Interview with designer Emma Brownson
Talented young graphic designer, Emma Brownson, has just landed her first full-time design job. She’s now part of the team at Brisbane design and digital agency Bigfish.
Emma’s family moved from New Zealand to Australia in her early teens and started practicing graphic design at 16 through a vocational education and training course. After graduating high school with Certificate III in Visual Communication from the Design College of Australia on top of her regular year 12 studies, Emma was already a passionate designer. She then went on to complete a Bachelor of Design at Griffith University in 2011.
After her studies, Emma flew to New York for a holiday and ended up interning at a design studio while she was there. To express her love for hand-drawn elements in her design, Emma undertook a personal illustration series called, Random New York City Facts, consisting of 28 of her favourite landmarks and paired with a random fact about each.
Along her journey, Emma has interned and had short stints at some of Brisbane’s best studios including Oblong & Sons, Underbrand, JSAcreative, Foundry, Brio Group, and Creative Plantation.
Among these positions, Emma completed a range of freelance projects, one of these being the branding, stationery, vouchers, and brochures for the upcoming Hawthorne yoga and massage studio, BAM Yoga Lifestyle.
It can be hard to find your place in the industry and everyone’s journey is different, so I hope you are inspired by Emma’s tenacity to keep pursuing her creative dream and land that amazing full-time gig!
How have you got to where you are today?
My favourite hobby as a child was cutting and pasting. I loved creating collages, designing school book covers, and making murals for my bedroom walls. So I guess I had this fascination with creating layouts from a young age which never really went away!
My first taste of graphic design in a digital sense was in an early secondary school art class where I created a tourism postcard for Tahiti using Corel Draw. The postcard went on to be published in an NZ art publication and displayed at an exhibition. It definitely got me thinking that a career in design was probably in the cards.
After my studies, I was definitely thrown headfirst into the cutthroat design industry through a whirlwind full-time internship in New York City for a fashion and branding agency. I returned to Brisbane and had a short-term position with the amazing people at Underbrand.
I sort of fell into freelancing after being contacted by White Label NOBA and things just grew from there, with a number of regular clients and the experience of freelancing for some really great agencies and studios. Work really gained momentum for me this year, with many new clients approaching me, which was really exciting. Now I’m looking forward to working with the team at Bigfish!
In a few words, describe yourself…
Ambitious, Passionate, Articulate, Detail Orientated, Enthusiastic, Thorough.
What are you spending your time on at the moment?
I’ve spent the last few weeks tying up existing projects with my freelance clients, so I could make sure everything was seen through to completion before starting full-time work. I’ve just finished the branding for BAM Yoga Lifestyle where I organised the print production as well. I worked with ColourChiefs and everything came out really well—which was great to see.
I also did a folio update and got some of my new work photographed and put online, which is always fun.
Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?
I try to complete every project based on a concept and strategy rather than just designing purely on what looks good, so research and thinking are an important part of the initial process.
If I can, I like to really immerse myself in the business.
With BAM Yoga Lifestyle it was really insightful to try out one of their massages and I did a lot of yoga to think about the structure, poses and the class atmosphere which really informed the design.
I also think that craft and the execution of ideas are also vital, so I like to allow time for experimentation with different materials and methods of mark-making.
What or who inspires you?
I like to find inspiration outside of the graphic design world if I can because it’s hard to create something unique if all you can see is what’s in trend.
I’m definitely a design hoarder and don’t believe in throwing anything away. You never know when it might be a relevant reference piece in the future.
I have boxes and boxes full of print samples, as well as an online library of all the inspiring things I’ve collected over the years. I also find travel to be a huge inspiration. There is so much we don’t get exposed to in Brisbane and it really opens up your mind to the potential of design!
What are you most proud of?
I think a defining point for me was maintaining a level of integrity and staying true to the way I wanted to design and conduct business while dealing with the challenges that come up working in the industry.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I think I was always interested in being creative, whether that was as an artist or performer.
