My name is Nicola Longland and I am a web designer based in Cheshire, England.

This site is put together by me, myself and I, to share with you, my creative skills and interests together with my portfolio and blog section which will be updated on a regular basis.

I always knew from an early age that I would be heavily involved in design. From such a young age, I was always encouraged by my dad to head in the career direction of what I enjoyed and not necessarily what I was good at. This was the most valuable piece of advice I could have had and it has paid off as it has made me who I am today and I am in a job that I wake up everyday and want to go to work!

Throughout my school years I always had a passion for painting, drawing and practical work. I knew that this was what I wanted to carry forward for a career. I started this by taking a two year National Diploma course in Graphic Design, then followed another two years and completed a HND in Graphic Design. My final major project opened doors for a couple of freelance jobs for a theatre company in Leeds. This was a good opportunity for me as I gained experience in liaising with the client and delivering beyond their expectations.

From here, I proceeded to a job in the printing industry. I worked alongside 4 graphic designers in a studio within a printers for 18 months where I learnt about the process of CTP. I also gained more experience with liaising with major clients like Bentley, THE, Tatton Park, Stapely Water Gardens, The Post Office and many more. Keeping to corporate guidelines for selected clients was a fun challenge.

I was then lucky enough to be offered a job to work for The Hut Group in March 2008. The Hut Group provides white label e-commerce solutions for large retail websites. Clients include; ASDA, LOVEFiLM, Curry’s, Dixon’s, PC World, MBNA and many more. TheHut.com was selected for the Sunday Times Tech Track Business Award 2008 and achieved 8th place nationally and 1st place in the North. This is a huge achievement for the company and we are all working together to keep up the good work. I created the artwork for the Tech Track Awards, which was featured in the Sunday Times Newspaper in September 2008. I have gained a lot of knowledge about the design and building process of web sites and finished a freelance website in September 2008, that I designed and built from scratch - www.southwestlocums.com. I love this job as everyday I learn something new, whether it is for HTML, CSS or even new techniques in photoshop and illustrator. I love all the challenges and opportunities that TheHut can give me.

Im my spare time, I enjoy doing abstract canvas paintings for myself and others. I have completed several sets which you can see in my portfolio section. If you would like me to create you an individual, one of a kind canvas painting, don’t hesitate to contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

I got to where I am today by working really hard to achieve my goals in life and I am looking forward to what the future will bring.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy the rest of my site.