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Emma Charleston is a Lecturer on BA (Hons) User Experience Design at London College of Communication. She is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Researcher, who has been working in industry since 2011, with a particular focus on the Education, Charity and Arts Sectors.
After gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Graphic Design from the University of Brighton in 2010, she went on to work for over a decade as an in-house designer in the international education sector, giving her a particular understanding and interest in the challenges and opportunities of international study. Her practice in this role spanned everything from advertising and branding right through to classroom materials, illustration, web design, and directional signage.
She continues to work freelance on design, branding and illustration for a wide variety of clients, including The Bishopsgate Institute, the RSPCA, Global Returns Project, The Met Office, the NHS, and TFL, with a particular focus on educational materials. She sets aside a proportion of her client time for working at reduced rates with small, regional charities, including alcohol and drug support organisations, prisoners rights groups, Quaker groups in South London, and more.
Since 2017, Emma has been the lead designer for Happy Valley Pride, one of Yorkshire’s biggest Pride festivals. She is passionate about the role design can play in activist movements.
From 2021 to 2024, Emma also worked as Design and Research lead at Geeks For Social Change, a tech studio with a focus on social justice. Geeks for Social Change’s work brings together the drive of activism, the rigour of academia, and the capabilities of tech, to pioneer a unique approach to solving social issues. Their work spans topics including trans liberation, anti racism, mutual aid and environmental justice.
During her time at GFSC, Emma worked with clients including The Wildlife Trusts, Friends of the Earth, and Gendered Intelligence, and she was part of anti-state violence collective Resistance Lab. She remains as Company Director of GFSC’s pioneering community calendar software PlaceCal.
In 2021, Emma completed her MA in Graphic Media Design at LCC. Her personal research focus is on placemaking and public space, with a particular interest in public transit and infrastructure, and their impact on communities. Since 2022, she has been teaching at UAL across the Design and Media schools, predominantly on BA (Hons) Graphic Media Design and BA (Hons) User Experience Design. She is working towards Advance HE Fellowship and PG Cert qualification in Winter 2024.
Emma’s personal practice includes zine and print making, using riso, letterpress, lino printing, and other analogue processes. She tables at zine fairs across the UK, and sells her zines and prints in shops and online.
In her spare time, she volunteers as a listener at anti-suicide charity Samaritans, litter picks in her little corner of South London, hikes around the outer edges of London, and works on her daily visual diary project, in which she has created an illustration every day since 2013.
Website: emmacharleston.co.uk
Instagram: @emma_wedi_creu
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7514 6500