Introduction
I feel very fortunate that my chosen career has been one that is so fulfilling.
Design has been in my blood from a young age. With formal training in Industrial
Design, 10 years freelancing as a graphic designer and a gift for design in many
disciplines, I have worked within many great Australian companies and a variety
of design industries.
As a skilled designer I am proficient working both autonomously or in a team
environment. This is displayed through positive people skills and involvement in
team and individual projects. I have a great eye for detail and pride myself in
taking projects to completion.
With loyalty and integrity, I have been an asset to all companies for whom I have
worked, bringing professionalism to any work environment.
I am seeking a senior design role within an environment where like-minded,
talented people work together for design excellence, and wish to further my skills
and continue to produce high quality design.
Personal Details
Name:
Nicholas Thomas Clarkin
Date of birth:
9th September 1973
Sex:
Male
Marital status:
Married
Health:
Excellent
Drivers license:
Yes
Work Career
2005 – Present
Creative Services Manager - The Brand Works (TBW Asia Pacific)
Responsibilities included:
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Management of design team including both senior and junior designers
Account management
Creative direction and output from client brief through concept development to final
delivery
Client invoicing and billing
Project management
As a start up creative branding agency in Brisbane, I was hired to offer The Brand Works a
broad range of skills and experience. Being the key management role within the company the
role required both resource and project management skills, as well as creative direction and
design output. Growing at a sustainable rate, the company grew from 2 to 6 employees within
the first 12 months with the client base also growing at a steady rate.
Achievements:
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The acquisition of many new clients through job reference and word of mouth
Design and implementation of Macintosh network environment including backup and
redundancy systems
The successful completion of a number of large scale projects from client brief
through to production and launch.
2003 - 2004
Senior Mens Accessories Designer – Oroton (Orotongroup)
Responsibilities included:
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Production of seasonal fashion ranges from research through concept development
and final design specifications – bags, wallets, compendiums, travel accessories.
Project management including junior design staff.
Seasonal catalogue design and creation including art direction, photography, layout
and production.
Trend research including international trips to key fashion retail locations and
seasonal trade shows.
Project management – lead time for design, sampling and production.
After almost 3 years as Senior ladies accessories designer, Oroton chose to focus more
attention on the potentially lucrative men’s category and I was offered the position as Men’s
Accessories designer. This felt a natural move and represented the chance to work on a fresh
range of products. For approximately 18 months I headed the men’s design team extending
the men’s product offering to include exciting new styles and fabrications. In addition to this, a
full range of ‘specialty gifts’ was developed and marketed for both the men’s and ladies
business and I managed sourcing, design and packaging for both ranges. The role involved
research trips to Italy, Japan and Hong Kong and sourcing and production trips to Hong Kong
and China on a regular basis.
Achievements:
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Success concept development, design production and launch of specialty gift range.
Successful design of 3 seasonal ranges from research through concept to final
specification.
Design of brand new product categories in both the sport and urban sectors.
Design, layout and production of 3 seasons of men’s accessories and men’s and
ladies gift catalogues.
Complete redesign and launch of new packaging – boxes, ribbon, tissue paper, bags
etc.
2001 - 2003
Senior Ladies Accessories Designer – Oroton (Orotongroup)
Responsibilities included:
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Production of seasonal fashion ranges from research through concept development
and final design specifications
Project management including junior design staff
Seasonal catalogue design and creation including art direction, photography, layout
and production.
Trend research including international trips to key fashion retail locations and
seasonal trade shows.
Project management – lead time for design, sampling and production.
With experience gained at Mambo, Oroton represented an exciting move. Oroton has long
been synonymous with quality and style and in the late 1990’s had seen a strong resurgence
with a successful campaign to attract a younger audience. It was an exciting time to join the
design team, which grew from 2 employees to 7 over the 18 months. The role involved
research trips to New York, London, Paris, Italy and Hong Kong and sourcing and production
trips to Hong Kong and China on a regular basis. The role demanded strong time
management and planning skills in order to coordinate concept development, product
sampling, final production and packaging requirements within fixed seasonal deadlines.
Achievements:
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Employee of the year in 2002
Successful design of 5 seasonal ranges from research through concept to final
specification.
Design and output of 2 seasons of watch ranges.
Design and output of 4 seasons of sunglass ranges for men and women.
Design of signature Oroton jacquard fabric pattern used across multiple ranges and
product categories.
Design, layout and production of 6 seasons of ladies accessories catalogues.
2001 - 2004
Industrial Designer – Oroton (Orotongroup)
Responsibilities included:
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Concept development, design and detailed specification of metal hardware for mens
and ladies product ranges.
