Who is Chris Gardiner

I am a qualified designer who lives in the northern part of the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. I have been working as a designer for more than 20 years.

My primary areas of design are as follows:
Web design, User Interface Design (UI), and User Experience Design. However, I also work in branding, graphic design, and other design-related sectors.

My specialty is developing well thought out but simple & practical designs that work well for each individual client.

Qualifications

I graduated from Sunderland University in 2001 in the United Kingdom with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Electronic Media Design.

Universities often only offer Graphic Design / Web Design / 3d Design couses on there own, but I selected this course for one specific reason, it offered all of the above plus more - I wanted a broad range and comprehensive understanding of the theory of design. That I got!

Thank you Manny, Gurpreet and all the other lecturers that help guide and educate myself and many other students over the years.

A little bit about my journey in design

I began as a freelance designer around 1996 after I purchased my first PC (a Gateway Computer), I quickly started working on assignments as varied as business cards, letterhead, posters, funeral pamphlets and more. However, I soon recognised that in order to grow, I would need to learn more about the design field. I did a little research and found the ideal course already mentioned above. However, I found out that in order to apply to the university, I needed to get into the UK schooling system first. I was fortunate to already have a UK Passport so I did a little more research and found out that I could do a gap year at a UK based collage and this would allow me to apply.

I made the necessary arrangements, and got into Northumbria College where I did one year of random design related classes from Photography, Painting (I suck at painting), basic graphic design and I was even introduced to HTML at this point.

Shortly after I  submitted an application to a university, in conjunction to an arranged site visit - I was later accepted to the course.

The course taught, Design Understanding, Design Principles, Illustration, Photography, Typography, Web Design, Multimedia Design (which included Basic Coding), 3D-Design, Art History and a lot more.

In my third year at Sunderland I started taking some of my skills and applying it to freelance projects where I started specializing in Web Design specifically with a strong graphic design base. I later started multiple businesses offering my services in the UK and later Saint Lucia.

To date, I presently work as Branding & Design Manager / Director at eMagine Solutions Inc.

What do I have to offer?

Well that is a good question. Experience for starters.

After over 20 years designing, I have gained full confidence to cater to most of what a client might throw at me. I have had to learn a slew of new software applications over the years and have gained in-depth knowledge of the many tools used to build / create final work within my craft. It is important to note that any individual in a profession should always stay up-to-date. Especially in the design and tech industries.

I do try to stay informed on all things cutting edge within today's design technology and market trends.

Today (2023), there is a new trend of No-code / Low Code apps that are popping up daily that cover an enormous range of topics, fields and solutions. And even more recent is the age of AI, ChatGPT and the rest - so keeping up to date can take time and a lot of effort...

From my third year of Uni, I started doing small design projects for lecturers through to today, designing websites for Banks and enterprise organisations.

A brief summery:

• Back home from the Royal Navy
  I started doing some basic graphic design work and honing my limited skill set
• University - got an education, furthered my skills and got a way better understanding of Design in general
• The Prince's Trust & Malo IDM - After leaving Uni, I started a business with a class mate of mine, applied for a grant with the Price's Trust and won. We opened up an office in the middle of Newcastle upon Tyne.
• CGDesigns - choose to come back to Saint Lucia, I started a new company and started offering my Web Design Skills to friends and small businesses on the island - business took off.
• eMagine Solutions Inc. - several years later and a recession, things started getting a lot more difficult and more and more companies started popping to taking business away. A competitor of mine approached me with the idea of merging a number of businesses with varying skillsets. eMagine Solutions Inc. was born and still thriving today with 14 staff and counting.