Meet Emma Birch, one of Management Today’s 35 under 35. 

By Niamh Campbell – Senior Account Manager

If you are a young designer at the start of your career, looking for a role model to inspire you, you don’t need to look any further than Cavendish’s Emma Birch.  

Emma joined Cavendish in 2021 as a Senior Designer and has gone from strength to strength ever since. She is now our Art Director and was recently named as one of Management Today’s 35 women under 35, and we couldn’t be prouder.  

Her journey to this point has been one mainly driven by a desire to help support the future generations of creatives and we caught up with Emma to hear all about it. 

Tell us about how your career started Emma? 

Emma: My own career path is one that’s taken a few twists and turns. I first started with small internal print agencies and then moved on to designing for a range of magazine titles under one of the UK’s largest publishers before moving to Cavendish. Each role has been so different, but I was determined to really master the craft of design in each of the sectors I worked in, and I’ve been able to bring this knowledge with me into my current role and mentorship. 

You’re Cavendish’s Art Director, tell us more about that? 

Emma: My role is really quite fun, because literally no two days are the same. I work particularly closely with Charli, our Creative Director, on bringing creativity to the forefront of all the projects we work on and getting the best ideas out of our team. We’ve been really busy with our brand offer, especially over the last 18 months, where I’ve helped direct some amazing brands for client sectors across social housing, renewable energy, engineering societies, and going back a bit, even played a role in Cavendish’s own rebrand. With Mark and our Video team, I’ve worked on everything from TV ads to tear-jerker animations that has led us to upwards of 12 awards, including Best Creative Strategy and Best Use of Digital and Video, and the hard work really shows! For our most recent client satisfaction survey, we scored 99% for creativity, which we’re all incredibly proud of. 

Emma is a great colleague to work with and an inspiration to those who have had the pleasure of meeting her.

Mark Darlington, Head of Video at Cavendish

How important is it to share your passion with others? 

Emma: I think if you are passionate about something, you can do so much good by sharing your passion with those who are also keen to learn. Personal development has always been so important to me, at every stage of my career. At Cavendish I’m able to lead lunch-and-learn sessions and cross-discipline training to encourage creativity across the various teams. It’s wonderful to see what can be unlocked when people are given the time, space and freedom to think creatively and collaborate with those around them.  

You light up when you talk about supporting others, especially those at the start of their career. Tell us about your work with Solent University?  

Emma: I feel so strongly that university courses should reflect the real world of design, and we should be doing everything possible to prepare students to be designers, have the ability to answer client briefs and collaborate with others in and out of studios. I regularly share industry insights with lecturers and students; to help make sure the course reflects the realities of today’s creative landscape and the students can be as prepared as possible on graduation day. 

I’ve built up quite a strong relationship with Solent University in particular, supporting with things like portfolio review days, and even setting the brief for one of their units on the Graphic Design course. We gave them a reworked version of one of our live briefs that really pushed them into sectors they’ve probably never thought to design for, challenged them to base their design on a degree of research and psychology, and just tried to get them working as closely to a real-life example of a workflow as possible, even so much as having to present a pitch to myself as the ‘client’.  

It really opened up a level of creativity in the students I think even they were surprised they had, and I just think that kind of learning in those formative years is invaluable; you can design the most amazing concepts, but if you can’t sell it to your client, it will all be for nothing, so it’s important they develop these skills too and we are delighted to be able to facilitate this through Cavendish. 

The world needs more powerful creative women, and Emma is going all the way to the top, I’m very proud of her resilience, attitude and passion for creativity, but more importantly, I am in awe of her ability to rise to her potential every time an opportunity arises.

Charli Edwards, Creative Director at Cavendish.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate with your work and mentorship responsibilities. What else have you got lined up for the future? 

Emma: It’s busy, but it’s amazing. This type of work is what gets me out of bed in the morning and knowing I am helping the next generation, and even the team internally really leverage their creativity is really rewarding. We have plenty more collaborative events planned for the future, both internally within our Creative team and externally, bringing Solent University students into our Southampton office for a full-day workshop. I’m excited to see what the next cohort will bring to it, I’ve no doubt they will inspire me for my client work. 

Emma’s approach to taking her own passion for development within her craft and helping draw that same passion out of others helps set her apart as a promising future leader within the industry.  

Emma has been instrumental in driving forward our Future Talent initiative with local universities in Portsmouth and Southampton for creative talent. Young talent is fundamental to our evolution as a business, and its importance should never be underestimated. Emma should be proud of the true passion she has for this. 

Samantha Clough, Executive Director at Cavendish.