Matt Western Email & Phone Number

Remote

At Aridhia, I manage the brand, graphics and websites for the company. My key responsibilities are to create a wide range of designs for our products and projects, as well as creating branded content for our clients using the DRE platform. On a daily basis, my tasks include branding, UI/UX design, graphic design, animation, building our company website, and most recently a heavy involvement in the development of our React-built Knowledge Base website/app.

Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom

Here I operated as a self-employed brand and graphic design specialist under the name Western Graphics, working with a number of clients on their brands, websites and various graphic/print design projects. I built numerous brands and websites from scratch in this time for various clients, but preferred the option of moving back into employment when the opportunity arose.

Finding progression limited in my employed roles, I decided to explore an alternative opportunity; to start a graphics business with a friend. As something that had always interested me, I found this chance to really build something from the ground up very exciting.On a personal level I feel that the standard of my design work was constantly improving as I worked on a range of external and internal projects such as branding, graphic design, print design, building multiple WordPress websites, interacting with clients and general project management.

Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom

I then successfully applied for a role as a designer at Tremendous Marketing that represented the next step in my progression professionally, where I worked for just over a year. I became the sole designer in what had previously been a three-person team, with no drop in requirements. Needless to say, it was a high pressure role that saw me handle a high volume workload on short deadlines to a level by which my employer was impressed.This was the most diverse graphic design role of my career to date as I worked on a number of new and interesting projects such as 3d medals, sublimated cycle jerseys, brochures, email marketing as well as gantries and signage for sports events. I definitely elevated my ability as a designer in this role and I could feel the development with every passing project.

Narberth

An opportunity then arose for me to further myself and take the next step on the ladder as a professional graphic designer, and I succeeded in my application for the role. Here I really found my feet and learned the value of hard work through necessity. It was a very hands-on role from the beginning and I was soon dealing with clients single-handedly, taking their projects from brief to completion in a short space of time. I earned a promotion one year into the position to reflect my role and reward my hard work. I then oversaw an assistant employee for six months, training and assisting them as they learned the tools of the trade. Both my new colleague and my employer felt I handled this very well and I enjoyed the new sense of leadership.

Narberth

When my work experience placement came to an end I applied for a job as an in-house designer at a local gift shop. The owner needed somebody to create various posters, signs and POS designs to feature throughout the shop, as well as help manage their website. I gave their online presence a complete overhaul and transformed it to such a high level that the shop owner's CMS website platform provider featured the website in their newsletter. The work I did in improving the website plus the social & blog posts I was carrying out resulted in double the online sales during my time there.

Little Haven

The knowledge that I'd found my path led me to take my first step in the form of a work experience placement at a local graphics company called Rockpool Design, working directly as an assistant to the Managing Director. He set me numerous tasks and was always happy with the work I produced, which was very encouraging for me as a budding professional. For one project I produced a range of product packaging designs for tins of sweets, some for adults and some for children. The brief included showcasing the puffin, which formed part of the client company's brand identity. I was encouraged to create an illustration of a puffin for the children's sweets, so I did. Both the client and the MD were highly impressed with this and the overall packaging designs, this was the moment I knew I had what it takes to be a professional.

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc), Creative Technology & Multimedia

In 2010 I went to University to study Creative Technology & Multimedia. This is where I really added strings to my bow both as a creative.

Education record

Activities and Societies: Duke of Edinburgh Bronze