Chrisland Ltd

freelance design company

Striking out on my own was a big challenge. It's one thing to freelance for a company, it's entirely another to take on all roles yourself. With the help of a great little CMS taking care of the back end, I could undertake all design and front-end development myself. 

That just left tackling project management, site architecture, client liaison, presentations & pitches, budgeting, finances, contracting to name a few. No worries. In my spare time (spare time?), and to have some time away from the screen, I invested time cross-training in id and jewellery.

Webquest

digital freelance

Word had got out I was back in town. Webquest, a small design company, tracked me down to work on various digital projects. The focus was on small sites, quick turn-around and working tightly with developers. I was able to bring practices and procedures learnt from  

Adventures!

living/teaching/absorbing Japan

While this was a teaching role, I brought design to it where I could. When I lacked tools and resources, I created them; for me, for the kids and to share with others doing my job. My challenge was to make English--not commonly a favoured subject--fun and engaging. I could draw on my design skills to achieve this. I also greatly expanded my vocabulary of "small creatures of interest to Japanese children."

Horizons Regional Council

digital freelance

Short freelance contract between international travel. Horizons Regional Council was involved with education at secondary schools, teaching about land formation & protection. I was employed to produce an educational flash interactive to accompany their presentation. The project was flash based, involving storyboarding, flash animation & actionscripting.

Richemont

digital design

Richemont invests in luxury brands, and owns a number of world leading companies, such as Purdey, Dunhill, Mont Blanc, IWC, Cartier, & Montegrappa. I worked on various digital projects for Richemont, and its brands. Being a Swiss/French/English company, projects were often multilingual, which brought about some new challenges. Being involved in the world of luxury goods was pretty eye opening. That and the staff sales.

Adventures!

Trying anything in the UK

I had itchy feet. Wellington was feeling small. Time to see the world. I left with the belief I could do anything I tried. And I could, apart from cold calling (I left halfway through the day). Grouse beating, selling cruise holidays, turkey plucking, PA, house & pet sitting for the wealthy of London.

Neogine

print & digital design

Joining the smaller team at Neogine meant a greater diversity of print & digital work. Fewer employees also meant greater collaboration on projects. I really enjoyed the concepting stage of projects. Everyone would get together and throw ideas out, sparking new ideas.

Hyperactive/Synergy

digital design.

Synergy, a large development company, ate Hyperactive. Again, I worked on new media/digital design; a range of websites, presentations, interactives and video. Unfortunately, Synergy couldn't quite fit everything in its mouth. Six months later it had to spit some out. My first redundancy. No worries, I got a new job the following day.

Hyperactive

digital design

My first job! Hired out of design school. Stoked. Hyperactive was an award winning digital design studio based in Wellington. I came on as a junior designer working on major NZ companies like NZ Post, Transend, Telecom, Learning Media. Working closely with high profile companies meant working within strict brand guidelines.