marisa parsons

In addition to designing key pages, one of my main roles on this project was to act as the brand guardian, ensuring that the team of designers were all working to a consistent look and feel. My role also involved working closely with the Net-a-Porter team on user experience, interface ideas and functionality.

Working with the new business team on the pitch for Directgov mobile, I was responsible for designing visuals along with developing creative concepts around location based services and QR codes. Through our combined efforts, Cimex was awarded a three year managed services contract. Following on from the pitch, I designed the mobile website to provide the best possible experience for all users, regardless of what platform they are using, whether it's WAP or the latest smart phone.

Building on a successful SEO programme, Cimex was entrusted with re-designing the e-commerce site for artisan chocolatier Rococo Chocolates. With a distinct visual style based on the hand drawn illustrations of owner Chantal Coady, the website required close collaboration, translating pen and ink to screen to ensure the site remained true to brand.

To give the typography personality in keeping with the illustration style, I researched popular typesetting styles from the 1800's and adapted them for use on the web whilst ensuring usability wasn't compromised.

Five asked Cimex to give the FiveFWD site an expert review with a view to integrating the Fifth Gear site.

As lead designer, my role was to work closely with the user experience team to create intuitive site-wide navigation and to design the new Fifth Gear pages in keeping with FiveFWD brand guidelines.

Halcrow, the second largest design and engineering firm in the world asked Cimex to pitch for the redesign of their web site. There were two key ideas underpinning the design, the first being that the overall look needed to express the established and authoratative aspects of the brand and the second, that the content quickly communicated the global reach and scale of their projects. Users are encouraged to engage with the brand through interactive modules where they can explore featured projects in depth and discover more about Halcrow projects around the world.

Our Coast Our Sea is a collaborative project between Northumberland County Council, Flow Associates, Cimex and a growing number of educational and conservation groups.

The overall look was designed to be playful and family oriented with special attention paid to crafting all the little details, icons and textures. A key feature of the site is the incorporation of Flickr, allowing people to contribute by showcasing their images of the region.

Whilst at Mango Media I was involved in the pitch for You Magazine. I was responsible for all of the creative work, from designs to information architecture, wireframes and advertising concepts. The focus was to create an online version of the magazine that remained true to brand and complimented the printed publication.

Luxury travel group Venice Simplon Orient Express invited Mango Media to pitch for their annual brochure and consumer magazine. As a part of our pitch offering we proposed a companion website. My role as lead designer was to produce visuals and creative strategies demonstrating how to reinforce the desirability of their products online and increase conversion rates through improved user experience, access to product information and optimised booking functionality.

Design4D is a promising new architectural practice based in south London. Founded by architect Nik Hilton – a 2009 nominee for young architect of the year, Design4D strives for the highest standards in creativity, quality and sustainability.
I designed their visual identity and website to reflect this ethos, with careful attention being paid to typographic detail and quality of finish.

Design4D presented their concept for exploring architecture through film at the 2006 London Design Festival. The films were projected onto overlapping transparent screens and to reflect this aspect of the installation the promotional leaflets were printed on transparent paper – allowing the typography to interact creating a unique visual effect.

As part of the pitch team working to secure a place on the Actionaid design roster, I was responsible for generating a digital campaign idea that demonstrated an understanding of their brand and how we could use social media to reach new audiences.

The concept was to cast real volunteers as 'action heroes' and allow others to follow their progress using social media such as Facebook fan pages, blogs and Youtube channels. Utilising an emotional hook by providing first-hand personal insights into a variety of charitable projects and roles the campaign was designed to encourage more people to get involved.

Following the exponential growth in social networking websites, I wanted to explore the concept of social capital – the idea that social networks in the broader sense have value. The core research for this project was in the form of a survey asking people whom they knew, how they met them and what value they attached to each relationship. The results were then collated and mapped to create an A1 poster.

This hand-printed and typeset poster was produced during a letterpress workshop at London College of Communication. As part of a small team, we were given an open brief to experiment, with the outcome to be based on the colour blue. Our response was a poster design inspired by the various names used in place of "blue" when describing the colour.