Helen Latimer

Helen Latimer is a freelance designer who works in the fashion industry . She graduated from Northumbria Uni several years ago and began working freelance in July of 2009 having previously worked for several large companies. Helen came into college to talk to us on 8th Feb about her work experience and what she feels we need to include in a portfolio when pitching for work and meeting with potential clients.Her advice was to edit the work on show down to items that are truly relevant and those which demonstrate all your skills ie sketching ,drawing and digital designs. Helen uses two portfolios for interviews with the designs presented on a double page spread and she uses two pages per project only so as not to bombard the client with too much information. Helen gave us common sense and practical advise and suggested taking photographs of every one display boards which could then be put into a book as a reference for every one to use . She told us about doing shop reports when she was working as part of a design team , each person would go out to the high street and gather information about colour trends , styles , fabrics, prices etc then feed back their findings to the whole team. Helen uses hand drawn designs and then develops them digitally using illustrator she has recently worked on the designs for the England football team kit for Umbro. She does lots of research for each project and even spent time with England ladies football team in order to find out what her design needed to include.She was very approachable and helpful and it was great to meet some one with their finger on the pulse , many thanks Helen www.studiolatimer.com