Thomas James Smith

About

As Brand Design Manager at Reuters, I use my various skills in brand design, digital design, web design and print design to support the business. I believe creating a visually consistent framework for a brand elevates the potential for creative outputs, whilst also encouraging employees to feel a part of something larger and meaningful.

With a professional history in branded content at both Reuters and Financial Times, I also understand the values of flexibility, responsivity, and the ability to ideate creatively at a pace.

I graduated from the London College of Communication in 2018 with a first class degree in Graphic and Media design. I have strong skills in Adobe XD, Figma, Ceros, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, AfterEffects, Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint. I also have a basic understanding of HTML5 and CSS. Aside from design, I have interests in politics, economics, exercise and video games.

Reuters News Agency         October 2024 - Present day

As Brand Design Manager at Reuters, the main focus of my role is to create and maintain visual brand consistency across the business. This comprises of responsibilities including:

- Creating and maintaining brand guidelines for Reuters, including any sub-brands acquired
- Creating branded assets across Reuters
- Creating templates for various departments for any assets required, such as presentations, social media posts, traffic drivers, printed material, and so on
- Maintaining consistency and implementing a visual methodology throughout our various social accounts
- Increasing engagement on the News Agency social accounts
- Liaising with any external contractors/agencies working on brand campaigns and/or brand assets
- Acting as a design consultant for various departments where necessary
- Creating new guidelines and tailoring existing ones for any new business propositions
- Brand design point of contact for our parent company, Thomson Reuters
- Improving brand awareness amongst colleaguesAs Brand Design Manager at Reuters, the main focus of my role is to create and maintain visual brand consistency across the business. This comprises of responsibilities including: - Creating and maintaining brand guidelines for Reuters, including any sub-brands acquired - Creating branded assets across Reuters - Creating templates for various departments for any assets required, such as presentations, social media posts, traffic drivers, printed material, and so on - Maintaining consistency and implementing a visual methodology throughout our various social accounts - Increasing engagement on the News Agency social accounts - Liaising with any external contractors/agencies working on brand campaigns and/or brand assets - Acting as a design consultant for various departments where necessary - Creating new guidelines and tailoring existing ones for any new business propositions - Brand design point of contact for our parent company, Thomson Reuters - Improving brand awareness amongst colleagues

Reuters Plus         October 2022 - October 2024

As a designer at Reuters, I supported different areas of the business across four core disciplines:

- Pre-sale support: This involved collaborating with Content Strategists in order to deliver the best possible visual mocks of our products, enabling Sales to put their best foot forward when executing our pitches. These mocks typically involved web design, but could also span out in to video and print. Although creating a strong visual aesthetic was important, it was also crucial that I kept an understanding of client budgets and flexible UX design in mind whilst developing the static visuals. Largely working with Figma, I also utilised Photoshop and AfterEffects where necessary.

- Post-sale delivery: Utilising 3rd party software, I was able to produce visually engaging post-sale executions for our clients. This involved working more collaboratively with Project Managers and client feedback than was necessary at pre-sale stage, prioritising mobile-first design, and also applying my knowledge of SEO and accessibility functions. Working in an agile and flexible manner was crucial at this stage to ensure that our client's had the best possible experience when working with our team.

- Presentation support: I believe that a pre-sale design outcome is only as good as the presentation it is placed within, and therefore supported our Integrated Marketing team with the look and feel of their decks. As I could not work directly on every presentation produced, this support typically involved preparing high-quality PowerPoint presentation templates and being available to meet with members of the team to share visual tips and tricks. On high value pitches and evergreen presentations, I would take a more hands-on approach and work directly on the look and feel myself.

- Reuters brand assets: Occasionally, I would work on brand assets for the wider Reuters team, creating social posts, invites, logo iterations and covering other ad-hoc requests.

Financial Times         July 2018 - October 2022

As a designer for FT Creative, sitting within the Brand Design team, I worked specifically with Sales and Marketing teams to supply them with the necessary design assets they need to win pitches. This typically involved building mockups of bespoke websites, which we pitched under our 'Partner Content' offering. The process of developing these mocks involved keen communication between myself, content directors, sales teams and the post-sale delivery team in order to ensure that what I was producing was not only visually appealing, but also relevant and feasible. I further assisted by providing presentation support, various sales sheet designs and a range of other miscellaneous assets.

I am also involved in creating and maintaining various corporate guidelines to ensure everyone is following appropriate process, whilst also ensuring the outputs of our junior are accurate and well executed. Furthermore, I have led on a workshop with the Commercial Marketing team to ensure expectations and processes are consistent between our teams, ultimately ensuring a harmonious relationship between both the design and marketing departments respectively.

Where possible, I aid my colleagues across the Brand Design team including tasks such as developing brand campaigns, creating guidelines and generally sharing and collaborating on ideas.

Quadrille Publishing         May 2017 - June 2018

At Quadrille publishing, I was responsible for a variety of design tasks, many of which involved assisting the marketing and publicity departments. These tasks included; physically mocking up books, photographing books, designing menus, social media signage, social media assets, posters etc. I also made small movie clips to promote certain books using AfterEffects. Aside from those regular tasks, there was occasionally larger promotional tasks for me to get stuck in to, such as a bus advert and a window display at the flagship Waterstones store in Piccadilly Circus.

For the design department, I laid out books and stationary designs, whilst also making corrections to pre-existing designs and adjusting them to certain specifications. Alongside these design tasks, I also assisted with reception cover and helped to run book launch events.

How to Spend it Magazine         January 2017 - March 2017

As a design intern at How To Spend It magazine, I was responsible for designing layouts, editing pictures, formatting pictures and text, creating cut outs and choosing images to go on to layouts. This required tight communication between myself, the art directors and the picture editor. One of my key responsibilities was managing the web content, as I was personally responsible for ensuring that all articles were uploaded to the CMS in a timely manner, giving the sub editors and fact checkers enough time to edit the content before it went live. I was also responsible for the aesthetics of the website, largely through controlling the cropping as images transitioned from print to web. I was also involved with a variety of editorial tasks, including fact checking articles, writing social media campaigns and writing picture captions.

Port Magazine          October 2016 - November 2016

Working at Port Magazine, I was primarily responsible for handling social media, with a particular focus on promotion through Instagram. This included the combination of Illustrator, Photoshop and AfterEffects in order to use the capabilities of Instagram to its full effect. I also worked on designing content for Twitter and Facebook, formatting images, creating invites for events and generally assisting on design related tasks.

The i Newspaper          August 2016 - November 2016

At the i I assisted on developing spreads and visuals for the newspaper, making use of pre-existing templates and styles, and generally assisting the art director. Typically, I was responsible for ‘ten best’ featured daily, whilst occasionally created full style and article spreads.

Icon Magazine         September 2016

At Icon I was involved in developing layouts for the magazine, working on promotional material for the company, editing images and generally assisting fellow colleagues.

Qualifications

Graphic and Media Design BA Degree (LCC): First Class

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design: Distinction

AQA Baccalaureate: Distinction

English Literature A-Level: A*

Fine Art A-Level: A*

Psychology A-Level: A

Contact

info@itstomdesign.com

LinkedIn: Thomas James Smith