Introducing: Emma!

Hi! My name is Emma, and I am kicking off my contributions to the GFSC community blog with a bit of an intro to me, for anyone who doesn’t already know me (and if you do know me I hope you might still find it kind of interesting!)

I wear a number of different ‘job hats’, but I guess I think of myself as a graphic designer first and foremost. It’s what I got my degree in, way back in 2010, and graphic design is still my passion :)

Freelance hustle

After over a decade working as an in-house designer for an international education company (Kings Education), I went freelance in 2017, but a lot of my freelance work is still related to education. I also do a lot of work for charities, and in the arts/cultural sectors.

Some examples:

• I work for a consultancy called Hopscotch, helping their clients produce educational materials that are delivered to school-age kids. Some recent examples include flood awareness resources for students in Scotland, NHS careers materials, lessons about sea turtles for the Sea Life Centres, and basic coding educational materials for BT. (I also once designed some materials about sustainable energy for notoriously evil oil company Shell, because sometimes you’ve gotta make rent?!)
• I have been lead designer for Happy Valley Pride (the Calder Valley’s pride organisation who run a year round programme of events) since 2017
• I produced the Bishopsgate Institute’s events programmes and did various other design jobs for them (until they run out of money and suspended a lot of that work, which sucks)
• I work on most design needs for the Global Returns Project, an organisation who try and convince some of the wealthiest people in the UK to divest with some of their cash in the name of resolving the climate crisis, using a charitable methodology inspired by financial portfolio selection

As well as this freelance work, I have also held down some ‘real’ design jobs. As mentioned, I spent 10 years with Kings Education, but perhaps of particular interest to those of you reading this blog, I worked at GFSC for nearly 3 years, from 2021 – 2024.

My time at GFSC

Kim offered me a role at GFSC in 2021, when I was toying with quitting at Kings Education, but didn’t quite have the nerve to go fully freelance. Kim offered me the chance to do some salaried work at GFSC — despite my protestations that I cannot (and will not) code, she felt sure I could make myself useful. And I hopefully did, over the time I spent there!

My work at GFSC spanned quite a few areas over the time I spent as part of the studio:

• Design: obviously! Working at GFSC pushed me into more web wireframing than I was entirely accustomed to, as well as social media assets, and lots of day to day studio requirements like pitch decks, contracts, and other bits and bobs.
• Client liaison/project management: My guilty secret is that I sometimes like the planning and social side of my freelance design more than doing the actual design work! So it was a pleasure to handle the client/project management side of things for some of our projects.
• Research: One of my biggest learnings during my time at GFSC was how to facilitate and undertake high quality user research. I learned a great deal about qualitative interviews, workshops, desk research, and other methodologies that I continue to use for research work in academic and client contexts to this day
• HR/PA/Office admin: A tidy desk is a tidy mind! So I hugely enjoyed helping Kim out with some of the theoretically more tedious sides of running a small business, like managing colleagues, running 1:1s, booking travel, and so on. (Not tedious to me, apparently — I loved it!)

I left GFSC in 2024 because I was juggling too many commitments, and the time felt right in terms of where we were at within GFSC’s work, but I still remain very much interested and involved in GFSC’s future, and remain as an unpaid company director overseeing our PlaceCal project.

Academia!

In 2020/21, I completed an MA in Graphic Media Design at the London College of Communication (I got bored during the pandemic and didn’t have much work on, what better reason to do an MA?) — this has opened many doors for me, both in terms of expanding my research knowledge (which my time at GFSC also contributed to), and allowing me to teach at higher education level, something I’d always hoped to do one day.

I am now year 1 lead of BA User Experience Design at LCC, having also taught on BA Graphic Media design, and various cross-curricular professional practices programmes.

UAL has a strong social justice foundation, and I have hugely enjoyed the opportunity to shape our students thinking around the global systems which impact all of us, and their potential to enact meaningful change in the future through their skills.

I am interested in true human centred design, community-led ways of working, hands-on primary research, speculative futures and systems thinking, and firmly believe and teach that UX is infinitely more than just ‘design an app’ (which in fact I quite actively discourage).

I often reflect that my teaching is the most powerful work I do in terms of enacting social change, because (I like to hope) many students leave my first year sessions with a much more open, informed and critical view of what the practice of design could and should be. I offer them provocations like ‘Would YOU ever work for Shell? What if you had to in order to pay rent? Maybe we should get crosser about the fact that our housing is contingent on our ability to earn from labour — does it have to be that way?’ and so on.

In January 2025 I passed my PG Cert teaching qualification, which means I am a ‘real’ teacher now!

I am also a person with a life (I swear)

I also do a bunch of other stuff:

• I volunteer at Samaritans as a listener. I also do a fair bit of pro-bono design for Central London Samaritans. I strongly believe in the power of genuine, active, non-advisory listening to support people during difficult times, and have experienced the positive impact it can have from both ends of the telephone.
• I do a drawing every single day, all about my day. (Pictured at the top of this blog). I’ve been doing this since January 2013. It’s great and has hugely helped shape how I think about my creative practice, and indeed, my entire life.
• I love music, but do not have a musical bone in my body. So, I made a radio show every month to share my favourite finds. You can listen here.
• I am a Quaker, and go to Wandsworth Quaker Meeting. I also do a fair bit of design (some paid, some unpaid) for various Quaker initiatives, including Wandsworth Prison Welfare Trust, Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign, Quaker Congo Partnership, Quaker work in Palestine, as well as other general Quaker promotional materials. I am really interested in the future of Quakers in London, as we grapple with the challenges of an aging membership and maintaining some of our ancient, beautiful meeting houses.
• I hike, mostly within the M25. I have completed the Capital Ring, and am now working through the London Loop. I also hike locally around my little bit of south London (Croydon), and used to do big moors walks when I lived up in Yorkshire.
• I am a dog lover — I have sadly said goodbye to an extremely good boy (Charlie) and girl (Chase), and am now the owner of a chaos gremlin rescue called Jessie, who I adopted from Underdog International. As well as adoptions, they offer therapy dogs in schools, and educational content about dogs for children, and I work with them to design their annual ‘Great British Bark Off’ event materials.
• I’m on the volunteer design team for EMF Camp
• I’m a mostly enthusiastic (though sometimes tired and sad) cook
• I make and sell silly zines (and other printed bits and bobs), which you can view and buy on my Etsy
• And if I’m not doing all of that, I am probably trying to find some time to catch up with friends for a boardgame or an art exhibition.

In terms of my contributions to this blog, as you can tell, I already have my fingers in many pies, so I am hoping for some kind of once monthly ‘what is Emma thinking about this month’, which may be long and meandering, or may be short and stupid, but I look forwards to having this space to air (and get input on) whatever I am pondering or wrestling with in that moment.

I would love to get to know you, so please feel free to introduce yourself and what you do, and also please ask if you have any questions (and clearly, get in touch if you think we might be able to work together in some way!)

See you soon!