Welcome to my portfolio page.
I am a graphic designer, digital creative and art photographer with over a decade of design experience.
As the Design Lead for The Embodiment Conference, I was tasked with leading a design team to create a website, conference platform, and marketing materials for a significant online conference featuring 1,000 presenters over a 10-day period in 2020. It was an especially challenging endeavor as it took place during the lockdown, emphasizing the need for a strong online presence. The goal was to reach and engage a vast audience, and we aimed for over 400,000 sign-ups.
One of the crucial tasks in this scenario was the creation of video title pages for the 1,000 sessions within a relatively short period.
To address this task, I devised an efficient solution. I created an Airtable spreadsheet that compiled all the necessary data, including session titles, channel graphics, presenter names, and presenter images. I then developed a custom API that could generate the banner images required for each session. This API streamlined the process of generating the 1,000 banner images, each with the appropriate session details. This not only saved a significant amount of time but also reduced expenses.
The results were outstanding. The API worked seamlessly to generate the necessary images, and the video team had direct access to the image links. This significantly expedited their work, saving both time and resources. Additionally, we repurposed the API for creating various marketing materials such as Instagram quote cards and session time images. These marketing materials proved highly effective, contributing to a substantial increase in sign-ups for the conference. As a direct result, the conference turned a healthy profit.
This experience not only showcased my ability to lead a design team but also demonstrated my technical expertise in developing custom solutions that improve efficiency and achieve tangible results.
In my capacity as a freelance designer and creative consultant, I've had the privilege of crafting designs that span a wide spectrum: from logos and graphics to greetings cards and dynamic websites. The core of my work, whether it be in a bustling design agency in Eastbourne or as a consultant, revolves around the belief that design is a potent tool for communication. It's not merely about aesthetics; it's about curating experiences that resonate, engage, and inspire.
While I'm proud of my time at the Eastbourne design agency, everso.creative, my creative design work there remains under non-disclosure agreements.
Working within the creative team there, I gained extensive experience in designing materials for prominent global companies, encompassing a wide range of brands. This has allowed me to work with multinational clients, using a wide range of software tools and brand guidelines to create impactful design assets - both digital and print.
I'm excited to showcase some designs from my pre-agency days to give you a flavour of my capabilities.
Beyond the conventional design realm, I'm deeply immersed in art photography, leveraging vintage film lenses on both analog and digital platforms. My collaborations with art, dance, and movement groups allow me to produce imagery that narrates tales and arouses emotions.
My toolkit is predominantly rooted in the Adobe Creative Suite – Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver take centre stage. But I've also ventured into realms of film, sound, and animation editing using After Effects & Premiere Pro. And I worked extensively in Salesforce email and web builder to recreate the signed-off designs we created at the agency. And while I have a desire to work more with Figma and Webflow, I've harnessed these platforms primarily for personal projects.
A notable chapter in my journey was during the lockdown, where I had the role of Design Lead for The Embodiment Conference 2020, all while juggling freelance projects. The experience cemented my appreciation for Agile, iterative design methodologies, and I'm eager to facilitate more design workshops in the coming year.
I encourage you to look through my portfolio pieces below. It's a work in progress, but I hope it illustrates how I can discover, define, develop & deliver the content for your brand. Matt
