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Damien Samwell - Senior Product Designer

Hey there, welcome to my portfolio site. I design digital products and websites for startups, brands and entrepreneurs!

I’m a technically skilled multi-disciplined creative product designer with over 18 years of industry experience, adept in product design, branding, and website development. Proven track record in managing and delivering projects for both small creative studios, start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, successfully executing campaigns and product launches from concept to launch.

Entrepreneurial background includes establishing a creative agency and maintaining long-term client relationships, showcasing exceptional problem-solving abilities and technical solutions.

I’m currently seeking a new challenge with a full-time role as a senior product designer and look forward to leveraging my extensive expertise to deliver innovative product design solutions.

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Experience

FOUNDER AND SENIOR PRODUCT DESIGNER
Tripsixdesign  |  August 2009 – January 2025

Setup my own studio to provide end-to-end innovative design, technical and digital services collaborating with a range of clients across finance, business consultancy, education and travel sectors. This provided extensive technical and product design and development experience whilst supporting clients long-term to meet and exceed their business goals.

My most recent client, ITG, is a consortium of 14+ businesses in high-impact experiential education and travel. Over the past two years, I’ve worked closely with them to revitalize their brands, starting with their underfunded digital products post-pandemic.

Operating with tight budgets, ITG functioned like a scrappy startup, requiring us to maximize impact with minimal resources. To streamline operations, we introduced a consortium-wide tech stack and scalable systems, creating efficiencies across all entities. Additionally, we helped ITG build an internal digital team and management processes to better support their evolving digital needs.

  • Provided design and digital support to a London-based consultancy retainer client, contributing to its growth from 15 to 500+ employees and an estimated £50M in revenue
  • Helped stabilize and grow a conglomerate of small start-ups in the impact travel space through product redesigns resulting in 200%+ growth in leads and sales for each of the entities products.
    Engineered group-wide tech stacks and an internal digital team which allowed economies of scale for continued business growth at low cost High-level of communication skills and account management experience through collaborating and managing retainer clients and my own business for over 16+ years

SENIOR CONCEPTUAL DESIGNER
RRD Design Studios within KPMG Manchester  |  February 2006 – July 2013

RR Donnelley operated a number of internal design studios within KPMG offices across the UK providing designa nd digital services to KPMG’s many Fortune 500 client base (Diageo, Audi, GSK, Bang and Olufsen, for example).

I worked as a designer, artwork, then senior conceptual designer, primarily working on high value proposal work for many of KPMG’s fortune 500 clients. This involved developing highly conceptual designs and working alongside junior designers to artwork into a finished product.

  • Designed high-value winning proposals for KPMG’s many Fortune 500 client base (Diageo, Audi, GSK, Bang and Olufsen). As lead conceptual designer I developing highly conceptual designs and worked alongside junior designers to artwork into finished proposals
  • KPMG Brand management and execution
  • Design and art-working of paper engineered packaging to “house” high value pitch proposals
  • Junior designer team management
  • Account management from start to finish

GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND ART-WORKER
Avocado Studios  |  July 2005 – February 2006

Worked primarily with FMCG clients such as Cussons, Turtle Wax and many of GSK’s brands to design product concepts, packaging and associated advertising and POS.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
June 2004 – July 2005

I used this time to travel to many world destinations in order to broaden my world view and personal development. I freelanced as a designer part-time during this time to support myself. Travel nurtures the mind and the soul and this time allowed me to reorientate and decide where I wanted my career to go. 50+ countries to date so far, travel is a constant interest to me and and a great source of inspiration for my work.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Studio One Ltd  |  May 2003 – June 2004

  • Developed user interfaces for the Hilton hotel chains
  • Design and art-working for museum installs
  • Conceptualizing of ideas and prototyping for UK TV idents and adverts

GRAPHIC DESIGNER
The Works  |  June 2002 – December 2003

Development of material for the UEFA Champions League Milan Final 2001 including all printed materials for the event, including tickets, parking passes, press packages, large format banners and invites.

