Shillo Stories: Gemma Purkiss
Date
Mar 31, 2025
Hi, I'm Gemma. As a multi-disciplinary designer, I blend lateral thinking and creativity to craft captivating brand identities, engaging digital assets and stunning print materials. I've worked across fintech, SaaS and film but outdoors is where my true passion lies.
I'm a passionate walker, finding inspiration and problem-solving on dirt paths. This outdoor exploration fuels my creativity, enhances access to my flow state and allows me to sit and observe the incubation state between ideas and implementation. I then bring transformative energy to my design work
Inspiring me
Creative Quests. Over the past two years I've been on two month-long quests with a group of strangers all around the globe. It has been an empowering and exciting journey that has led me down many rabbit holes and ignited passions and connections in a digital realm. I highly recommend everyone checking out Creative Quests, especially as they have some exciting projects launching later this year.
On reflection
The biggest moment for me wasn't when I quit my full-time job I had while I was at Shillington (part-time, 2018), in order to go freelance. On reflection, that was very impatient of me! The most significant moment was joining an in-house team who were unbelievably supportive and excited about design. I was unfortunately made redundant from that dream role but still continue to work with the team and they give me the drive and energy to try new things and bring them into the world to share with others.
What's cooking?
I wrote a book! It's a book containing over 100 photographs, 6 hand drawn maps and 20+ illustrations – all beautifully Swiss bound. What excites me most about this project is that I wanted to produce a book about a journey I took. It transformed into a book about empowering readers to go on their own adventures by giving them the tools they need to get fit and learn how to navigate with digital apps.