Member Spotlight: Amy Walters – Freelance Graphic Designer, Amy Walters Design

Showcasing the work and skills of our community and members is an important part of the work we’re doing at Digital Women.

And with our series of Member Spotlights, we help our community get to know members better.

This Member Spotlight highlights Amy Walters – Freelance Graphic Designer, Amy Walters Design

Amy is a creative graphic designer who has been a finalist in our Young Digital Woman of the Year award 2 years running.

First off – What do you love about Digital Women?

I love the community! The co-working sessions and networking events are great for catching up, meeting new people, and getting work done together.

Amy, tell us about your freelance/founder story

My route into freelance work starts back when I chose not to take the traditional study and career route from school. Having been to a grammar school, I was one of only a handful of students who didn’t go to university. I had a place to study Art & Design but it didn’t feel right. I’d felt restricted by the curriculum when studying Art, Media & Photography A-Levels, which prevented me from being actually creative.

Fast forward 3 years, and I’d completed 2 charity internships and started working as a tutor. A friend of mine approached me asking if I would design his logo, he offered a very fair price and trusted me entirely. I loved the design process, and then seeing that design out in the wild. I got set up as a sole trader straight away and started to provide graphic design services part-time alongside my tutor job.

I then had the opportunity to be a Digital Media Specialist for a small charity for a year during the covid pandemic (all whilst running my business on the side). After a year in the role, I left and took the leap into being fully freelance. It’s been almost a year since that huge milestone.

What I love about being a freelancer is the flexibility to choose my own hours, the work-life balance I’ve built, the wonderful clients I get to work with, and the exciting business opportunities that can be just around the corner

Amy, tell us more about you, your work and the services you provide:

I work with my clients to develop and improve their visual brand identity.

I help my clients to further establish their brand image, become visually recognisable & memorable, stand out against competitors, and feel really good about their brand.

This can start with a brand refresh and logo ‘glow-up’ and continue with ongoing graphic design support too. The services I provide include visual branding & logo design, and print & digital marketing design

And the services you provide?
Visual Branding, Logo Design, Brand/Logo Refresh, Printed Marketing Design (such as banners, booklets, flyers, posters, business cards), Digital Marketing Design (such as graphics for web, infographics, and creative content for social media)

What Digital Skills do you think are most important for Founders / Freelancers?
I think creativity and adaptability are very important and go a long way in supporting and improving your digital skills.

Creativity to design engaging content, to think outside of the box, and to problem solve. Adaptability to navigate changes in business and in social media trends/algorithms, and to be ready to learn new digital skills and softwares all of the time.

What is your favourite social media channel and why?

If you’d asked me this 6 months ago, I’d have said Instagram without a doubt. However, now my answer is most definitely LinkedIn.

As a business owner, LinkedIn is full of like-minded people who share interesting & useful content and who engage with the content that I share too. It’s also a platform that brings in work for me as a B2B (business to business) service provider, which means there is a return on investment of my time spent on LinkedIn

Where do you go to learn new digital skills for your business?

Personally, I learn by doing rather than by just being told.

If you’re looking for courses to get you started, and you also learn by doing, I’d suggest searching for courses that have an interactive element – such as ones where you design something through the course or come out with a written marketing plan or strategy at the end. I’ve learnt a lot through the Digital Women membership. Their CPD accredited courses have been very interactive – I finished one course with a completed SEO audit and another with a completed social media content plan.

Their digital skill-sharing sessions are also great because a lot of them are bite-size, only about 20 minutes long, but are packed full of helpful information and tips!

Tell us one thing you’ve gained from being a member of Digital Women

Being part of the community, I’ve gained some wonderful friends and had brilliant opportunities like speaking at online events