Design Discovery Journey for Demi

Hi, I’m Demi! I have worked in Marketing for over 5 years now and I am currently a Digital Marketing Executive at Commify.

I originally got into design work in my first career role, as the agency I was working for sponsored a local rugby team and as part of our sponsor package we organised their match day magazines.

DEMI EDMUNDS – UK

GRAPHIC DESIGN – LEVEL 2

My boss at the time, was keen to delegate the task and passed on all the self-taught knowledge he had of InDesign.

This was a task I genuinely loved and soon I was looking after other small design tasks including social media banners, posters and sponsor branding for the various events the agency was running.

I originally got into design work in my first career role, as the agency I was working for sponsored a local rugby team and as part of our sponsor package we organised their match day magazines.

My boss at the time, was keen to delegate the task and passed on all the self-taught knowledge he had of InDesign.

This was a task I genuinely loved and soon I was looking after other small design tasks including social media banners, posters and sponsor branding for the various events the agency was running.

Fast forward

A couple of years, in another role, I found myself doing more and more design work but I wasn’t getting the larger projects; for example, logo and brand creation for new companies.

As my boss kept reminding me, I had no formal training and that’s when I decided to enrol for the Graphic Design level 2 diploma with the Creative Design School.

Although I would say I’m relatively early on in my design discovery, I’d describe my style as heavily influenced by the Swiss movement with an emphasis on an overall look that is clean, precise and makes good use of negative space.

My Strengths

As it stands, I’d say my greatest strength with design is my dedication to execution. Moving forward, I’d like to see myself push this further and really start to create concepts with a little more flair and experiment with less polished looks.

Even though design has never been the sole focus of any career role I’ve held so far, learning and understanding more about the process has made me a better marketer, communicator and given me a creative channel I genuinely love.

I’ve never been wonderful at plotting my next move but in the near future I hope to continue studying design, perhaps looking at one of the brand courses and longer term, I’d like to be in a position to take on freelance opportunities.

The Creative Design School in general has been a really positive one.

I definitely didn’t prepare myself for the learning curve in the beginning and as the months and submissions have passed, my confidence has grown in line with my discipline and pending deadlines.

Whilst the school is designed so you can study from home and (within reason) at your own pace, there are always quick answers to questions and a patient tutor to guide you through new techniques.

With every excuse, there has been a counterargument balanced with understanding and empathy and the advice and help have gone beyond that of the course. A few months ago, I was made redundant and by chance, one of the first people I spoke to was my tutor.

Fortunately, there was plenty of advice about how to structure my CV, portfolio and what sort of jobs to go for and yet more patience as my time was consumed with yet another priority, which wasn’t my course.

If I was to highlight any one thing about the school, I’d say, they are very flexible with you but the courses are not to be underestimated.

They are not a tick box exercise for you to simply get your piece of paper. The units really challenge you to think differently and create better and ultimately you will learn techniques and workflows that can be applied to your day job, even if you aren’t a designer.

The best piece of advice I have been given throughout this process is to focus more on the discipline and consistency of setting time aside than on the amount of work achieved in any given amount of time. After all, it’s a marathon, not a sprint and as Maya Angelou said – “Nothing will work unless you do”.