuals, to try tackle such a serious subject matter in a more playful way.
4) What do you like most about being a designer?
My favourite thing about being a designer is having the chance to creatively solve problems through visual language, I also love that everyday can be different – working on different briefs for different clients definitely helps to keep me on my toes!
5) What is your favourite thing about Birmingham?
It’s controversial, but can I say the brummie accent haha? Aside from that, I love all the quirky bars and street food venues around Digbeth, I’m also a big fan of Ghetto Golf, although my mates always say I sometimes get a bit too competitive!
6) What is something that inspires you?
Colour! Anything bold and bright that catches my attention – I love how different colours can straight away create a particular mood or emotion. I’m also a sucker for those little Pantone swatches that you can pick up at paint shops which I love to flick through to get colour scheme inspirations for a new project.
7) Is there an artist or designer you admire? And why?
I’m a big big fan of abstract artists such as Matisse, Picasso and Pollock because they all break the traditional idea of what constitutes as ‘art’ through their bold use of colour and abstract pattern/shapes which I use to influence my own abstract graphic style.
8) What are you interested in outside of work/design?
In my free time I also work as a freelance creator for Thortful, illustrating greetings cards for their website. Apart from design stuff I love to keep active by walking, swimming – even forcing to myself on the occasional run! I am also really into music and love going to different live music events and gigs in and around Birmingham.
9) What has been the most challenging part of adjusting to WFH?
I am definitely a people person so the thing I miss most is not being in a studio environment working with everyone! I love working from home with my dog but he is a bit of an attention seeker – he gets very annoyed when the family and I have to prioritise work over playing with him, so there’s usually a lot of barking to put up with!
10) Plan B? If you weren’t working in the creative industry, what would you be doing and why?
Hmmm that’s a tricky one, I love to read books, journals, articles – all kinds of stuff so maybe some kind of journalist? I’m also quite into my football so it would be a bit of a rogue career path but I’ve always wanted to try being a sports commentator!
