My name’s Ellin, I’m a bright and thoughtful multi-disciplinary designer with a hunger to make a difference, and I’d love to work for Sail.
I thought I’d tell you a bit more about me.
The short answer:
Growing things. Fires and big jumpers. Food. Sea swimming. Really great colour combinations. Animals. Fantasy novels. Baths.
The long answer:
Justice. That sounds trite, but it matters to me that people are treated fairly. I led a 10-person creative team for 8 years, and I tried to approach that task in the way that I would like to be treated – with respect, empathy and understanding. That meant good communication, creating supportive work structures, and not asking folks to do something that I wouldn’t.
Social justice is (sigh) a bit of a controversial term now, but the same concerns are important to me on the macro scale. I’m a big supporter of the concept of universal basic income, something which has the potential to address many social inequalities and could pave the way to a more equitable – and creatively fulfilled – society. I’m currently showing my support by offering voluntary graphic design services for Basic Income UK.
My team as characters in the in-house style
The short answer:
My chickens! No, really, they need feeding at 7am.
The long answer:
Having a purpose. It’s important to me that work is meaningful and useful.
That might simply look like a clear and defined task to complete, or it might be creating work which supports and encourages social change. For the last 9 years my main job has been designing educational materials to support students around the globe, which definitely felt like I was doing something good. My freelance work (alongside the day job) has often been driven by involvement in social causes or creative groups, many of which deal with the environment or recycling in some way. I know that not everything I do is going to save the world, but 6-year-old me desperately wanted to be a Greenpeace campaigner stopping oil tankers, and I guess she’s still in there somewhere.
Newcastle Green Party
Poster/flyer design and one-shot social media image for a Christmas market. Party branding guidelines are very specific about acceptable illustration styles and use of colour.
Making Sense of Self Employment
A joint commission to animate a paper on self-employment for international business conference “Small is Beautiful”. You can watch the full video on Vimeo.
ScrapBank Recycled
A Weardale artists’ group running multidisciplinary creative workshops with a focus on recycling. They approached me for a visual identity, as well as flyer design for their first project, Connecting Weardale.
Tax Justice Network
Hand drawn work from a looooong time ago. The drawings were used as assets in powerpoint presentations about the issues of tax evasion and avoidance.
The short answer:
Printmaking. Webcomics. Tattoo art. Ceramics. The magic of growing vegetables. Mid-mod design. The sea, and also paintings of the sea. Saul Bass. Russian folk tales. Bright colours. Muted colours. This cassette tape of Karelian folk music I had when I was a kid. Having a really good pen.
The long answer:
Working with people who have different skills to me.
There’s something so incredibly inspiring about seeing good work, especially work that I couldn’t make! That was one of the greatest pleasures of having a creative team, and I felt like I was constantly learning from them. Bouncing ideas around and collaborating on a project can be a total joy, and a fab way to get different perspectives you might not have thought of.
It’s also one of the best bits of freelancing – meeting new people with causes they care deeply about is always inspiring, as well as nourishing for my own growth as a person. Being able to lend support in the form of design is a really lovely way to be involved.
Ten years of design experience in vector, print, branding and identity, and motion graphics.
A strong sense of fairness and equality, and a desire to make a positive impact on the world.
Enthusiasm for creating great work, and a drive to learn and develop as a designer (and as a person).
Resilience, optimism, empathy, and a belief in championing those around me.
Hard work, excellent project-juggling skills, and a love of to-do lists.
Fresh eggs.
