CARLIE ARMSTRONG

ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Carlie. a Graphic Designer, Artworker and budding Illustrator living and working in Manchester.

I have always known that I wanted to pursue a career in the creative sector. With over 8 years experience working for a diverse range of clients, I have developed a skillset covering various disciplines such as brochure design, adverts for web and print, technical drawings and illustration.

Partly due to having recently completed a self-funded Illustrator course I am currently responsible for creating an eclectic range of characters in the style of Anna Kovecses for the Co-ops big rebrand. This experience has allowed me to use these skills in my spare time for personal and commissioned projects which has allowed me to develop a style of my own.

When I’m not working, you will probably find me crafting or out on an adventure with my wolf, Willow.

In 2016, the Co-op began their journey of “Back to being Co-op”. This involved completely changing their look across the entire company to reflect the impending improvements to the Co-op and its membership scheme.

I was asked to join a small team at Co-op headquarters in order to update various media using brand guidelines supplied by North, a creative agency in Manchester. Project Pioneer was officially revealed in spring 2017 at the AGM. A few pieces of collateral I produced during this period are featured in the following pages...

PROJECTS

CO-OP PIONEER REBRAND- General Insurance A5 booklets- Roller Banners for Membership- Funeralcare A-board

ILLUSTRATION- New Colleague Welcome Pack- Contact Centre Customer Journey Infographic- The British Red Cross Whatever the weather A5 booklet- Charity Categories - Community

As part of project Pioneer, I redesigned a range of documents for General Insurance at the Co-op. The existing copy had to be reflowed in a simpler format so as to encourage legibility for a wider audience. One of the biggest challenged was considering the use of hierarchy within the copy and when best to use it to enable clarity throughout the text.

Throughout the rebrand I worked closely with various stakeholders within the Co-op to ensure the copy was up to date and the image choices achieved the desired effect. I particularly enjoyed sourcing imagery to support copy when necessary, and to feature on the front page of each document. The supplied guidelines proposed a particular image style that was challenging to source but incredibly rewarding to see when used successfully on the finished documents.

GENERAL INSURANCE BOOKLETS

GENERAL INSURANCE BOOKLETS

GENERAL INSURANCE BOOKLETS

GENERAL INSURANCE BOOKLETS

GENERAL INSURANCE BOOKLETS

ROLLER BANNERS

FOR MEMBERSHIP

The brief for this project was to use the brand guidelines to portray aspects of the redesigned collateral that effectively demonstrated the scope and success of the Pioneer rebrand. The roller banners were showcased in the Angel Square atrium and at the 2016 AGM at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

Funeralcare needed an A-board to advertise their afternoon tea initiative which was promoted at the 2016 AGM Vote at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.

I thought it would be interesting to incorporate a chalkboard effect generally found outside a cafe or restaurant. To suggest a more hand-drawn feel, I added rustic illustrations of a teapot with cups and saucers which were received positively by Funeralcare.

A-BOARD FOR

FUNERALCARE

NEW COLLEAGUE

WELCOME PACK

The existing New Colleague Welcome Pack required updating to the new Pioneer brand with illustrations featured throughout. I adapted the copy according to the Pioneer guidelines, adjusting the layout as I saw necessary. Using the titles and content of each section, I created a selection of illustrations to support the content which was aimed at preparing new starters for their first year at Co-op Food stores.

“I must say that I had a huge smile on my face when looking through this as I absolutely love what has been done!”

NEW COLLEAGUE

WELCOME PACK

The Customer Contact Centre required an infographic detailing important department and company-wide developments from January to December 2016. I designed several sets of Co-op style illustrations to represent the activities in each month along with supporting copy. I thought the best way to bring them all together would be along a road as it suggests moving forward. Creating a background scene allowed me to pull everything together in an A3 poster format that could then be resized as necessary.

CONTACT CENTRE

CUSTOMER JOURNEY

INFOGRAPHIC

To promote the Co-ops charity partnership with The British Red Cross, I was asked to design an A4 leaflet to advertise various summer themed activities to raise money for the charity.

The client asked for a few illustrations to accompany the copy, so I drew inspiration from the fundraising suggestions to design a few quirky illustrations in the style of Anna Kovecses. The client was so pleased with the finished article that the illustrations are now regularly called upon to feature in the British Red Cross collateral for the Co-op.

BRITISH RED CROSS

WHATEVER THE WEATHER A5 BOOKLET

BRITISH RED CROSS

WHATEVER THE WEATHER A5 BOOKLET

As part of the new membership proposition, charity causes are encouraged to apply for the 1% gained when membership cards are used to buy Co-op products and services. An illustrative solution was required to provide a default option if user generated content wasn’t suitable to feature on the members page of the Co-op website. Using the titles of the charity sectors I created 10 individual illustrations to represent the various causes such as health, education and animal welfare.

CHARITY CATEGORIES

Animal WelfareCommunity Development

EnvironmentYoung People Sport

Arts and Culture CHARITY CATEGORIES

CHARITY CATEGORIES

CHARITY CATEGORIES

COMMUNITY

I was asked to create a series of illustrations that represented a feeling of community. The choice of illustrations was a challenging consideration as I think every community has it’s own identity. I started by considering a small town and the general activities that might be played out on the average day. I created characters such as a postman, lollipop lady, children in a park and dog walkers. Incorporating a background scene brought all the elements together and allowed for the manipulation of the illustration to feature in various collateral for the Co-op membership initiative such as email footers and web banners.

Since joining us here at the Co-op it has been blindingly obvious that Carlie has a natural talent and eye for good design. Carlie joined us at a time of great change and challenge and embraced the opportunity to be a fundamental part of the Pioneer design team. It quickly became apparent that Carlie was not only a strong artworker, but could solve creative problems and challenges also.

However, it is not just her technical skill and creative passion that makes her an invaluable member to any team, but also her personality and gregarious manner. Carlie is very highly thought of here by all of the team and also by any stakeholder that has dealt with her, and I have no hesitation in bring Carlie in to client facing meetings.

Carlie is a very keen learner and is a sponge for any tit bits of information that will aid her in her creative growth, she has also attended courses in her own time to improve her technical skill. This has been shown in her work and her style where she has quickly become the go to person, for the new Co-op style of illustration.

The growth in Carlie’s confidence, skill, technical ability and stature over the last 9 months has been brilliant to see and I firmly believe that given the right platform and opportunity she will go on to a very successful career as a designer and creative.

Jamie Kelly, Co-op Studio Manager

THE GRAPEVINE

I worked with Carlie over several months to deliver a Co-op group-wide project for Co-op Legal Services to rebrand existing marketing brochures, collateral and event displays as well as creating new literature. The project was

delivered over a short period of time and to tight deadlines ready for launch. This meant that a quick turnaround was required from the design

team and Carlie was a key contributor to this delivery process. She was always keen to help with producing the new material and the

marketing team was impressed at how quickly she was able to do this, alongside her thoroughness and attention to detail,

at such short notice. Her help really made a difference to getting the project over the line on time and the

production of ‘business critical’ collateral ready for day one.

Kerry Hough, Co-op Legal Services

Senior Marketing Manager