Kimberley Nugent on Graphic Design, Print & Saying Yes to New Opportunities & Growth | The Mag Lounge Podcast

When Kimberley Nugent joined us for the latest episode of The Mag Lounge Podcast, we spoke about a creative career shaped by taking opportunities, trying new things and learning along the way.

Now a freelance graphic designer, magazine art director, lecturer and founder of her own creative businesses, Kimberley’s journey has taken her from the North East to London and back again, through independent publishing houses, Cosmopolitan, River Island, freelance design and teaching.

What connects every stage is a love of creativity and print that began long before she knew it could become a career. In this episode, Kimberley reflects on the people who encouraged her, the risks that helped her grow and why saying yes to opportunities has often led her somewhere unexpected.

Where a Love of Print Begins

Long before Kimberley knew she wanted to become a graphic designer, she loved magazines. As a teenager, she remembers saving her pocket money to buy titles including Shout, Mizz and More, taking them home to read and keeping hold of the copies she loved.

For Kimberley, magazines offered something beyond the content on their pages. There was a sense of community in picking up something that spoke directly to her interests while knowing other readers felt the same way.

“It felt like they were speaking just to me, but also to other people with the same interests.”

That connection with print stayed with her, even before she knew it could become a career. At school, art and design were always the subjects that gave her the most freedom, but it was a design technology teacher who first introduced her to graphic design. A simple suggestion to consider it as a career planted a seed that would eventually influence everything that followed.

Taking the Leap to London

Kimberley’s journey into the creative industries wasn’t completely straightforward. After initially following her friends into sixth form, she quickly realised she wasn’t where she wanted to be. She left after a year and moved to art college in Middlesbrough to study graphic design and photography, a decision that immediately felt right.

Another tutor later encouraged her to consider Kingston University in London.

At first, Kimberley questioned whether she was good enough and whether moving so far away from home was the right decision. She applied anyway, got in and took what would become one of the biggest leaps of her career.

Moving to London meant leaving her family, friends and comfort zone behind, but it also opened the door to eight years of experience that would shape the designer she became.

“It was definitely a challenge, but one that I’m so glad that I took.”

After university came internships and eventually her first role at a small publishing house in Camden. Kimberley describes being thrown in at the deep end, learning by watching others, asking questions and figuring things out as she went. That willingness to learn became a recurring part of her career.

From Reading Cosmopolitan to Designing It

One of Kimberley’s biggest career moments came when she spotted an advert for a junior designer at Cosmopolitan. Her first reaction was, “I’ll never get that,” but she applied anyway.

Despite the imposter syndrome that came with applying to work for a magazine she had grown up reading, Kimberley got the job.

Suddenly, she was part of a much larger publishing world, working alongside art directors, picture editors, fashion teams, beauty teams and other creatives to bring each issue together. It was a completely different experience from her earlier roles and taught her the importance of creative collaboration.

During the podcast, Kimberley revisits one of the first issues she worked on, a February 2014 edition featuring Khloé Kardashian on the cover and, for the first time, her own name in the masthead. It is a lovely full-circle moment for someone who had grown up reading magazines herself.

Knowing When It’s Time to Move On

While Kimberley was working at Cosmopolitan, conversations around the future of magazines were beginning to change. Social media was growing, publishing was becoming increasingly digital and there was constant discussion about whether print could survive. Rather than ignore that shift, Kimberley decided to learn from it.

She moved into a digital design role at River Island, adding websites, emails, blogs and social media to a skillset that until then had largely centred around print.

It meant stepping away from the industry she loved for a while, but it also made her a more adaptable designer. Eventually, another change began to feel necessary.

After around eight years in London, Kimberley started thinking about what came next. Her family and many of her friends were still in the North East, and she felt she had gained everything she had hoped to from living in London. 

“I did miss it so much and I just thought I’d got everything that I wanted out of London. It just felt like time to move on.”

Returning home gave Kimberley the opportunity to take everything she had learned in London and apply it within a different creative landscape. While London could feel oversaturated and competitive, Kimberley saw opportunity in the smaller, close-knit creative community of the North East.

