As part of our ‘day in the life’ blog series, Ross, Senior Graphic Designer at Armitage Communications provides insight into the activities and responsibilities of his role.
From early on in my career, being creative and imaginative has always been where I wanted to be. As Armitage’s Senior Graphic Designer, I love what I do. This year I am celebrating my 10-year work anniversary and time has flown by. I can’t quite believe it, but each year I find myself sharpening my design skills whilst keeping an eye on new techniques.
As technology advances and new apps are updated, I find myself evolving and tweaking the way I work, as changing my opinion on what looks good is important, in fact, it is essential. Design ten years ago is very different from how it is in the present day. Social media has had a big part in how we think about marketing and this has impacted design.
Just as the styles of design have developed over time, I feel my time at Armitage has transformed my approach to work.
With design you must keep an open mind. This is what keeps me passionate – there is no set routine with my day, I could be working on a brochure one day and then uploading a news article to a client’s website the next.
Working at Armitage has taught me to adapt and develop, taught me to listen to different ideas or opinions, allowed me to embrace different possibilities, opportunities, people, views, suggestions and interests.
In the studio we have access to iMacs with the latest operating system and use Adobe creative cloud, a collection of 20+ desktop and mobile apps that use photography, design, video web, UX and more. For the more common day to day applications, we use InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.
Recently, we have been using an Adobe product called Adobe XD which is great for creating prototypes for ebooks, websites, and mobile apps. The client can see the full interactive experience. It is a fantastic programme and one we intend to use more of in the coming weeks.
Another project we recently created for a client was developed using Adobe InDesign’s Publish Online feature, which lets you publish any InDesign document online and share it on social networks, email, or as a standalone URL. You can also embed the document in any web page or blog. These two projects are great examples of how design has changed, and how more interactive clients want their projects to look and function; allowing them to reach out to their customers instantly with a click of a button.
Over the years at Armitage, I’ve produced many different design projects, from adverts and brochures through to whitepapers and infographics; and at the end of each day, we look ahead to tomorrow where lots more exciting developments in design are set to continue.