Christiane Kremer

I'm a lively, constantly smiley, geeky graphic designer and illustrator with a BA (CUM LAUDE) and an MA (with Commendation), plus 13years of freelance experience and over 8years as an in-house graphic designer.

I have a fierce passion for conceptualisation and design narrative. My main goal is to infuse projects with a unique sense of identity, and to reach people through visual emotion.

From research to conceptualisation, mood-boards to sketching, from the exploration of different options to reaching a finalised project, I deeply enjoy the design process in its entirety. It’s about understanding a project’s identity and bringing it to life by representing it visually. As an avid reader, I have great respect for the imagination and a love for words - having the ability to give shape to thoughts and words is one of the greatest joys for me.

Being a designer is not a job, it’s part of who I am.

I love to learn about the creative aspects of graphic design, but I mostly enjoy working on branding, print, illustration, typography, character design and iconography.

During the past 8 years I have been working as an in-house designer on branding, print, digital imagery, icons, illustration, character design, typography, affiliate banners, social media assets, image re-touching and both mailer and landing page templates.

Achievements

• Introducing and establishing brand guidelines: from project ideation to leading workshops and presentations for different departments. This has steered the brands towards cleaner and more structured visuals.
• Setting up the graphic style, logo and brand guidelines for new products.
• Re-branding of multiple brands and their websites, whilst inserting the design process into the team’s workflow (research, conceptualisation, and design narrative).
• Establishing master templates to improve time efficiency within the design team and to boost brand coherence.
• Educating designers and other departments on graphic design principles, strengthening the interdepartmental communications and workflow.
• Leading workshops and presentations on branding, print, typography, the design process and competitor’s research, earning solid communication skills.
• Collaborating with other designers, UX/UI, marketing, CRM, copy writers, development, HR and CEOs on briefs of different lengths and complexities.
• Guiding and mentoring new starters (in London and remotely), drawing on my organisation skills and assertiveness, whilst ensuring brand coherence across multiple products.

Furthermore, I have been freelancing for the past 13 years, working on branding, illustration, digital banners, website wireframes and styling, menus, bookbinding and lettering projects.

Achievements

• Gaining strong people and communication skills by dealing directly with clients.
• Excelling at time-managing, as I have coordinated working with different clients whilst having a full-time job.
• Acquiring assertiveness and self-confidence in my design knowledge, by offering typography and brand consultancy.

Finally, for my internship I worked as an agency designer on branding, print, character design, illustration, digital assets and brochures, with a focus on a thorough conceptualisation.

Achievements

• Developing and portraying my own ideas through stages of research, conceptualisation, sketching, prototyping and vectorising.
• Building confidence whilst working within a team or individually.

I assisted Kingston University in London for my Master's Degree (with Commendation), which was focused on the design process. We dived into design narrative and storytelling, went through diverse research methodologies and practiced thorough conceptualisation.

I also have a Bachelor's and a Professional Degree in graphic design (CUM LAUDE, at Universidad del Desarrollo, in Chile). During my BA I learned to use tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and Adobe After Effects. Furthermore, I attended courses of branding and identity, print, illustration, typography, character design, editorial design, packaging, web, animation and photography.

My Professional Degree consisted of a full year working on one specific project (five months of research and five months dedicated to build the project). I chose the topic of the correlation between motor skills and the process of learning how to read: there are studies that affirm that when a toddler practices fine and gross motor skills thoroughly, it can facilitate their process of learning how to read. Based on this, I created a game consisting of an illustrated set of cards that would help toddlers practice their motor skills in a fun way.