Emma Charleston is a Lecturer on MA Design for Data Visualisation and BA (Hons) User Experience Design at London College of Communication. She is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Researcher, who has been working in industry since 2011, with a particular focus on the Education, Charity and Arts Sectors.
After gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Graphic Design from the University of Brighton in 2010, she went on to work for over a decade as an in-house designer in the international education sector, giving her a particular understanding and interest in the challenges and opportunities of international study. Her practice in this role spanned everything from advertising and branding right through to classroom materials, illustration, web design, and directional signage.
She continues to work freelance on design, branding and illustration for a wide variety of clients, with a particular focus on educational materials. She sets aside a proportion of her client time for working at reduced rates with small, regional charities, including alcohol and drug support organisations, LGBTQI+ organisations, prisoners rights groups and more. She is passionate about the role design can play in activist movements.
From 2021 to 2024, Emma worked as Design and Research lead at Geeks For Social Change, a small tech and research studio. Bringing together the passion of activism, the rigour of academia, and the capabilities of tech, the studio pioneered a unique approach to tackling social justice issues. Their work spanned topics including trans liberation, anti-racism, mutual aid and environmental justice. She remains as Company Director of GFSC’s pioneering community calendar software PlaceCal.
In 2021, Emma completed her MA in Graphic Media Design at LCC. Her personal research focus is on placemaking and public space, with a particular interest in public transit and infrastructure, and their impact on communities.
Since 2022, she has been teaching at UAL across the Design and Media schools. In January 2025 she gained her PG Cert qualification, and Advance HE Fellowship.
Emma’s personal practice includes zine and print making, using riso, letterpress, lino printing, and other analogue processes. She tables at zine fairs across the UK, and sells her zines and prints in shops and online. In her spare time, she volunteers as a listener at anti-suicide charity Samaritans, litter picks in her little corner of South London, hikes around the outer edges of the city, and works on her daily visual diary project, in which she has created an illustration every day since 2013.
Website: emmacharleston.co.uk Instagram: @emma_wedi_creu