About Me

I’m a senior freelance designer/developer with 2 decades’ experience, working both with design agencies and direct for clients. My wide range of skills and many years of experience enable me to factor in the many complexities of how requirements for accessibility and development interact with the aesthetics of a website.

I am efficient at multi-tasking and am able to work to tight deadlines in high pressure environments. I have the resilience to deal with difficult projects and the inter-personal skills to reconcile conflicting demands and points of view. I am equally happy to work independently or as part of a team. I genuinely enjoy learning new skills and meeting new challenges, and I keep up to date with the latest digital trends and techniques.  

“Victoria is a great to work with, she takes time to understand the brief and always delivers a great result. Her knowledge of accessibility and responsiveness are really next level.”

Trevor Spink, Eonic Digital

Project Management

I often take projects through the entire design process, from initial client meeting to completion. This includes: 

  • meeting clients to define a brief or pitch initial ideas 
  • presenting visuals to clients and working with them to agree a finished design 
  • maintaining an overview of a project to ensure all elements work together and stay on schedule  
  • convening and running inter-departmental meetings 
  • liaising between departments e.g. marketing and development
  • training and supporting team members and contractors 

Design

My focus in design is getting to the heart of what a client wants, and who their audience is, so I can tailor my designs to their specific needs. While each design is unique, I tend towards a clean, user friendly aesthetic.

Accessibility

I care deeply about the inclusion of disabled people online, so whenever possible I work to the WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines from the outset, and continually work to keep my knowledge of Web accessibility up to date. On request I conduct heuristic review of a client’s existing website, to advise on any accessibility issues they may have.

User Experience

I have a sound knowledge of user-centred design techniques and information architecture. I have experience of creating personas, user journeys, site maps and wireframes and have been involved in a number of usability testing sessions. 

Development

In web development I am aided by my attention to detail, lateral thinking and ability to imagine a display at multiple sizes as I work, to create fully responsive, highly polished bespoke websites. I have experience working with a range of CMSs, predominantly WordPress and proteanCMS (which I’ve been heavily involved in developing for Eonic Digital), and I am quick to learn new systems as required. I have expert knowledge of css3, sass, less, html 5, the bootstrap 5 framework and html emails, and I am proficient at jquery, xslt, xforms and PHP and json. 

Freelance – April 2012 to present 

After eonicweb closed down at the end of March 2012 I returned to working as a freelancer web designer/developer, both for my previous employer at eonicweb and for other creative design agencies in Kent.   

Lead designer for eonicweb Ltd – May 2011 to March 2012 

At eonicweb, a web design agency in Tunbridge Wells, I was responsible for the design and creative direction of many projects.  For a typical project I would: meet with the client to discuss their requirements; create user journeys, site maps and wireframes to clarify priorities and structure for the site; design branding if required; create Photoshop visuals for all key elements of the site then oversee the development process to ensure fidelity to my designs and the client’s requirements. 

I also undertook some front end development work at eonicweb, to keep my skills up to date and to ensure my design work maintains a balance between aesthetics and functionality. In addition, I reviewed and supervised changes to all design work produced through the agency to ensure our standards were maintained. 

Web designer for Saga Digital – March 2010 to May 2011 

Having worked as freelancer for Saga on a regular basis since late 2008 in the travel, personal finance, and insurance departments, I accepted a full-time position as the main designer for personal finance. In this role I redesigned the entire personal finance section of the Saga website which involved collaborating with a number of departments within the organisation.  

Freelance – 2005-2010 

After graduating, I worked on a freelance basis for a number of design agencies as well for my own clients. My contract work included the following design agencies – Netsite, Blaze, Sagittarius, Cortexx Creative, Red Red Design, Cohesion and Westgate. I also worked for Nomen (a naming consultancy) and for the in-house design teams at Towergate and Saga.  

HE: University College Falmouth, 2002-2005, BA Hons 2:2 

FE: University College for the Creative Arts, 2000-2002, BTEC ND Graphic Design 

Gillingham Adult Education Centre, 2000-2002, AS/A2 Psychology, C 

Hundred of Hoo School, 1995-2000, GCSEs, 5 A’s, 3 B’s, 1 C