about ESW Design Works
ESW = Erica Simmons Ward
Design Works = Logo design, print design, visual design, HTML email design, website design, and copywriting.
An experienced designer and communicator, I am currently employed as a graphic designer and project management consultant within the HR department of a global organization.
After earning a B.S. in Graphic Communications and a minor in Applied Business, I began my career as an entry-level graphic designer at a marketing agency, soon becoming their lead designer. Later, I joined an in-house marketing team at a consumer electronics retailer. There, I worked on both the print and web design teams and taught myself to code. To expand my experience and skillset, I also worked as a copywriter for a boutique marketing agency, ghost-writing blog posts, marketing emails, and thought leadership articles for clients in a variety of industries. As a freelance designer, I have designed everything from logos to magazines to websites and have contributed to publications as both a writer and an editor. I love the satisfaction of crafting words and information into forms that are both attractive and effective.
In addition to my work as a copywriter and graphic designer, I have also volunteered as the email newsletter manager on the board of InSource, a non-profit professional trade association that provides resources and support for those in creative leadership positions.
Recommendations
“Erica put together a branded graphic prototype for a nonprofit initiative in its early stages. I was immediately impressed by how well she had listened and understood what was important to me. She came up with a simple and elegant visual concept that conveyed what I was trying to express, based on minimal input from me. Erica is a highly skilled professional whose genuine kindness and compassion would make her a great asset to any team.”
“What makes Erica a design powerhouse is not just her incredibly varied skillset — print, web, and advertising — it’s her approach to every project. Her understanding of users and her research methodologies always feed into her process and lend themselves to solid designs that repeatedly brought in new revenue feeds for our company. Additionally, her ability to adapt and learn new technologies and processes left many of us in awe. She taught herself web development, and specifically responsive email development, to create a whole new series of high performing responsive email templates. Along with this, she was a valuable QA and process manager, testing every new design repeatedly and coming up with new design strategies to accommodate new initiatives. Erica is by far one of the most rock-solid designers I have ever had the pleasure to work with.”
“Erica, even while working remotely, can always be counted on to pick up art direction with cunning accuracy. She is a creative, clever designer whose self-directing methods continually produce outstanding work. With just a little direction from my end, she fully grasped projects and continually over delivered. Erica knows when to push the design envelope and when to keep it conservative.”