Visual Designer
WHAT I'M GREAT AT
Creative direction / Web & mobile / Brand identity / Ui & Ux / Iconography / illustration / Photography
tools I use
Photoshop / Illustrator / Sketch / XD/ Indesign / afinity / final cut pro / Procreate / Lightroom / Figma / Pixelmator Pro
Charles is a Chicago based designer with over 20 years experience. He’s worked on a variety in-house brands ranging from small non-profits to large tech companies with ambitious goals. He has a unique talent at seeing the big picture potential in a product or brand and then bringing it to life.
Each company Charles has worked or contracted for has carried a strong mission behind the work—ranging from sustainability and politics, to education. He likes to keep that same character for doing well in his personal life also. He strongly believes that design and storytelling is a powerful medium to facilitate change.
Charles is comfortable working on a wide range of projects from designing websites and apps to collaborating on set with a production crew. Whether he is behind the camera, illustrating on Ipad, or building websites on his Macbook, Charles always brings a quality of work and creativity that is hard to match.
Outside of work Charles finds inspiration through drawing, films, playing sports, and traveling. His hunger and curiosity for life drives him to experience everything and document all that it has to offer. This thirst for life is evident in all of his work. Charles doesn’t find a strong line between creativity, work, and play.
Background
20 YEARS OF DESIGN EXPERIENCE
At the age of 6, I obsessively scribbled in my drawing book over and over again, trying to perfect my craft. When I started school I experimented with all sorts of creative outlets, drawing covers for my school books, entering drawing competitions and winning my fair share of gold stars and stickers.
At the age of eight, I started to get good at drawing. All I could think about was my Etch A Sketch and Nintendo. This led me to pursue art as a profession later on in life.
*Artwork above is the first project
I created for school in Photoshop 5.
MASTERING MY CRAFT
Traditional sketching, drawing, painting, sculpting, and building models, I mastered before entering High School. I wanted to play with a completely new medium, the computer.
At age 16, I met MS Paint. (RIP MS Paint!) MS Paint allowed me to draw my designs and artwork digitally, painstakingly creating elaborate images, pixel by pixel. I fell in love with Photoshop a year later. At age 17, I designed my first website for my design company Viper Graphics.
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
After I graduated from college, I started working as a graphic design/photographer for a school. I also did freelance work for many clients during my free time.
For over 14 years, I’ve worked on projects that reflect my creativity, attention to detail and appeal for good design and user experience. I helped my clients both full time and contract to define their brand and set strategic goals for their projects.
Years of experience as a designer, creative director, and photographer have helped me understand the problems that prevent creative solutions from achieving business objectives. I have a strong belief that approaching creative deliverables with a UX focus can help bridge those gaps and produce work that is efficient, pleasing, and ultimately elevates the user’s experience.
INTERESTED IN WORKING TOGETHER, OR YOU HAVE A UNIQUE PROJECT IN MIND, FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME.
You can get a hold of me at hello@charlesesawyer.com
Lets create something beautiful and impactful.
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”
– STEVE JOBS