My Tenure at the NDA Foundation
My journey at the NDA Foundation has been one of continuous learning, professional development, and impactful contributions to the organisation's digital and design landscape. Hired initially as a Graphic Design Intern, I quickly became an integral part of the team, earning a full-time position within six months. Over the years, my role evolved from Graphic Designer to Digital Designer, reflecting my growing expertise in UX/UI, digital strategy, and brand experience.
As a Graphic Designer, I played a key role in developing course content, particularly for the NMA’s Business School Master’s programmes, taking on instructional design tasks to enhance the student learning experience. Alongside this, I worked closely with the marketing team, producing social media assets, brand campaigns, and digital strategies for all brands under the NDA Foundation umbrella.
In February 2024, my role shifted towards a digital-first focus taking on the title of Digital Designer, where I took a leading position of the entire student journey, from lead capture and onboarding to ongoing student engagement and alumni experience. With a strong emphasis on UX and UI design, I now create, test, and optimise digital assets across websites, social media, advertising, eCommerce, and online learning platforms. This role demands an innovative, ambitious approach to digital development, requiring me to stay up-to-date with the latest UX/UI trends, design systems, and cutting-edge software.
Training & Skill Development
One of the most valuable aspects of working at NDA Foundation has been the emphasis on continuous learning. Throughout my tenure, I was encouraged to develop new skills, expanding my expertise across various areas of design, development and integration of AI technologies:
3D Scene Creation – Focused on Interior Design and immersive learning content
Design & Motion Graphics – Enhanced skills in Adobe XD, Premiere Pro, and After Effects
Digital Development – Hands-on experience in HTML email development and Figma design systems
CRM & Automation – Trained in ActiveCampaign to improve student communication workflows
AI & Emerging Technologies – Completed OpenAI’s Prompt Engineering course by Andrew Ng and Isa Fulford
Notable Achievements & Projects
Throughout my time at NDA Foundation, I have led and contributed to numerous projects, making a lasting impact on the organisation.
Key Achievements:
Print Advertisement for the National Motorsport Academy – Designed multiple series’ of high-impact print campaigns for industry and student engagement.
Active Campaign Implementation – Led the development and optimisation of Active Campagin, the organisations new CRM system, key takeaways from this project include the launch of the new enquiry and course interested in system.
3D Course Content Environments – Developed immersive 360 degree digital learning assets to improve student’s ability to understand complex lighting environments.
Overhaul of the NDA’s ‘Understanding Ethics Procedures’ Workspace – Redesigned the internal learning resource for student compliance and ethics training inline with resources from De Montfort University. This overhaul took the existing externally hosted platform and brought it in house, with the goal to increase relevancy to Interior Design students, simplifying the process of obtaining ethical approval.
Brand-Led Landing Pages – Creation of multiple high-converting pages for key events and marketing campaigns. This work covered both the National Design Academy and National Motorsport Academy. Visit "Kickstart Your Career" - an event landing page designed to showcase the NMA’s courses and to promote users to register their interest.
Figma Training & Development for Interns and Wider Creative & Marketing Team – Mentored members of staff in the basics of Figma all the way up to more complex ideas such as design systems and responsive UI principles. This training was continuous throughout my tenure at the NDA Foundation however a focused 8-week programme was delivered in spring of 2024 seeing great success.
Development of NDA Foundation Brand Systems – Acted as a guardian and developer of the brand establishing consistent, efficient, and scalable brand guidelines across all departments. This system utilised Figma as a central hub for resources advising both the Creative and Marketing teams.
Brainstorm & Brews Development Days – Played a key role in team ideation sessions, driving project briefs and taking a forward position in creative and marketing strategies.
Course Content Generation – Took ownership of multiple course creation projects across the NDA Foundation brands, most specifically working on the NMA’s Business of Motorsport Master’s Degree, working on the project from it’s initial creation in 2021 to it’s new delivery system overhaul at the end of 2023.
Race Engineer of the Year – Led the creation of this annual competition for motorsport engineering students and graduates (running since 2022). The project involved a full scale campaign from promotion across multiple touchpoints, web design and development, CRM integration for signups and automated user journeys to manage the experience throughout the competition.
E-Sports Driver of the Year – Similar to Race Engineer of the Year the NMA launched an e-Sim racing league to find the best sim racer at the NMA. I led the creation of this competition mimicking the success of the Race Engineer of the Year format. The competition was a great success in 2024 getting good-turn outs for online e-Sim races. In 2025 we re-developed the format with the goal to make the competition more accessible and plan to widen the competition past just NMA students and graduates. While the competition is still in development, our goal with this format shift is to take a world-tour approach allowing users to register for individual virtual races at the most famous tracks across the globe.
Expanding My Role & Leadership
During my position as Digital Designer, my responsibilities expanded further, taking on project leadership and decision-making roles. I became more involved in staff management and cross-department collaboration, ensuring that design played a central role in shaping business decisions and student experiences.
My ability to assess, analyse, and solve business challenges has allowed me to work beyond just design, applying a strategic mindset to improve processes, enhance efficiency, and elevate user experience.
Final Reflections
My time at the NDA Foundation has played a large role in shaping my career, providing me with the skills, experience, and confidence to lead projects and drive digital innovation. I have been fortunate to work in an environment that has not only supported my growth as a designer, but also encouraged me to explore new technologies, strategies, and leadership opportunities.
I take pride in the work I have accomplished, from improving student engagement to creating new brand experiences. The NDA Foundation has allowed me to learn, lead, and innovate, and I look forward to applying these experiences to future challenges in my career.
