13th January 2021

Work With Me Wednesdays – Day in the life of a… Senior Designer

A bit of a disclaimer before I get started: This is a typical day during lockdown… Back when the world wasn’t on fire my days were much more interesting and full of thrills and spills – I’ll write about those when some kind of normality resumes!
7:00 – WAKE UP!

I start my day off by scrabbling for my phone to check my emails so I’ve got a heads up on what my day/week will look like. Then I’ll quickly check Facebook for some unknown reason, Reddit for any design inspiration/football news, and finally, TikTok to waste 5 minutes before getting up…

8:00 – SIT DOWN

I’ll get ready for work and normally be sat down at my desk by 8 so I can properly catch up on emails and get a bit of a head start on any of the day’s projects before our…

9:00 – STAND UP

…Daily production meeting. This is a chance to catch up with everyone and go over the scheduling for the week and usually lasts between 15-30m minutes if the whole team is on Zoom. From there we agree on tasks and timelines as we all set off about our days.

Personally, I like to work within every aspect of web and print, including content creation, video production, animation & motion graphics, illustration, digital & print, advertising, virtual events & streaming, and games. One of my favourite things about working at About Time with my skillset is that no two days are the same. I could be working on anything from logo concepts for an exciting startup to planning the social campaign for a music festival, from a quick deadline corporate whitepaper to animating an advert for the next big mobile game. It keeps me on my toes for sure.

9:30 – WE ARE OFF!

A quick cup of coffee and crack on! Typically I’m looking to get any loose projects completed now (I could have 3-4 different tasks in my queue) and proofed to the client before lunchtime. This is to give the client enough time to feedback before the end of the day so I can jump back on it to wrap it up and ultimately deliver the assets.

12:00 – RESET

I’m already at home which makes lunchtime a nice break and a chance to catch up with my wife, son and dogs. A quick walk is usually on the cards and is a great way to reset your brain a little bit, you’d be surprised at how much designing takes place away from the desk. Back home for some scran – a family favourite lunch is my legendary avo toast.

12:45 – CATCH UP AND FOCUS

I’ll get back to work a little early to avoid any lunchtime toddler clean-up…

I’ll check my emails and make sure I’m on hand and reactive to any client comments that come through. One of the most important features of what I do is ensuring the client is happy, not just with the design work that we deliver but with the process of getting to that endpoint too –  so making sure we’re as patient and understanding when negative feedback comes in is super important (although it rarely happens…)

I’ll work on any amends to projects and just generally get in the zone with a carefully selected Spotify playlist – I try to keep the music new and exciting to keep me focussed but it’s usually not long before I’m listening to ‘In Rainbows’ for the 70millionth time, at a fairly unreasonable volume.

16:00 – URGENT REQUEST FOR COP

I’ll normally be winding down for the day, making sure work is backed up and any tasks for the next day are prepped now. I try to fit more organisational tasks in here so if any urgent requests do come through where a client ‘absolutely must have this website banner by the end of the day’, I can jump on it without losing any real progress on other tasks.

17:30 – IT’S A WRAP

End of the line/Dinner time. I’ve made sure any email threads/projects are complete or at least out of my court before logging off. We’ve fallen into quite a strict routine with our son so at the end of my working day, I’m straight into the kitchen cooking my family a nutritious and balanced meal. Then time to relax and recharge for the following day.

20:00-02:00 – BONUS

If there’s a tight deadline or I want to get ahead on a project, you will likely find me at my desk at all hours of the night. There’s something about working at night whilst everyone is sleeping that feels freer, the possibilities are endless.

If you need any help with anything, whether is from content creation to video production, animation & motion graphics, illustration, digital & print, advertising, virtual events/streaming, and games, Jim, our Senior Designer, and our creative strategy team are here ready to talk about how we can help you!

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