About

A designer who reads
the sales figures.

I work across the full customer journey - from the first paid ad someone sees, to the emails that bring them back, to the product page where they finally buy.

Portrait placeholder of Marlena Kaminska

I'm a digital designer with in-house experience across retail and lifestyle brands. My background covers CRM and email design - including Klaviyo flows and campaigns - ecommerce and landing page design, branding, art direction and campaign creative.

Working in-house taught me things agency work often doesn't: how trading calendars actually run, how design decisions show up in performance data, and how to keep a brand consistent when ten things launch in the same week.

I care equally about the craft and the outcome. A good email is beautiful and drives clicks. A good product page builds the brand and converts. That overlap - between visual taste and commercial thinking - is where I do my best work.

Outside of design, I'm happiest with a long walk, a strong coffee, and a shop window worth stopping for.

How I work

Four principles.

01

Start with the customer, not the canvas

Every design has a job to do for a real person on the other side of the screen. I design the outcome first, then make it beautiful.

02

Consistency is a feature

A brand earns trust by showing up the same way everywhere. I build systems, not one-offs - so quality holds at volume.

03

Commercial and creative aren't opposites

The best-performing work is usually the best-looking work. I don't trade one for the other; I look for where they meet.

04

Show the thinking

Good design decisions have reasons. I can explain every one in terms of the brand, the customer, or the numbers.

Key skills

What I bring.

Ecommerce design
Mobile-First Design, UX/UI Design, Wireframing, Conversion Rate Optimisation
CRM
Email Marketing, Automated Email Flows, Customer Journeys, Paid Social Creative, Display Advertising, Amazon A+ Content
Content & imagery
Image Manipulation, Lifestyle Imagery, AI-Generated (Product) Imagery, Art Direction, Photoshoot Planning, Digital Asset Management
Platforms & tools
Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects, Figma, Magento 2, Adobe Commerce, Hyvä, Klaviyo, Ometria, Cloudinary (DAM), Excel, Word, Trello
Project delivery
Creative Project Management, End-to-End Project Delivery, Stakeholder Management, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Design QA, Developer Handover, Brand Guidelines, Campaign Planning
Professional experience

In-house, and proud of it.

Lead Digital Designer
ValueLights, Irlam
Dec 2021 – Present
  • Planned and delivered seasonal campaigns, product launches and key trading moments across website, CRM, paid media and organic social.
  • Designed and built responsive homepages, landing pages, content blocks and product carousels directly in Magento 2 and Hyvä.
  • Created website concepts, wireframes and responsive layouts in Figma, applying UX/UI principles to develop commercially focused customer journeys.
  • Led the migration from Ometria to Klaviyo, rebuilding retail and B2B campaign templates and automated welcome, browse abandonment, basket abandonment and post-purchase journeys.
  • Produce weekly and monthly CRM performance reports.
  • Created static and video assets for paid and organic social, adapting campaigns across placements, formats and audiences.
  • Retouched product and lifestyle photography and create ecommerce composites, Amazon A+ content and multi-channel assets using Adobe Creative Suite.
  • Used AI-assisted workflows to generate commercial product and lifestyle imagery, create product variations, extend backgrounds and accelerate production.
  • Planned seasonal photoshoots, contribute to art direction and ensure imagery meets ecommerce, CRM, paid media, social and PR requirements and budget.
  • Conduct creative and technical QA across Magento and Klaviyo, identifying responsive layout, caching, product feed, event tracking and dynamic image issues.
  • Collaborate with the Buying Team to create commercially effective home and garden packaging aligned with brand and sustainability requirements.
  • Delivered the Minisun Trade to ValueLights Trade rebrand across website, CRM and customer communications.
  • Led a ValueLights brand refresh covering colour, typography, tone of voice and campaign design, and created company-wide photography guidelines.
  • Previously managed and mentored a Graduate Designer, supporting their development and coordinating project delivery.
Digital Designer
LSE Retail Group Limited, Eccles
Jul 2017 – Dec 2021
  • Developed creative concepts and designs aligned with commercial briefs and brand guidelines.
  • Presented design concepts to stakeholders, incorporating feedback through to final approval.
  • Collaborated with creative and marketing teams to deliver consistent multichannel campaigns.
  • Worked with external suppliers, including printers, to deliver production-ready artwork.
Education
  • BA (Hons) Interior DesignManchester Metropolitan University · 2017
  • BTEC Art & DesignWalkden College · 2014
Certifications & development
  • HTML & CSSXChange Training · 2023
  • HTML & CSS Advanced TrainingXChange Training · 2023
Let's talk