LEARNING,
TRACKING, REROUTING.

My name’s Ava, I’m a freelance designer and strategist working at Neo as well as with a small handful of personal clients. You may also find me at Central Saint Martins, working on the Graphic Communication Design programme.

METHODS

  • Working with local communities, stakeholders, and users to co-create, build knowledge and work through complex problems whilst bringing in new perspectives.

  • Understanding the meaning, context and ‘why’ behind the numbers. I work to uncover patterns, themes and insights in order to build visualisations.

  • I am a strong believer and follower in Giorgia Lupi’s philosophy for human-centred design, where data is embraced as imperfect, textured and places humanity at the core.

EXPERIENCE

Design

  • …

  • Commissioned by Dawn Creative, the agency leading SGFE's brand refresh, I designed a series of spot illustrations to visually communicate SGFE's services across their website, social channels and presentations materials.

  • As in Intern at Portland, I worked in the design team to inform projects with detailed research, benchmarking and idea generations. This role enhanced my understanding of building a brand stories, positionality, developing brand strategy as well as signage and wayfinding.

    Returning to Portland, I worked alongside the design team to inform design decisions with detailed research, ethics, accessibility awareness (neurodiversity) and benchmarking. Portland are a design studio specialised in building brand identities and stories - most often for places and spaces (airports, retail, transport hubs etc). This role allowed me to further develop skills in consulting on accessibility needs, building narratives, designing visual identities, developing presentations and working as part of a team of designers.

  • Clients: Mama Bamboo, Ceres Power, Morph B2B, Finish Strong and Erinna Mettler.

Data

  • …

  • Supporting the Parallel team with their London Design Festival exhibition 'In the Age of Too Much'. A three-day exploration of how we shape, structure, and design knowledge in an era defined by overwhelming information.

Facilitation

  • I work once a week at Central Saint Martins as a studio assistant, supporting the faculty and students. As part of this role, I have been getting further experience delivering the course curriculum and supporting the students with their projects.

  • Facilitating workshops on conditional design, time and mapping for prospective students at Central Saint Martins.

  • I designed and led sessions for both faculty and students on themes of care and exchange, eventually publishing our research in a zine on collaboration in arts education.

  • Preparing and facilitating art classes for children aged 3-17 every week.

Strategy

  • Collaboration with Arthur Yu on the brand identity for the Graphic Communication Design Programme at Central Saint Martins.

  • In this role I work collaboratively with staff and students to contribute to teaching, learning and curriculum design at CSM. Led by climate, racial and social justice principles - the Changemaker program at Central Saint Martins creates the opportunity for final year students to activate and publish a research project on a meaningful change within curriculum design at the university. I thrive in this role, as someone who loves to have collaborative conversations and research. I am also activating my interest in pedagogical practices and getting to do so motivated by the opportunity for change.