Core Skills

  • Product design & development
  • Brand development & Management
  • Print design
  • User Experience
  • Prototype design
  • Website design
  • Project Management

Services

Product design and development

  • Product design Prototyping
  • UX/UI design
  • User research
  • WordPress theme development
  • WordPress theme customization
  • Digital marketing

Branding Consultation & Market

  • Analysis Competitor analysis
  • Google analytics review
  • Persona Development
  • SEO audit & strategy
  • Logos & Brand Development

Creative Design & Branding

  • Events & Exhibition Design
  • Logos & Brand Development
  • Presentation Design
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Print Design

Software

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Indesign
  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Figma
  • Sketch
  • Invision
  • Rotator
  • Framer
  • Slack
  • Asana
  • Google Suite
  • Microsoft Suite
  • Google Analytics
DOWNLOAD RESUME PDF

Nice words from past clients and colleagues

“I've loved working with Damien. With every project, he takes the time to listen to our needs and has designed innovative, creative, and detailed print materials and digital experiences for us that have exceeded expectations. Not only is Damien a great designer, but he is responsive and fun. I'd highly recommend him!”

Julianna KobsChaos Coordinator | Zapier

“Damien has been absolutely FANTASTIC to work with! Damien is a creative genius who has completely transformed the Barcelona SAE brand, from our new website to a variety of print and digital materials. Damien is so professional, has an eye for detail, and is an exceptional communicator which makes it an absolute pleasure to work with him. I would absolutely recommend him!”

KristinBSAE | Director

“From branding and website design to print ads, web banners, videos, and stationery, Damien at Tripsix crafted the Kaya Responsible Travel brand, driving our success. As an online business in developing countries, we needed to balance professionalism with community connection while inspiring volunteers for their adventures. The brand has helped us gain recognition among much larger players early in our journey.”

HeilwigDirector | Kaya RVolunteer

“I have worked with Damien, at Tripsix Design, for three years now, beginning with a full rebranding. He is a consummate professional and a talented designer. Damien takes time to listen to your business needs, and is able to distill those needs into salient messaging and visual synthesis. Our feedback has never been more positive or our message so clear!”

Carrie WojenskiExecutive Leader

“I have worked with Damien for over 4 years on all of our branding, flyers, brochures and documentation design. We are based in Australia, so all of our correspondence is done online. He is always professional, super responsive and the quality of his work is amazing. I highly recommend him to anyone.”

Jane O'KeeffeSenior Manager | CISAustralia

“I've been working with Damien for nearly two years now. He is very knowledgeable and skilled at both web and graphic design. Damien is always willing to try new ideas and come up with creative solutions to our problems. He is also a great teacher and has helped me learn more about web design and branding I find this support invaluable.”

Kirstin WrightGate One | Marketing Manager

Some of my core values

I think listing out your resume and skills is fine, but it doesnt really give you an insight into what it would be like to work with me. Values are what drive most decisions and ways of working, they’re important. Here are some of mine, lets see if we align.

LEARNING IS A LIFE-LONG ENDEAVOR
Regardless of how much experience is acquired, education is endless. I aim to be continually learning new things, whether tech related or otherwise.

CONNECT THE SILOS
It didn’t take me long to recognize that whilst one person can output a bunch of fantastic work, it takes a team to really create something spectacular. Collaborative design is where the magic happens.

HAVE A PASSION FOR WHAT YOU DO
Being passionate about creating/building something every single day, experimenting, sharing ideas, harnessing technologies to make something truly exciting and innovative…this is what drives me to get up every day.

TRANSPARENCY
Own it! Mistakes and all. Transparency has been paramount to every aspect of my career. Commnication with colleagues and clients, discussing project scope and challenges. Just be honest and transparent.

HAVE VISION
Being able to generate creative solutions to complex problems is one thing, but being able to communicate and sell that idea to a range of people is another. Rigourousley stress-testing ideas through research, team iteration, analytics and user testing are going to be easier to gain approval.

COMMUNICATION
Whether remote or on-site, clear communication has never been more important. Succinct written or verbal communication to share strategy, project vision, roadmaps with both fellow designers, developers, engineers and stakeholders is crucial.

WORK ETHIC
Work hard for the things you want, but also, me mindful to not neglect the things you take for granted, like your health. Aim for sustainability and balance in how you work. Recognize when a step away is often a step forward, not back.

BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES
1. The ‘experience’ belongs to the user, nobody else
2. Great design in invisible
3. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
4. Technology serves humans
5. Design is not art

BE TENACIOUS
I commit to things, drive things, see things through, I’m a finisher. I get great satisfaction taking an idea and making it real, end-to-end. My most satisfying past client work has been when Ive partnered with them in their early days and been instrumental in their growth.