Meet Shillington Graduates Who Changed From Creative Adjacent Careers

Are you working with graphic designers day-to-day and finding yourself jealous of the work they’re doing? You’re certainly not alone! Over the years at Shillington, we’ve had countless students come to us as they want to be a part of the creative teams they work with. To help you realise that making a change over to the creative side of things is not only doable, but easy, we thought it would be helpful to share the experiences of some Shillington graduates who have done just that.

We spoke to ten of our graduates from across the world on how they went about switching from creative adjacent careers to fulfil their true creative career dreams to show that you can do it—with a little help from our graphic design course.

1. Madi Berse, Shillington New York Graduate

New York graduate Madi Berse worked in media and advertising for over four years, before she decided to want to switch over to the creative side of things. Shillington was the perfect opportunity for her to pursue graphic design, so she enrolled in our part-time course and never looked back. After graduating in 2020, Madi slowly built up a freelance client base before taking the leap to start her own practice, Madi Rae Design Studio.

2. Ruaraidh Rafferty, Shillington Online Graduate

At Shillington, Online graduate Ruaraidh Rafferty was able to balance his existing writing skills with his new found graphic design skills. With the flexibility to study around his life and work commitments, Ruaraidh found himself empowered and quickly embarked on a new freelance career, combining strong and effective written and visual language.

3. Niamh Tulley, Shillington London Graduate

Niamh Tulley, who studied part-time at Shillington London, used to work in several different industries—event coordination, public relations and marketing—but always found herself jealous of the designers she would collaborate with. Shillington was exactly what Niamh needed and now works on design projects herself as a freelancer under the pseudonym Nini Studios.

4. Kelly O’Connell,  Shillington New York Graduate

Shillington New York graduate Kelly O’Connell previously studied Communication and Digital Media with a minor in Entertainment Marketing, but she always had a passion for the creative side of digital marketing and fell in love with the world of graphic design. This led her to study with us at Shillington and she is now a full time graphic designer at Baked By Melissa.

5. Morgan Egan, Shillington Online Graduate

After studying English Literature at university, Shillington Online graduate Morgan Egan found herself in a copywriting job but something was missing—she wanted to combine her passion for writing with a passion for visual storytelling. That’s where Shillington came in, allowing Morgan to fully embrace her creativity.

6. Angela Cartigiano, Shillington London Graduate

After five years working in various marketing roles for beauty and fashion brands, Shillington London graduate Angela Cartigiano knew she was destined to work on the creative side of things. She crossed the pond, enrolled in our full-time course and now works as a freelance graphic designer.

7. Caroline Adams, Shillington Online Graduate

Caroline Adams, a Shillington Online graduate, was working in marketing for over six years the whole time being fascinated by the work of graphic designers. She finally bit the creative bullet in 2021 and enrolled at Shillington to change her career forever. She found her feet and has been running her own branding studio ever since.

8. Viktoria Lange, Shillington New York Graduate

Viktoria Lange, a graduate of Shillington New York, was working in performing arts until the Covid lockdown in 2020 but a stop to things. Rethinking her own creativity, Viktoria was excited by the breadth and diversity of what is available to graphic designers so enrolled in Shillington and embarked on her new career.

9. Amrit Mayton,  Shillington Online Graduate

Shillington Online graduate Amrit Mayton has always been creative—she worked as writer and visual artist for most of her life—but it wasn’t until Shillington she was able to turn that creativity into a career where she gets to be creative every day. Studying online, she went from working in literary organisations to working as Brand Design Lead at Trellis.

10. Manon Prost, Shillington London Graduate

Shillington London graduate Manon Prost used to work as a project manager in design studios and—being constantly surrounded by graphic design—she knew she had to make the change over to the creative side of a studio. Shillington allowed her to live out her dreams and she has now been working as a freelance graphic for almost three years.

Want to become a freelance graphic designer with Shillington? Our graphic design course teaches you everything you need to know to launch your creative career—in just three months full-time or nine months part-time.