Brave.

Welcome to Elen Swetman’s portfolio
A Senior Creative with extensive corporate design experience. I specialise in brand, communications and reporting across print, environment and digital; working with private organisations and agencies through Brave.

About

Inspiring brands
Since founding Brave in 2010, I’ve been combining strategic thinking, smart ideas and crafted design to create robust, dynamic brands and systems that connect with hearts and minds.

View/download CV

Expertise

    • Brand/communications audit;

    • Marketplace/sector insight and competitor research;

    • Formulating a brand proposition;

    • Naming;

    • Writing a creative brief.

    • Brand identity design;

    • Brand toolkit: Creating a unique visual and tonal language comprising of a colour palette, fonts and typography, photography styles, illustrations, icons, infographics and diagram styles, and a company-wide tone of voice;

    • Brand guidelines;

    • Brand assets across print e.g. letterheads, business cards, marketing collateral; and digital e.g. PowerPoint presentation templates;

    • Brand guardianship: Provision of ongoing brand assets; marketing and campaign support.

    • Brand guidelines;

    • Provision of ongoing brand assets;

    • Provision of templates and ongoing brand/campaign support.

    • Corporate reporting and presentations;

    • Brochures/Catalogues/Newsletters;

    • Editorial and publication design;

    • Events collateral;

    • Environmental graphics and wayfinding;

    • Advertising campaigns;

    • Packaging design;

    • Production/print management.

    • Front-end website design;

    • Social media campaigns;

    • Digital presentations e.g. PowerPoint.

    • Creative copywriting (advertising concepts and campaigns);

    • Presentations, proposals and pitch documents;

    • Brand guidelines;

    • Website and social media content.

Work

Case studies
Collaborations with independent clients and agencies alike have resulted in a diverse body of work. The projects below exemplify my unique ideas and approaches, adaptable style and design capabilities.

Worldwide Events: Corporate branding

Worldwide Events: Corporate branding
The Rocks, Sydney: District branding | Part 1

The Rocks, Sydney: District branding | Part 1
Darling Harbour, Sydney: District branding | Part 2

Darling Harbour, Sydney: District branding | Part 2
Central Kitchen: Multi-franchise branding

Central Kitchen: Multi-franchise branding
Sotheby's: Publication design

Sotheby's: Publication design
On The Edge: Social media campaigns

On The Edge: Social media campaigns
Various: Corporate reporting

Various: Corporate reporting
Various: Brand identities and guidelines

Various: Brand identities and guidelines
Various: Campaigns and advertising

Various: Campaigns and advertising

To see more work visit gallery on Instagram

Clients

Broad knowledge and experience
Having worked with clients from startups to UK household names/global brands, I’m adept at producing multi-channel brand and communication solutions across a diverse range of industry sectors.

Agencies

Insights, learning and collaborations
I work with leading brand, design, advertising and reporting agencies as a freelance Senior Designer; developing my understanding of best-of-breed strategies and creative approaches along the way.

  • Two Annual Report seasons as a freelance Senior Designer. Working across corporate reporting, brand and communications with clients including Air Astana (aviation); Cadent (energy); Polyus (mining), Reclaim Fund Limited (charity), SMS (energy) and Marelli (automotive).

  • One Annual Report season working on a range of corporate and sustainability reports for clients including Allianz and Youngs pubs.

  • A digital brand identity system for Vodafone. Web and social media campaign rollouts in multiple languages. Previously worked at The Partners as a freelance Senior Designer on international brand rollouts.

  • Freelance Senior Designer support across brand and communications. Working with clients including AQA and Universtiy of Reading (education), Peaboy (property) and Colas (transport infrastructure).

  • Freelance Senior Designer working on Shell brand development and retail graphics and GSK communications.

  • Freelance Senior Designer role creating brands and corporate communications for the recruitment and property sectors.

  • Freelance Senior Designer role working on branding and communications for the property sector.

  • Freelance Senior Designer role over a 3 year period, working on branding and communications for a wide range of clients, including Reckitt (consumer goods) and Coty (multinational beauty).

Testimonials

  • Elen joined our team as a freelance Senior Designer for the 2022 reporting season and we were delighted to have her back for the 2023 season. She was excellent: highly creative, versatile, and produced some fantastic work for Instinctif ranging from annual reports to branding and beyond. Elen is a pleasure to work with, she has the right attitude and work ethic and is always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

    Serena Choudhury: Associate Partner

  • Elen worked with us on a number of key property focused projects: in particular a fully integrated marketing communications campaign for The Levers, a major redevelopment project in Elephant and Castle on behalf of Peabody, and ongoing marketing collateral for L&Q, including hoardings, press advertising and web/social media campaigns.

