Collaborating with creative agencies definitely piqued my interest . . .

Hello, I’m Eve, an in-house creative for a charity in Leith, Edinburgh. I’m Linlithgow-based mostly, and originally a Falkirk Bairn.

EVE SMITH, SCOTLAND, UK

GRAPHIC DESIGN LEVEL 2 COURSE

After getting my degree in Environmental Geoscience, I quickly learned that the lab wasn’t for me. I became curious about the field of science communication and finding ways to explain complex ideas to the public in an engaging way. I’ve since worked in comms and marketing for ten years (for charities though, not scientists!).

Over time, I realised that the work I enjoyed most was collaborating with creative agencies and graphic designers. I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, and had a hunch that I might have an eye for design… maybe? I still think my years of studying science honed my problem-solving abilities which, as anyone who does this course will learn, is the whole point!

What are your career goals, and how are you hoping to achieve these?

Part of me would love to climb the career ladder and head up campaigns for a major charity. To be able to bring about positive change by doing something creative would be pretty satisfying career-wise. Another part of me would like to hunker down in a small studio somewhere and create lovely illustrations and products and really get into that small business life. For now, I like my work and I’m enjoying exploring my own creative projects in my downtime.

What is it that got you interested in the subject you have studied?

So, how I got interested in graphic design… collaborating with creative agencies definitely piqued my interest in this as a possible career route. But just as an interest, career ambitions aside, I feel like I’ve always admired good graphic design when I’ve encountered it. Wayfinding design is something I find fascinating because it can either be solving infinite problems for thousands of people at once, or it can be making people even more lost. It’s a great example of how design isn’t just about ‘looking nice’. It has a function that most of us don’t even notice when it’s working well.

Why have you chosen to study your course, and how did you find out about the course?

Being self-taught always made me feel like I was a little out of the loop with ‘real’ designers, and even though I instinctively understood much of what designers were doing, I felt a step behind when it came to terminology and traditional graphic design rules.