I’m a self-employed visual designer with over 20 years’ experience in print and digital products. I specialise in user-focused design and typographic treatment, always aiming to improve products through clear insight into how people interact with them. As a lead designer, I enjoy shaping concepts, pitching ideas, and delivering thoughtful design solutions for publishers, brands, and charities. I’m collaborative and well connected with photographers, illustrators, editors, and printers to bring projects from concept to completion.…

Allan Sommerville

PRO
5.0 (2 reviews)

I’m a self-employed visual designer with over 20 years’ experience in print and digital products. I specialise in user-focused design and typographic treatment, always aiming to improve products through clear insight into how people interact with them. As a lead designer, I enjoy shaping concepts, pitching ideas, and delivering thoughtful design solutions for publishers, brands, and charities. I’m collaborative and well connected with photographers, illustrators, editors, and printers to bring projects from concept to completion.…

Available to hire

I’m a self-employed visual designer with over 20 years’ experience in print and digital products. I specialise in user-focused design and typographic treatment, always aiming to improve products through clear insight into how people interact with them.

As a lead designer, I enjoy shaping concepts, pitching ideas, and delivering thoughtful design solutions for publishers, brands, and charities. I’m collaborative and well connected with photographers, illustrators, editors, and printers to bring projects from concept to completion.

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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Lead designer at Blok Graphic
January 1, 2010 - November 10, 2025
Lead designer and manager of a London-based design studio. Over 10 years, I diversified from non-fiction publishing to large corporate clients, charities and small businesses, expanding into digital projects and coordinating freelance staff. Notable achievements include designing Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia (shortlisted for the Richard Schlagman Art Book Awards) and providing branding, guidelines and online presence for ventures like Zucca, Sheridan Keane and Wonder Works; contributing to Bare Reality, Manhood and Womanhood; and creating a limited-edition book for the Wellcome Collection.
Senior Designer at Smith & Gilmour
January 1, 2010 - January 1, 2010
Design of best-selling books by notable chefs (Marcus Wareing and Rick Stein); project management of commercial advertising campaigns; creation of innovative packaging design for Gimell Records and Opus Arte. Clients included Penguin, Harper Collins, BBC Books, Gimell Records and Opus Arte.
Book Designer at Duncan Baird Publishers
January 1, 2001 - January 1, 2007
Working for a publisher refined my typographic skills and developed my confidence in editorial design. Responsibilities included scheduling and managing projects, art direction, commissioning illustrators, photographers, models and stylists.

Education

User Experience Design Certificate at General Assembly London
July 1, 2018 - July 1, 2018
A professional qualification that focused on user interaction and ways to foster loyalty through design, technology, and psychology. The course included research methodology, interface design, prototyping and testing.
MA in Graphic Design (1st Class) at London College of Communication
January 1, 2006 - November 1, 2008
The MA was focused on research methodologies and design systems. My final year involved language reform using type based ligatures.
BA (Hons) Visual Communication at Edinburgh College of Art
January 1, 1994 - January 1, 1998
A four year degree course where I specialised in illustration. It also included animation and photography. A traditional art school education with a strong emphasis on design.

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Media & Entertainment, Education, Professional Services, Other, Non-Profit Organization
    uniE621 Fashion in the Metaverse
    A book that examines fashion's modern day evolution where technological innovations are inspiring designers, brands and consumers to think beyond conventional clothing in the real world. I wanted to echo classic editorial fashion design but with a modern typographic update. The typeface Bely Display gives the familiar high contrast feel of Bodoni but with its own quirks and character. Throughout the book we also played with containers and boxes, suggesting the digital boundaries of the screen or mobile phone. graphicdesigner Bookcoverdesigner editorialdesigner…
    uniE621 WonderWorks Brochure
    The WonderWorks brochure was designed to showcase events they’d created over the last twelve months. We were asked to shine a spotlight on the team and the studio, and to ensure that it was clear that their services were accessible to clients of all sizes. We split the brochure into two sections. The first ‘uncoated’ section is predominantly text based and includes interviews with staff members. The larger sixteen page section is on coated art paper and has photography from recent projects, including AC/DC’s world tour. graphicdesigner artdirection…
    uniE621 HBI 365
    Healthcare Business International created a new sub-brand for a non-payment subscription service called HBI365. I worked with them on the visual identity and launch campaign and helped implement the brand across website, apps and social media over a period of 12 months. graphicdesigner branding UIdesigner digitalmarketing…
    uniE621 AA Customer Journey
    AA branding applied to the existing Moneycorp wireframe - new web pages were redesigned to facilitate a presentation between the two organisations. Navigation, menu design, surveys and forms were all redesigned and often simplified to create a better user experience. Bespoke icons and concept designs for credits cards were all incorporated into the final pitch. graphicdesigner UIdesigner UXdesigner…
    uniE621 Wow Axis
    Wow Axis is a sub-brand of parent company WonderWorks. It specialises in the design, build and sale of equipment for the entertainment industry. ‘Axis’ is the description of movement used in the automation industry and is the basis for the logo and brand. The logo uses the diagonal axis to both divide, and join the component words. In this way the words form a singular unit but they are distinct within the frame. Some letters have been simplified so that they can be stencilled or cut into steel or alluminium. graphicdesigner branding logo…
    uniE621 Smart Quarterly Review
    An on-going project - I have designed quarterly reports for Smart Currency Exchange for the past 3 years. The report is a 20 page review of the world’s financial news and a forecast for the months ahead. For every issue we create a bespoke illustration using stock images and vector graphics. These images are used across social media and web banners to promote the launch. The interior features tables, graphs and infographics as well as a 2-page visual planner. graphicdesigner illustrator infographic…
    uniE621 Aerial Systems Slide Deck
    Commissioned by WonderWorks to design a series of info-packs which highlighted various technical hurdles encountered by Olympic Ceremonies across the globe. Aerial systems was the first in this series. We used a combination of photographic and technical diagrams over 20 slides. graphicdesigner presentationdesigner slidedeck branding…
    uniE621 Smart's little book of reviews
    I designed this small format booklet for Smart Currency’s postal campaign in 2024. Essentially a collection of five star reviews taken from Trustpilot - used to promote the business and build consumer confidence. Two colour printing was used throughout and bespoke icons and oversized numerals are employed to enrich the layout. graphicdesigner infographics branding…
    uniE621 BP Technology Brochure
    BP asked me to produce a printed document that brought together illustration and photographs commissioned for their in-house technology programme. One part of this was a large infographic showing how technological innovations fed into the overall BP work flow. We adapted this to follow the house style and also used it to determine the wide format of the document which unfolded to reveal the entire illustration. graphicdesigner infographic editorialdesign housestyle branding…
    uniE621 A New History of Modern Architecture
    A New History of Modern Architecture includes stunning photography of buildings designed over the last 120 years making it a must for any student or aspiring architect. It is a weighty hard-back coming in at 500 pages and 33 chapters with the usual high production standards you expect from Laurence King. graphicdesigner bookcoverdesigner…