Web & Graphic Designer Application

William Howes

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to express my interest in your Web and Graphic Designer position as I feel I have all the relevant skills and industry experience necessary for the role.

I am a qualified professional graphic designer and website designer with advanced skills and am fully trained in an array of industry-standard software. I am in charge of running and designing around 40 websites. I have several years of graphic design experience at top level working alongside national and multi-national companies and also have a very strong understanding of preparing graphics for in-house, digital and promotional uses, for large format print, point-of -sale, and also working within corporate design guidelines. For example I have designed projects for The Army, BMW, McDonalds, Subway, Volkswagen, Bang & Olufsen, Tesla, NHS, Bilfinger and many more. I have produced artwork for everything from business cards and leaflets up to super-large format print for the armed forces and graphics for websites and manufacturing. I have submitted a CV / portfolio with this application to better demonstrate my abilities. My main website, CestrianSigns.co.uk, has taken over £300k and generated more than this figure from enquiries. I can provide many more examples upon request of specific design types or applications. Notable achievements I am proud of include designing flags used outside Subwaystores up and down the country, product logo design for Texaco, designing signage for McDonalds used in the Tour de France, and creating graphics for Tesla promotional stands for their supercars in Europe.

I am comfortable using both Windows and Mac platforms and designing responsive websites using CSS & HTML5. I can use Wordpress happily but would certainly argue that Opencart, which I am stronger in, is a far more versatile platform and better for search engine optimisation and e-commerce. My work-speed on this platform is very fast and efficient and I can completely custom code the platform. My main site appears all over the first page of Google in search results and images due to my optimisation. I have experience using the full suite of Google optimisation such as Merchant, Businesses, Pages, Adwords, Webmaster Tools, Analytics etc.

I was particularly drawn to this position as it is very similar to what I already do and I feel I could enter the position without any training and land running. The position will be designing for an array of applications I enjoy doing different projects to have a varied workload. I am very efficient in my work and managing and prioritising my tasks. I usually have several projects on at once, and do whatever is necessary to meet client deadlines and create a strong business relationships. I am in charge of all design work for a leading print firm in my current position and am the key point of contact for our large clients. I am comfortable dealing with individuals at director level and presenting and discussing ideas and also taking constructive criticism on board.

Kind Regards,

Will Howes

I am on first-name terms with most of the UK's and Europe's leading print suppliers, signage and P.O.S. manufacturers and feel I could also massively help your commercial team in getting the best value possible when sourcing items. I attended the last Euroshop convention in Dusseldorf to deal direct with manufacturers. I am comfortable, secure and enjoy working in my current position but I feel I have reached as far as I can go with this firm and wish to develop further. There is a lack of drive or aspiration to grow and expand whilst I'm striving for the company to be bigger and do better. Since being here I have grown the online business from near enough nothing to being the driving force behind sales and its main revenue stream.

Based on my current salary and skill-set I would be requesting a salary between £28-£32kpa and I am certainly someone who works really hard to achieve results. I appreciate the position is in Manchester but I am looking to move from Chester and an initial 30 minute commute wouldn't be an issue. I don't have a set period of notice to give so would be available at short notice.

I would respectfully request that you do not contact my current employer about this application as this could cause significant issues for me if they thought I was looking at leaving as I am critical to the running of the business.

I look forward to your response; if you have any questions or require further work examples or even a brief that you would like me to design to demonstrate my abilities please get in touch. It is difficult for me to take phone calls without prior notice during working hours. If unsuccessful, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Lead Graphic Designer 2012-2015

As lead designer for the last 3 years, I have worked alongside many international companies designing artwork and promotional products in this position. My artwork has been used for digital applications, signage, pavement furniture, websites and other physical products. Of particular note, I have been involved as the supplier for all of the Royal British Legion's rebranding work in the UK, the branding work for a new upcoming product with Lucozade, Tesla Motor's European signs, rebranding within BiLFINGER as a supplier, designing branded flags for Subway, graphics for McDonalds for the Tour de France, designing iPad stands for Bang & Olufsen stores, large outdoor signage for BMW, health and safety literature for Volkswagen, and creating large format graphics for The Army and the NHS.

I would describe myself as strong graphic designer with expert knowledge of producing graphics and products for rebranding, with very good connections to the UK print trade and international suppliers. I attended Euroshop Dusseldorf 2014 earlier this year and have good working relationships with many of the largest manufacturers of POS equipment, custom signage manufacturers and printing firms. I have experience working with external design firms and advertising agencies and am more than happy to collaborate when needed or work to my own initiative. Many of my clients have strict corporate branding guidelines (especially NHS, BMW, VW) which I adhere to. This position has provided projects for all different types and styles of clients and given me a wealth of experience in designing artwork in very contrasting styles. I am usually dealing with senior marketing members or company directors and content working at this level.

I am also a website designer who can design responsive websites for an array of functions. I oversee the company's 50 or so websites and have a team of developers who work directly for me. I can do custom CSS/html coding and my lead website has over 175,000 visits per year. I am very good with CMS software packages.

I generally tend to work within the Adobe Creative Suite industry standard packages, but do have experience in a range of different graphic software suites including Quark Xpress, Sketchup, Gimp, Bryce, Apple Keynote, Dreamweaver, Cheetah and Piranesi on both Windows and Mac platforms. I do have hand-design skills also from my architecture degree.

I am confident my experience and training is sufficient for this role and that I can effectively and efficiently produce vector graphics or packaging imagery for manufacture/print or indeed 3d models if necessary. I'm very strong at creating graphics for exhibitions and trade shows and have a very wide knowledge of equipment, stand design/layout and the procurement of these, having organised and designed many myself.

CV: William Howes

Freelance Designer 2009-2012

Before joining Cestrian Signs I worked as a freelance website and graphic designer, creating websites and graphics for small businesses or improving ones already in place. I still do a little for a few long-term customers in my free time. I was actually freelancing for Cestrian Signs when they decided they wanted to employ me full time. Prior to attending university I won a national website design competition (self-taught) and with my skills from my degree in architecture, specialising in graphic design, I have progressed to lead designer with Cestrian Signs and had the opportunity to work with many high-brow customers.

Other Experience

Although not too relevant to this position, I have developed management skills from other employment. I was previously a duty manager within Intercontinental Hotel Group with a team of 8 staff beneath me and at age 17 was a shop manager in Chester city centre with 4 staff working for my department. A couple of years ago I also completed a 4-day leadership and management course run by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines which greatly improved my delegation and supervisory skills.

Academic

Degree - B.Arch (Hons) RIBA1, Architecture, Liverpool University, specialising in graphic design

A2/AS Levels - AAB/AA, Sir John Deane’s College

GCSE - A*A*A*A*A*AAAA, Abbey Gate College with an academic scholarship

ECDL computing qualification

Portfolio: W Howes

Web Design: W Howes

Small selection. I am able to provide remote FTP access to most sites and html/css coding examples

Massive growth

Very strong customer

retention rate

Fewer pages/session

(people find what they are

looking for faster)

Please note the above site is

purposefully not cutting-edge

in terms of design as it was

decided the website was to

portray the company as

inexpensive. If you visit the site

and click about us you will see

we have some very high-brow

customers. It is very functional.

My other sites will

demonstrate more design flair.