Kat Tromans is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer who primarily creates work for retail, fashion, education and lifestyle brands. Based in Birmingham, UK her previous clients include Primark, BusyBees nurseries, Seasalt Cornwall and Backyard Cinema. In addition to her career as a designer, Kat specialises in watercolour illustrations, taking commissions for custom paintings and selling prints online. When she takes a break in her busy schedule, Kat loves to travel and often creates beautifully detailed watercolour maps of the places she has visited.
After graduating with a degree in illustration, Kat started her career as a freelance illustrator creating hand painted greetings cards and had her work published in various editorial commissions for fashion magazines. In order to add graphic design to her skills set, Kat went on to complete an internship at a creative marketing agency. This provided her with the portfolio and experience needed to spend the next few years working as a designer and illustrator in various different design agencies. Eventually, Kat decided to return to freelance life and set up as Kat Tromans Studio, so that she could concentrate on the projects that inspire her most.
As Kat specialises in both illustration and graphic design, client projects can vary greatly and this variety is something she really enjoys. The handcrafted watercolour illustrations she produces are highly detailed and labour intensive to produce, in contrast to the vector illustrations she usually creates for design briefs. For her watercolour commissions, Kat usually grants fixed term licenses to the client for use of her illustration work across advertising and marketing campaigns.
We chatted to Kat to find out more about how her career has developed and dividing her time between being a designer and illustrator.
How did you first become interested in working as an illustrator/designer?
I’ve always wanted to be an illustrator/designer for as long as I can remember. I started drawing from around the age of around 13 and I had a lot of encouragement from my mum growing up because she was an art teacher. At school there was a lot of emphasis that art was a difficult career to get into and that there were very few jobs in the industry. This meant that from the outset I had to choose a creative career which would be viable career option, which is why I started to think about graphic design and illustration.
Can you tell us about your career path of how you got to where you are now?
I studied Illustration BA (Hons) at the Arts University Bournemouth and graduated in 2011. It was just after the recession and there were hardly any jobs available – I remember feeling quite lost! Although university had given me plenty of time to hone my practice as an illustrator, it hadn’t really prepared me for that step into the industry, especially the business side. A lot of that ‘figuring out’ had to come on my own by doing placements, applying for jobs and asking for feedback until I knew what direction I wanted to take. Initially, I worked as freelance fashion illustrator and my work was published in fashion editorials for both Elle and Company magazines. I did some work for the clothing brands Roxy and Animal, as well as having shows in London and exhibiting paintings with Curious Duke Gallery. Eventually, I was hired as a part-time freelance greetings card designer in Nottingham and did other part-time jobs with a view to find a permanent job in illustration as I wanted something more stable.
I’d always wanted to pursue graphic design and felt I would benefit from doing an internship as a way into a full-time job. I completed four months at Big Cat creative agency in Birmingham, which gave me a portfolio and led to securing my first permanent design and illustration role at retail marketing agency MADISONSOHO. I spent four years there, then moved onto a strategic branding agency, before deciding to continue my career as a freelance designer and setting up Kat Tromans Studio.
How have you grown over time and developed throughout your career?
I’ve spent 9 years in the industry now and I’ve learnt a lot from working alongside other designers who have taught me so much. When it came to working for myself, it took a while to process and evaluate where I would go next…
Once I left my permanent positions as illustrator and designer, I had to take a step back to find my personal style. Working as an illustrator in an agency is very different to being an independent illustrator – in an agency you have to be very adaptable to each client’s brief, and so it took me some time to disassociate that and get back to producing work in my own style.
Nowadays, I spend half my time working as freelance illustrator on traditional watercolour illustrations, and the rest of the time as a graphic designer. As a designer I work on a range of commercial projects including branding, packaging, campaigns, print and digital.
What do you enjoy most about being an illustrator/designer?
I’m always excited to get to work – I love working in a job that I’m passionate about.
How has being a woman impacted your career?
I’d like to hope there haven’t been too many instances where it has affected me negatively – I can’t think of anything that stands out to me. My colleagues have always been very supportive.
Recently, I did secure work because I’m a female designer. The project was for a woman’s sports team, Central Sparks cricket team and they felt it was important that it should be a woman designer who worked on their branding. The marketing lead was also appreciative that our industry may face similar struggles for females as the sports industry.
In your experience, do you think there is equality and diversity across the design industry today?
There is now a realisation that more needs to be done to bring women into the industry and more opportunities need to be created to allow women to progress into senior positions. Again, there needs to be more of a focus on diversity and inclusiveness in general. There is a very dominant demographic of designer across this industry, and with the recent movements regarding diversity we are starting to see some of that being shaken up, ‘Where Are The Black Designers’ is a good account to follow for conversations around this.
If you could go back to the beginning and start your career again what would tell your younger self?
Don’t stress about your twenties. You don’t have to have it all figured out, you will keep growing and learning throughout your career.
Do you have any words of advice for women considering a career in design today?
Things are changing for the better, it is only with more women joining the industry we can start to make impactful changes. We need you!
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
5 years seems a long way, away! But I’m hoping I’ll be doing more of the same because I’m quite content with how things are going at the moment.
Which female artist has inspired you the most?
I’ve always been interested in following Yayoi Kusama’s life story and how she brings her art therapy and mental health into her work. She’s a really fascinating and talented artist and I’ve tried to go to as many shows as I can! But I think seeing her work in Japan was a highlight for me.
Which female illustrator has inspired you the most?
Growing up I was always inspired by the technical aspects of painting and worked on becoming a better painter. Cicely Mary Barker who painted the Flower Fairies was someone who I used to love in my teens, I would spend hours trying to analyse her work and practicing painting with my art teacher to try and get the layering right. In the last few years, I’ve brushed up on my painting and took an intensive botanical painting course which I feel has been really beneficial.
Follow:
To see more of Kat’s amazing work visit: