James Frewin - Portfolio 2020

About me

I'm James Frewin, a British freelance designer and photographer specialising in user interfaces - mostly consumer social, entertainment and service mobile apps.

Born in Oxford, England. Now based in London.

My career in numbers so far

26

7

300m+

4

13

years old

years working with startups

times my work has been viewed

awards received

years as a designer

Work

A quick preview of some recent projects

TRIM-IT

Lead Designer

IMAGEN Gen-Z Insights

Lead Designer

Coastr

Lead Designer

BKWAI Construction Software

Lead Designer

I was probably about 12 or 13 when I first started designing websites (and then apps shortly followed) initially working with some of the early British YouTubers (KSIOlajidebt, Oakelfish, ROSSI1990 amongst others) designing channel artwork and thumbnails.

Since then I've been fortunate enough to work with companies like Google, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Unilever, YikYak, Atlantic Records and more.

I currently work as a Freelance Designer, an Advisor for Tech Startups and Venture Capital Scout for Seed-Investment fund Backed VC.

I'm a super passionate designer who loves both big picture visions and tiny pixel-level details. I'm definitely an extrovert  who benefits from being around equally  passionate and driven people - I love what I do  and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities  I get and the people I get to do them with.

TRIM-IT

TRIM-IT is a mobile barbershop service based in London.

I worked with the TRIM-IT team to design a mobile app experience that matched the level of service that their users get in-person.

I met TRIM-IT founder Darren Tenkorang two years before we worked together as he was a member of an Entrepreneurs Community I was co-running in London for Diverse and BIPOC Founders.

View Breakdown on Instagram →

Or check it out on Figma

My thoughts on design have always been the following:

1. You don't need to be Facebook, Spotify or Airbnb to create great products.

2. You don't have to compromise on either visuals or usability. Even as a small team.

3. The user expects the same high standard in every product they use.
Including yours.

4. Everything can be improved. Marginal gains add up to a significant difference.

5. Don't wait for "finished". Release and iterate.

Community Management

Another recent project I worked on was a community hosting app, a method for allowing creators or anyone with a large audience to "own" the community themselves rather than hosting it on a third party site like Facebook groups.

It would give them the ability to customise, personalise and monetise their audience.

I identified the need having managed multiple communities myself across Whatsapp, Slack and Facebook Groups and designed screens for an MVP.

Coastr

A quick COVID-accelerated project to beat Deliveroo and Uber Eats to market with Table Service and integrated contact tracing.