Through both positions at Oroton I was also responsible for the design and specification of all
custom hardware for the Brand. This included logo badges, buckles, clips and ornamental
fittings. The design process included the creation of solid models via CAD. This allowed for
complete sign off before any time and money was dedicated to the costly and time consuming
sampling process.
2000 - 2001
Accessories Designer – Mambo
Responsibilities included:
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Production of seasonal accessory ranges from research through concept
development and final design specifications
Seasonal catalogue design and creation including illustration, layout and production.
Trend research including international trips to key fashion retail locations and
seasonal trade shows.
A passion for graphic design and experience in t-shirt design production and sales lead to an
opportunity to work with Mambo in the accessory division. A great organization with a cultural
fusion of art and music, the management team allowed great autonomy for designers and as
a result, output was of high quality and creativity. I was responsible for the single handed
development of their most innovative range of men’s and ladies watches as well as a strongly
themed collection of jewellery.
Achievements:
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Successful concept development, design and specification output for 2 seasons of
watch collections for men and women
Successful concept development, design and spec output for 2 seasons of accessory
design including bags, hats, socks, wallets and thongs.
1998 - 2002
Designer / Owner – Non Fiction Clothing Co.
Responsibilities included:
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Operational running of the business – account management, invoicing, billing,
delivery.
Concept development and design for clothing styles and graphics.
Production co-ordination.
Sourcing & sampling.
Seeing a real space in the fashion market for a label with substance and social message,
myself and a partner created Non Fiction; a T-shirt brand with powerful graphics covering
social and political comment. Sales grew steadily over 2 years with a total of 28 niche fashion
retailers Australia wide were regularly stocking our range. It was repeatedly the best selling
range in most stores which lead to a partnership with Sydney based apparel firm Liquid
Culture.
1998 - 1999
Computer Lecturer – University of Technology, Sydney
Responsibilities included:
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Course criteria development.
Material preparation and content development.
Lecture delivery.
Having completed my Industrial Design degree with the University of Technology with high
levels of skill in graphic design and a variety of graphics software applications, I was invited to
teach 2nd year students in graphic design software in the computer minor subject. Tutored
classes contained between 15 – 20 students and I taught for 4 semesters before accepting
full time employment elsewhere.
1998 - 2000
Design / Partner – Psionic Creative
Responsibilities included:
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Creative direction and output from client brief through concept development to final
delivery.
Client management.
With the internet spawning the new age of online design and creative, Psionic was created as
a partnership between 3 likeminded designers to service this exciting new market. Based on
Sydney’s north shore, the client base steadily grew with work encompassing both online and
print design for a variety of industries.
1993 - 1997
Salesman / Skate Instructor – Manly Blades
Responsibilities included:
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Sales of inline skates, skateboards and all related accessories
Repair and maintenance of inline skates.
Skate rental
Skate instruction via paid lessons.
As a part time job to support University tuition, I was employed by Manly Blades in the
summer of 1993. The job involved primarily sales, rental and instruction, but due the culture
and reputation of the business and the very high standard of skating achieved by instructors
and regular customers, the job lead to some very interesting opportunities. The first being a
stunt role in a TV commercial for ‘Red Rooster’ and the second being involvement in the large
scale TV advertisement for UK based bank ‘Halifax’. The 30 second advertisement required
the choreography of over 300 inline skaters to represent a scale watch mechanism. Toward
the end of the 3 month production, I was selected to feature in a close-up as the lead skater.
Educational Background
Tertiary
University of Technology, Sydney – 1994 to 1997
Bachelor of Industrial Design
University of New South Wales - 1992-1993
Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering - First Year Completed
Secondary
St Aloysius’ College, Milson’s Point, N.S.W. - 1986 to 1991
Higher School Certificate
Captain of School
Recipient of Aloysius Gold Medal
First XI Soccer
First VI Volleyball
First V Basketball
Ex-Officio Member, SRC 1991
Cadet Under Officer
Computer Qualifications
Application
Level
Word-processing:
Word
Excel
Advanced
Advanced
Desktop Publishing:
Quark Xpress
Adobe PageMaker
Adobe InDesign.
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Graphics:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Acrobat
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Web Authoring:
HTML Programming
Adobe ImageReady
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Multi Media:
Macromedia Director
Adobe Premier
Flash
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Modelling:
Infini-D
Form-Z
Intermediate
Intermediate
Database:
FileMaker Pro
Advanced
Interests & Hobbies
Most sports, both team and individual.
Traditional and contemporary art.
Modelling (craft) , Rollerblading, Mountain Biking Snorkelling
and Snow Boarding.
Generally experiencing new and interesting things.
Organisational Membership
Member of Museum of Contemporary Art
Member of Art gallery of New South Wales
Referees
Both professional and personal referees are available upon
request.