A LITTLE ABOUT ME

Decades of Creativity

I have been working in Design & Advertising for the past 26 years having graduated from The Design Centre, NSW in 1996. My roles have varied from Graphic Designer, Creative Team Designer, Finished Artist in studios of large Advertising Agencies such as M&C Saatchi and Ogivly House. I have held positions as Designer/Finished Artist at Pacific Brands and The Bridge in Melbourne, and the past few years I have been the Finished Artist for Different Drum - a company built with people I have worked within the industry for years. I have a very good understanding of pre-press, design, layout and taking work through to perfectly supplied Finished Art across many mediums. Team Content picked me up a few years ago too to be their finished artist of whom I still freelance for today working on clients such as Australia Post, ANZ and AGL. I have also been lucky enough to work with the same team of people. My skill set has grown from print of all shapes and sizes, to digital design, POS, and working on large campaigns with multiple requirements. Please read the below sections to see exactly there type of work I have been doing and am capable of. Always working on Mac’s, my speed & knowledge of the Adobe CC Suite is solid. I feel competent in a fast-paced, high turnover environment. Attention to detail, time management & the high quality of my work keeps me in demand within the industry, and I am always eager to take on a new challenge...so bring it on!

AMANDA GLEESON

Design Resume

1996 - 2025 & still going.....

CORE SKILLS

• Strong Designer & Finished Artist both in print and digital.
• Fluent in InDesign, Illustrator & Photoshop and Acrobat including editable forms.
• Powerpoint, Quickcut, Flash, Microsoft, Keynote, Muse, Ableton.
• Able to take creative sketches to layout/design and finished art.
• Confident to suggest alternative wording and/or grammar when I feel something isn't working or conveying the right message.
• Solid Pre-Press knowledge so correct initial set-up of documents are done at the start of my jobs.
• Packaging Design skills. Fast Mac skills with an eye for design & attention to detail.
• Retouching ability
• Understand traffic & general workflow in studio’s at larger agencies and am adaptable.
• Confident to handle retouching when needed.
• Laise well with clients and workmates. Happy to work in a team but just as happy to work solo.

2017 - PRESENT

DIFFERENT DRUM

I am one of the starting team members of the Design and Communications business Different Drum. Launched in 2017 and formed with the solid team from The Bridge, I am the sole Finished Artist now and for the past 2 years working on freelance terms. Our clients include VRC, KPMGand Deloitte UK. We work seasonally with VRC on the collateral for all Flemington events, the VRC itself, involvement with the launch of the new Club Stand and ongoing member targeted work to secure new members for the VRC. A fabulous client to work for, I work closely with our Art Director taking designs through to Finished Art stage of all print & digital requirements within tight deadlines.

2013 - 2017 (Wellcom Worldwide Pty Ltd)

THE BRIDGE, MELBOURNE

My time at The Bridge was some of the best years in my career to date. The team was a close knit family of incredibly talented account directors, creatives, production & strategic & brand management. Being the sole designer/finished artist at The Bridge meant there was a lot of responsibility and pressure at times as 2 of our biggest clients NAB (Small Business) and Intrapac Property expect the best within extremely tight deadlines. I needed to step into digital design and thus have taught myself these skills along the way. My work ranged from press, brochures, flyers and outdoor on the print side of things, to digital requirements such as responsive website design, owned assets, edms, web banners and animated gifs. All work I took through to Final Art stage and despatch. Working within the strict guidelines of NAB, our team seamlessly progressed through NAB's change of Visual Identity in 2016 which was a challenging & exciting task. Other clients included Stainmaster and Dunlop Foams.

2012 - 2013 (Wellcom Worldwide Pty Ltd)

PACIFIC BRANDS, MELBOURNE

My first full-time job re-connected with Wellcom in Melbourne, was at Pacific Brands in a team of 3 designers and 1 studio manager. The pace & turnover of work was incredibly high, it was mainly print based with a lot of brochures, POS, underwear tags, packaging, outdoor and in-store posters, as well as some online web tiles. Working primarily as a Finished Artist in this role.

2011 - 2012

JAMES PASCOE PTY LTD, SYDNEY

I was employed on a permanent part-time basis working as the in-house designer & finished artist for Goldmark and Prouds The Jewellers. I was the sole designer handling all print jobs from store flyers right through to the monthly POS in-store campaigns. It was never a dull moment working for the 2 brands, the quantity and the fast turn around was intense and I built & sustained a solid system which worked for all involved delegating my hours to what worked best for the company. Taking jobs from verbal briefs to finished art & dealing directly with the printers & client, I felt empowered within this role having been given such great responsibility & management.

2006 - 2011

OGILVY & MATHER, SYDNEY

I was poached from M&C Saatchi and employed full-time as the Group Heads Graphic Designer for their team of creatives, reporting directly to Paul Dunne & Ant Larcombe’s at Ogilvy & Mather. I was given the responsibility to handle all Qantas Holidays press & advertising material. This meant taking separate briefs from Account Managers as well as catering to any of the individual teams design needs ie. I was to design, layout and present the creative concepts for four creative duos in Paul Dunne's team. I always made sure I oversaw the finished art and retouching in studio before things went out. I worked closely with Ant Larcombe to refresh & refine the Qantas Holidays look & direction, as well as being given complete freedom of design on various jobs. Clients included Qantas, Tourism NSW, Hyundai, Telstra, AMEX, Huggies, Coca Cola and Yahoo 7!

2004 - 2006 (Wellcom Worldwide Pty Ltd)

M&C SAATCHI, SYDNEY

I worked for Wellcom in the Optus studio at M&C Saatchi from 2004 to 2006 employed full-time as mac operator. I was recognized as the fastest and most competent designer/finished artist in the studio so my role often changed to include more design work, especially working alongside M&C’s leading creative team Paul Dunne and Ant Larcombe. They came to me with briefs that needed attention to design as well as pre-press. The Optus studio was fast-paced with a high-turnover of work, and sometimes required late nights, all of which I enjoyed & accepted as part of my role.

1999 - 2004

SHEARWATER HOUSE BOUTIQUE DESIGN AGENCY

My work at Shearwater House was exciting, fun, and explorative working with a very creative enthusiastic boss and team. I designed Annual Reports, Prospectus’s, Corporate ID’s, Programs and I also learnt the process of running bromides for Mercedez Benz press. My work and position over the 5 years developed into overseeing the general running of the Studio and working as Senior Designer for the company. I had a lot of creative license in my designs for Gateway Credit Union, Milnes Holdings & Surf Life Saving Australia. Other clients I did work with were Mercedes Benz, OzTam, Abacus Imports and the ABC. I thoroughly enjoyed working in this smaller boutique agency and would have continued to do so if the company had survived the GST.

1998 - 1999

THE PROJECT GROUP

I was one of 3 in-house designers at The Project Group, a communications consultancy in North Sydney. I designed launch press kits for Toyota but also worked on clients such as BHP, Repsol, Windscreens O’Brien, Komatsu, Sydney Motor Show & RTA. A noticeable achievement of my work was the launch of the Toyota Prius in Canberra and my design of the Carbon Awareness logo.

1997 - 1998

GRACE ADVERTISING

My first job after graduating from the Design Centre was at Grace Advertising. I was given responsibility for all press ads from design through to final film and delivery of material for Walker Development. I managed junior office staff, supervised a number of photo shoots and was eventually promoted to Mid-Weight Designer over the course of the year.