    She is conscientious, has a personable can-do attitude, a great eye for detail and is adept at taking on projects from concept to artwork: a great asset to any busy studio.

    Jason Bannister: Head of Design

  • Elen is an extremely capable and thoughtful senior creative with many years experience of clients, industries and disciplines to draw upon. She is diligent and challenges the brief to ensure she can come up with good answers to what can be sometimes complicated and intangible briefs(!). She has high standards of design and aesthetics, so will always aim for a great idea and a well executed one to boot.

    Brigid McMullen: Managing Director

  • We’ve worked with Elen on our Dam Sum and Central Kitchen restaurant ventures in Brussels for seven years; as our go-to branding designer. Starting with our Dam Sum Chinese Restaurant chain, she also branded our second key restaurant venture: Can Tho, focusing on Vietnamese cuisine. As we developed our offering into digital restaurant solutions, she created the Damn Damn Noodles and BimBamBoum digital brands. Finally, when we needed an umbrella brand to unify our organisation, we turned to Elen for her understanding of communicating to a corporate market. She thus was behind the Central Kitchen 360 branding drive.

    As a design partner we’d describe her as inventive, collaborative, having a hands-on, can do attitude – with a flair for producing work which not only answer our briefs, but aid us in pushing innovative, new creative directions with confidence. To summarise, she has been an instrumental asset to our brand’s development and we recommend her highly, including for international projects.

    Damien Toulouse: Managing Director

  • I have worked with Elen for a number of years on various branding projects and found her to be exceptionally creative and she goes more than the extra mile to deliver outstanding solutions that are quality driven, way above much of what I’ve ever seen before from other branding specialists.

    Any client or agency that benefits from Elen’s exceptional talent will take their business in a direction that they might not have thought possible!

    Doug Barber: Managing Director

  • I recommend working with Elen highly. Elen manages to balance a strong opinion on design (and strategy) alongside a softness and flexibility to work collaboratively in a highly dynamic team environment. My team really enjoys working with Elen (as do I). Elen brings creativity, care, commitment and a maverick spirit - all of which have been integral to the success of the genre-breaking graphic novel and guided novel [Re]Start: It's Never Too Late.

    James Pattinson: Managing Director

Approach

Flexible and open-minded
I’m open to working remote, hybrid or on-site and I love teaming up with visionary clients/agencies alike. My goal is to continually maintain the highest standards in order to produce great work we can be collectively proud of.

News

  • Samuel Hall: Rebrand and website

    Brave is delighted to announce a new collaboration with Samuel Hall, a Globally renowned research organisation focusing on migration and displacement, with a mission to connect local voices to changemakers.

  • Ericsson Corporate Reporting

    It’s been a pleasure to recently collaborate with Harleys Design in Clevedon; providing additional resource on numerous projects, but primarily getting to know the Ericsson brand and supporting on report design.

  • Dowry Square: Brand and website

    Utilising Brave’s district branding experience, the goal is to help put Dowry Square, Bristol, literally on the map: promoting its historical interest and community activities as an inspiration for other Bristol areas to follow suit.

  • Pawz: A global app for dog lovers

    It’s exciting to work with ventures in their infancy. Pawz is a concept with a compelling brand story behind it and I’ve advised on top level strategy, brand direction and advertising to date. Developments to follow!

  • Granger Reis: Communications

    Working with the wonderful team at Halo, Bristol, Brave has helped design a key corporate presentation for a leading recruitment organisation: evolving strategy, messaging and visual language for the year ahead.

  • Fish Tales: Restaurant branding

    A much-loved Clifton village restaurant, formally known as New Moon Tapas, has undergone a change of direction this year and Brave has helped with brand, assets including menu designs, advertising and promotions.

Contact

Got a project in mind?

Let’s have a chat. Feel free to email/call directly. Alternatively, please fill in the enquiry form on the right. Brave new collaborators welcome!

Phone: +44 (0)117 251 0217
Mobile: +44 (0)7780 677 042
Email: elen@bravecreative.uk

Location:
9 Dowry Square,
Bristol, BS8 4SH

 

Studio Brave LTD trading as ‘Brave’. Registered in England and Wales: Company No. 07103751. Registered address: 9 Dowry Square, Bristol, UK, BS8 4SH.