Creating a Career on Her Own Terms

The next major shift came during the pandemic. Freelancing was something Kimberley had considered before, but the uncertainty around self-employment had held her back. As remote working became the norm, those barriers began to disappear and gave her the chance to build a career around the work she genuinely wanted to do.

That has allowed her to return to magazines as an art director for Hood Magazine, a Scottish fashion and lifestyle publication produced by a small team. It is a very different environment from the huge departments she experienced at Cosmopolitan, but the same principles of trust, communication and collaboration remain.

Freelancing has also given Kimberley space to develop her own ideas.

After her own wedding, she found herself with hundreds of photographs but no desire for a traditional wedding album. Her solution was naturally rooted in the format she loved most, so she designed her own magazine.

Filled with photographs and personal details including her dad’s speech and lyrics from her first dance, the finished piece became something she could keep and share with family. After seeing it, people began asking whether she could make one for them too.

That passion project eventually became Blue Moon Editions, creating bespoke wedding magazines that turn people’s memories into something physical to be picked up, kept and returned to.

From Student to Lecturer

There is another full-circle element to Kimberley’s story. Years after studying creative subjects herself, she now teaches the next generation of creatives at the Northern School of Art. It was not part of the original career plan, but like so many other stages of her journey, an opportunity appeared and Kimberley decided to give it a go.

Teaching allows her to share years of real industry experience while keeping her own thinking challenged and connected to new trends, ideas and ways of working.

Her advice to students reflects her own career. She encourages them to try different things, meet people and build connections rather than feeling they need to have their entire future figured out as soon as they graduate. Sometimes discovering what you do not want to do can be just as useful as finding the thing that fits.

Why Print Still Matters

Print runs through almost every stage of Kimberley’s story. The industry she entered more than a decade ago looks very different today, but she does not believe that means magazines are disappearing. Instead, she sees their role changing.

“I think these days it’s become much more of a luxury.”

Rather than existing separately from digital platforms, Kimberley sees modern magazines working alongside websites and social media while offering something physical that digital cannot replicate. Particularly within independent publishing, magazines are increasingly becoming objects people want to keep, revisit and collect.

It is something Kimberley understands both professionally and personally. From the magazines she saved as a teenager to the wedding publications she now creates through Blue Moon Editions, print has always been about having something worth keeping and returning to. That love also comes through in the magazines that inspire her today, including Little White Lies and Interview.

For a designer who has watched the industry move rapidly towards digital, Kimberley is optimistic about where print is heading next.

Looking Ahead

For Kimberley, the future is not about choosing one creative identity. She wants to continue designing magazines, developing her freelance work and teaching the next generation entering an industry that looks very different from the one she first stepped into.

There is also a growing sense of excitement around the North East creative community. Through teaching, events, workshops and co-working communities, Kimberley sees creatives increasingly coming together, sharing ideas and supporting one another. She also believes print itself is experiencing renewed momentum after years of predictions about its decline.

“I’m kind of feeling this new resurgence almost around print.”

For someone whose career began with saving pocket money for magazines, it feels like an exciting place to be.

Don’t Be an Island

As every episode of The Mag Lounge Podcast comes to a close, we ask our guests to leave one piece of advice for the next creative person listening.

For Kimberley, it comes back to something that has appeared throughout her entire journey: the importance of other people.

“Don’t try and see yourself as an island.”

Creativity can often feel individual, particularly when working freelance, but Kimberley believes the best work happens when different people and disciplines come together. Magazines are perhaps the perfect example, bringing designers, photographers, journalists, stylists and editors together to create something none of them could produce alone.

“I feel like we do our best work when we work together.”

It is a fitting end to a conversation shaped by the teachers who encouraged her, the teams she learned from, the communities she has joined and the students she now encourages herself.

Kimberley’s journey is a reminder that a creative career does not always need to follow one clear route, and sometimes saying yes to an opportunity is enough to shape what comes next.

To hear Kimberley’s full story, including her time at Cosmopolitan, the magazines that continue to inspire her and the experiences we haven’t spoiled here, watch the full episode on YouTube or Spotify.