Hello! I'm Jess J, one of the graphic designers in the Design & Artwork team. As they always say, no two weeks are ever the same, but oh boy was this a week…
Monday
First things first, COFFEE! And after a little chit-chat to see how everyones weekend was, and a quick fuss of the office doggos, it’s down to the grind. The first half an hour (like most mornings) is catching up on emails and Teams to see if anything has come in over the weekend, then I head over to our handy jobs tracker Asana, to make a priority list for the day/week.
We have a team meeting every day at 9:30am, and we take turns discussing our workload for the day. Due to the nature of our team, we work through quite a high-volume of fast-paced jobs, so it’s important to check in with one another and support each other by shuffling around jobs should we need to.
It’s time to get on with the first job of the week, and today I am taking a look at jazzing up Derby Theatre’s ticket wallets to something a little different. Using a variety of font weights and introducing the angle of the Derby Theatre logo into the design, it wasn’t long before this was looking snazzy.
WHAT A DAY, now time to unwind for the evening and see what tomorrow will bring.
Tuesday
Today I’m working on creating a template for Lifeways new LA brochure - exciting! We have been working on refreshing Lifeways styling, so it was time to take a look at introducing this fresh new look. The style has been set and now it’s a matter of rolling it out into the print and web templates ready for anyone to use.
I find myself quite the organised person, so I do love a template-setting kind of job (nerdy I know). I find it strangely quite therapeutic, so I was really in my element with this task. After an eagled-eyed check, it’s off to Sarah who will send it over to the client for approval - fingers crossed they love it as much as I do!
There’s excitement in the air as it’s Fluid’s first Speed Pool event tonight, organised and run by myself, Matt and my budding pool partner Sarah. There are seven of us for tonight’s turn out and we all take it in turns to whizz around the cloth and pot all the balls, the fastest time earns the crown for the night - lots of fun was had by all!
Wednesday
It’s hump day and the perfect time to take a moment to reflect, invoice jobs that are complete, check in with clients to see if work can be progressed and just do a general up-keep and tidy up.
Today’s main goal is to learn something new on Photoshop - as part of my personal development, I have expressed an interest in becoming a Photoshop wizard (well, not quite) but to generally increase my knowledge and learn more. I take a little time out each fortnight to learn something new, something that I can share with the team and hopefully show them something they don’t know too. Today’s Photoshop skill is Sky Replacement - this handy little tool can help you make sunshine on a rainy day.
Thursday
Today I’m off to Stirland Paterson Group, a local printer, for a print workshop. I head there with two other Design & Artwork team members who are eager to learn about the wonderful world of print and how the suppliers can help bring our beautiful designs to life on paper. This is a great opportunity for us to explore the possibilities of print and express our findings with the wider teams to see if these can be introduced into upcoming projects.
After a jam-packed talk about sustainable and fancy printing techniques, we head back to the office for a few hours where I catch up on my emails and set a to-do list for tomorrow’s endeavours.
The fun doesn’t stop there, tonight is Fluid’s film night, this happens every second to last Thursday of the month and it’s a great way to unwind and relax. This week’s theme is musicals and we’re watching ‘In the Heights’. The food of choice always has to accompany the theme of the film, so tonight it’s Mexican with my amigos.
Friday
It’s Fri-YAY! My favourite day of the week, not only because it’s one step closer to the weekend (oh yes!) but because there’s always a lovely buzz in the studio on Fridays (probably because of my awesome Friday Feel Good playlist I put on this morning).
At 11am, we have our weekly Fluid 'Chit-Chat’ meeting, where we meet with the wider team and they share any exciting projects in the pipeline, or culture updates like socials, events and useful well-being tips.
And of course, as Fat Friday custodian it wouldn’t be right to let the day go by without a naughty little treat for Friday’s lunch. KFC, McDonalds, the chippy...you name it, we’ve had it! Anyone in the office is welcome to join in and it’s a lovely way to finish off the week and have a little chat with someone you may have not spoken to in a while over some greasy grub!
For the afternoon, I’m working on updating Cambridge interest rates literature to be in line with the ever-changing base-rate changes. This is a great little job for a Friday afternoon, and with the help of Lucy’s lovely new spreadsheet (Design & Artwork love a cheeky spreadsheet) to input the figures, it was a dream job to work on.
And that’s a wrap, a little insight into the week in the life of Jessie J – over and out!