Gavin Colwill

I've spent over 20 years working as a designer and design leader across graphic design, UI/UX and product design — including agency creative direction, senior in-house design leadership, and co-founding two design-led businesses from scratch. I've hired, managed and mentored designers throughout that time, so I know how to teach the craft in a way that actually prepares you for real studio and industry work, not just an academic exercise.

My lessons are built around real industry briefs, not generic tutorials. We'll work through the kind of projects you'd actually be given at an agency or in-house team — branding, editorial layout, web and UI design, packaging, campaign work — so you're building a portfolio that reflects live problems and real client constraints, not textbook prompts. Where useful, I'll bring in genuine examples and approaches from my own career to show you how professionals actually think through a brief from research to execution.

Alongside project-based teaching, I also offer portfolio review, critique and general design advice. If you've got existing work you want honest feedback on — whether it's for university applications, a job portfolio, or just to sharpen your skills — I'll give you direct, constructive critique rather than vague encouragement. That kind of honest feedback is what actually improves your work and gets you ready for how the industry will judge it.

Sessions are flexible and tailored to what you need: structured skill-building if you're starting out, targeted critique if you've got existing work, or career-focused guidance if you're trying to work out how to break into the industry. My focus throughout is on practical, professional-standard design thinking — the kind you'll need once you're working, not just studying.