Mark Bird
Business Owner / Contractor
My name is Mark and I’m an experienced UI UX designer and graphic designer with a wide range of marketing experience.
I’m ambitious, hardworking, and innovative with over 20 years of experience working in a wide range of busy design agency environments and in-house roles including agile scrum environments across multiple marketing channels.
My strengths are building and managing brands, UX/UI design, design for print and bringing all of these together to provide a complete service.
I’d love the opportunity to discuss with you what my knowledge and experience could bring to your organisation.
Curriculum Vitae
My details
Date of birth: 15/12/1978
Mobile: 07909 967 069
Address: 39 Boverton Brook, Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, CF61 1YH
Experience – Contractor/Business Owner
March 2012 – Present
Owner at Yellow Cat Design / Contractor
Achievements:
Grew and developed the Credas brand working with the team from the very early days to help them become a leading player in the Identity Verification industry.
Re-designed the Credas mobile app to help achieve the following:
The app recently ranked as high as number 5 in the free business app chart on the iOS app store above the likes of Uber and Slack.
The app has 157k+ reviews with an average of 4.6 out of 5
Designed and developed The Indigo Group brand from scratch to facilitate high-profile sponsorship deals with Cardiff Rugby and the WRU.
Project managed the UX and UI project to re-design the entire Indigo contractor on-boarding process including:
Creating user personas based on feedback gathered by the Indigo team
Working with the Indigo Product Manager to map out ideal user journey flow diagrams aligned with the user personas
Creating low-fidelity interactive wireframes of the entire process to help refine the user flow
Designing high-fidelity interactive prototypes of the complete journey
Developing the building blocks of a design system for Indigo to allow consistent and rapid prototyping of future products and journeys.
Technical Skills:
With a range of design and marketing skills, I can provide a complete service that includes:
UX and UI design for apps, websites, and software including planning and interactive prototyping with expert knowledge in both Figma and Adobe XD.
- Experience in working within agile teams
20+ years experience in print design with advanced skills in related design packages including:
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Acrobat
- Logo and brand creation
- Brand development
- Brand guideline creation
- Illustration including infographic and icon design.
- Email marketing design including knowledge of software such as MailChimp, Dotmailer, Hubspot, BeePro, and SendGrid.
- HTML and CSS skills including in-depth WordPress knowledge including page builders such as Divi and Elementor.
- Advanced presentation design and animation using Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Branded Microsoft Word templates eg. Letterheads, Case Studies etc.
- Promo video creation including video editing.
- Experience in running Konica Minolta and Xerox digital presses.
- Pre-flight experience including advanced artwork setup such as trapping, underpinning, spot and special ink printing, spot UV, and foiling.
Experience – Buy As You View
March 2014 – August 2017
Buy As You View – Graphic Designer / Marketing & Website Manager
Responsibilities:
- In charge of all creative across the whole company including Digital, Print, Radio & TV
- Owner of Buy As You View Brand including creation of updated brand guidelines incorporating brand development work
- Web & UX design / management / optimisation
- copywriting, content planning and creation
- managing external agency to optimise and update website after launch
- plan and create SEO optimised content
- using tools such as Google Analytics, Power Bi, heat maps and website recording to analyse and optimise the customer journey and continually monitor website performance
- creation of wireframes using Adobe XD based on various analysis as mentioned above
- creation of mockups using Photoshop and working prototypes using InVision
- usability testing of designs and updating them based on real user feedback
- Designing, writing and construction of all customer-facing responsive emails
- Managing supplier relationships – main contact with 2 external printers and digital agency
- Tactical campaigns – idea generation, design, planning eg. direct mail, tactical email, offers etc.
- Responsible for 100pp Main Catalogue, tasks include:
- project management including schedules and key dates
- liaising with printers to organise quotes and negotiate prices
- organisation and art direction of photo shoots
- all design work including layout and cover ideas
- sourcing of images both from stock libraries and directly from suppliers
- writing and editing copy
- directing copywriters to produce catalogue content
- Responsible for 16pp Door Drop Catalogue, tasks as above. Print run approx 3 million a month
- Asset management – structuring, organising and archiving of all assets such as images, logos, graphics and catalogue files
- Internal communications (incentive schemes, training materials etc)
- Business Stationery and Forms
Experience – Carrick Creative
January 2005 – March 2014
Carrick – Creative Director
Responsibilities:
- Provide creative input and ideas and take overall responsibility for design work (online and offline) produced in the studio.
- Design and develop digital communications (web sites, emailers, banners etc).
- Manage web design projects from the brief stage through to launch including data analysis, design, content, development and testing.
- Manage branding and print projects from brief through design, artwork and print.
- Day to day running of busy design studio responsible for 4 designers and web developers plus freelancers.
- Recruit, train, motivate and generally manage all designers and developers including freelancers.
- Mentor junior designers (provide guidance on design theory, best practice and design techniques).
- Establish and develop a complete in-house web design and development service.
- Attend client meetings and produce design briefs.
- Oversee jobs from initial meeting through to delivery of final product.
- The first point of contact for several large customers – providing advice and support on issues such as website analysis and brand management.
- Manage brands for many customers, including creation and updating of brand guidelines.
- Research new innovations, products and techniques to keep studio at the forefront of industry advancements.
- Manage in-house digital print machines.
- Prepare, update and implement daily work schedules.
- Maintain and update the Carrick brand including the website.
- Liaise with suppliers such as external web developers, digital print engineers and IT support.
Education
Swansea Institute of Higher Education (University of Wales)
BA (Hons) Degree in Graphic Design.
1992–1997
The Dorchester Thomas Hardye School
A Level qualifications in Design (B), Business Studies (B) and Photography (B).
10 GCSEs at C and above.
Recommendations
Mark was my creative director in a busy design and print studio. Mark always delegated work equally, thoughtfully and balanced throughout the studio and according to our abilities, strengths and skills. Mark is understanding and really easy to approach to discuss design briefs and stimulate ideas from. He is incredibly creative, knowledgeable and skilful and he is truly dedicated to his work. I would happily work for/with Mark again, he is empathetic and gets the best out of his co-workers.
During my time working with Mark, he was creative, enthusiastic and always willing to try new things or take projects in different directions. Mark also managed workflow in a way which allowed the creative team to best approach the brief and achieve the best possible outcome, giving creative freedom but ensuring that the final product was delivered on spec and on time. Mark is a fantastic creative director and would improve any project or team.
Mark was an integral part of my team for a number of years. He is a talented and meticulous designer who understands his customer. He brings more than just design to a marketing team. Whilst creating our new digital attraction strategy he was key in carving out a slick and simple customer journey through the website. His skills cover both print and digital design, maintaining a strong brand image throughout. I would have no hesitation in hiring Mark again.
Mark is a highly skilled designer. He produces a high standard work both on and offline and his ability to understand the wider marketing mix really is an asset to any project he works on. He really takes the time to understand requirements and tackles projects with a collaborative, flexible approach. A hardworking and enthusiastic team player who I have no hesitation in recommending, I love working with Mark and I hope we get the opportunity to do so for many years to come.
