This week we welcomed back four Reading, Graphic Communication alumni to share their experiences of life after university, offering students insight into the many different pathways a creative career can take. From freelance branding and theatre campaigns to international consultancy work, the talks highlighted the importance of adaptability and trusting your own creative direction.

 

Emily Collard: 

Balancing roles

Our first speaker, Emily Collard, spoke about balancing her full-time role at Whistlejacket Studio alongside running her own freelance business, Collard Design Studio. Emily explained that her freelance career began almost accidentally after posting work online during her first year at Reading as a way to improve her Adobe skills and document her progress. This eventually led to freelance clients, brand collaborations and creative partnerships. It was an excellent reminder to pursue your interests and put yourself out there alongside your studies.

 

Agency role

After graduating, Emily decided that in addition to continuing with her freelance journey, she also wanted the stability of agency life. Emily explained that through her role at Whistlejacket Studio, she’s able to work within a team, enjoying the collaboration and connection that comes with this. With agency work comes larger clients and companies, which can often feel more serious and corporate. Emily shared a few of her recent projects, one of which was The Wild Summit UK, an event encouraging conversation around the importance of wildlife conservation and preservation.

 

Freelance role

Through the freelance side of her career, Emily explained that smaller businesses often come to her for design work that allows her to experiment more creatively. With freelancing also comes the back-end side of design, including client communication and creating design briefs. Freelancing has also allowed Emily to explore areas of design less present in her agency role, such as packaging design, which she worked on while rebranding Glofre Skin’s identity and product packaging.

 

Matt Perks

Freelance opportunities

Next, we welcomed Matt Perks, who shared his journey from university projects and freelance work into the world of theatre and entertainment campaigns. Matt made the most of his time at Reading by taking on freelance work alongside his studies, eventually attracting American clients and balancing university work during the day with freelance projects in the evenings.

 

Enjoying the process

After applying for Sky Creative’s year-long graduate scheme, Matt began to expect rejection due to the lengthy process and huge number of applicants. However, by relaxing into the experience and enjoying the process, he ultimately secured the role out of more than 400 applicants. Working across several teams, Matt spent much of his time creating campaign concepts for crime documentaries, developing and pitching ideas to Directors and Marketing teams before deciding he wanted to pursue a more creatively demanding environment.

 

Shifting paths

Inspired by the theatre posters he regularly saw across the Underground, Matt pursued an opportunity at Feast Creative, where he now works on campaigns for theatre and live entertainment. Walking students through projects such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Matt explained the journey from initial sketch to final artwork, highlighting how much he enjoys being deeply involved in the creative process and constantly learning new skills. It was refreshing for students to hear that when Matt expressed a skill gap in sketching, Feast supported him by funding a concept sketching short course.

 

Claire Hodgson

Exploring roles

Our third speaker, Claire Hodgson, shared insights into working across both in-house and agency branding roles before becoming Senior Brand Designer and Consultant at Brand Potential. After graduating from Reading, Claire believed she would move into editorial design. However, after completing an internship in this area, she quickly realised this was not the path for her. Instead, she landed a role as a junior designer at Bounce Foods, working across packaging, events and campaigns. Claire valued her time there, learning “how to communicate on a magnitude of levels, not just visually”. After progressing into an in-house midweight designer role at Bewley’s Tea & Coffee, where she worked across packaging and environmental design, Claire eventually moved into her current position at Brand Potential. Here, she not only designs for brands but also supports them through strategy consultation and identity building.

 

In-house vs. agency

Claire compared in-house and agency roles, explaining that neither is ‘better’ than the other, but simply different. In-house roles often see designers become “brand guardians”, working deeply within a single brand and understanding how its departments, touchpoints and audiences operate together. Agency work, on the other hand, involves becoming familiar with a wide variety of industries, setting brand rules and systems while handing over some of the wider responsibilities that may fall to in-house teams.

 

Branding both clients and yourself

Students were also shown several projects Claire has worked on during her time at Brand Potential, including developing a sub-brand for OGX and creating a new range of hair care products. Alongside speaking about branding for clients, Claire also encouraged students to think about branding themselves by learning how to position themselves professionally, understanding “why you design”, and recognising the value of their own skills and creative identity.

 

Hanorah Murphy

Graduate scheme

Finally, we were joined by Hanorah Murphy, who spoke about her experience within Sky’s Creative graduate scheme and the transition from university into the professional world. Similarly to Matt, Hanorah secured a place on Sky’s graduate scheme during her final year at Reading. However, her pathway evolved over time, moving from the graduate scheme into a six-month contract as an eCommerce Designer within NOW, where she worked on redesigning the platform, before progressing into her current role as a Digital Designer within NOW customer service. Hanorah reassured students that careers are rarely linear, sharing that she applied for more than 100 roles at various stages of her journey so far.

 

Beyond the role

Hanorah also shared advice on securing graduate roles, encouraging students to prepare their CVs and portfolios early, make use of networking opportunities, and explore platforms such as Creative Access. During her time at Sky, she was able to rotate across departments by actively reaching out and exploring areas that interested her most. Students were also shown examples of her work redesigning elements of NOW’s streaming platform, where she discussed designing at scale and how the structure of Figma files can directly impact the final user interface. Hanorah rounded off her talk by reflecting on the work culture at Sky, highlighting the importance of the people you work alongside and the experiences you gain beyond the design work itself.

 

Advice for young designers

• Passion projects are valuable. Self-initiated work can help you develop your creative style, experiment freely, and even shape your future career direction.
• Agency and freelance work offer very different experiences, and balancing both can help you grow creatively and professionally.
• Don’t be afraid to enjoy the process. Matt explained that letting go of the pressure during interviews actually helped him perform better and be himself.
• Creative careers rarely follow a straight path, and staying open to opportunities can lead to unexpected and rewarding roles.
• Neither agency nor in-house roles are “better”, both offer different experiences and valuable opportunities for growth.
• Learn how to position yourself professionally by understanding your strengths, your values, and importantly, “why you design”.
• Start earlier than you think! Especially when it comes to grad schemes. A lot of them close before you’ve even finished university.
• Progress isn’t always linear. A contract or a sideways move can actually be a bridge, not a setback. Don’t feel like you can’t apply for a role just because you don’t tick every box

 

Written and edited by Tommy Molnar