ShareHave you met…Sadie?
Joining us in 2015 as an apprentice alongside our Head of Design and Build, Jamil, Sadie has very much cemented herself as a key member of our D&B team. After 5 years of being a fully fledged Designer we want to know why she is still loving her role and her client work.
Why Design?
I have always been a creative person, I chose art as a subject all the way through to A Level, and I did go on to be a tattoo artist for 3 years before joining Coast. I wanted a change of career and had always been interested in Photoshop and creating digital designs for social media when I was younger. When I found Coast were looking for an apprentice web designer it felt like a match made in heaven and I really haven’t looked back.
You have been at Coast for a while now, what about the work that you do keeps it interesting for you?
My favourite thing about Coast is the culture and the pace of the work that I do. I am always solving design problems and able to think on my feet to come up with solutions for clients. We have such a wide range of clients at Coast as well so it means that the work never stays the same! Even for the same clients the projects are different, one day I can be creating website designs and landing pages, the next Social Media posts, HTML5 ads or image processing. It all keeps me on my toes.
Favourite service and why?
My favourite service within design is Social Creative, a lot of brands tend to want to explore their brand more within their social creative and I often get to push boundaries and come up with concepts that are more ‘out of the box’.
Which Social Creative project has been your favourite to date?
One that comes to mind straight away is a campaign we ran for a well-known pet food brand. We were asked to create carousels for them but they were willing to be challenged on the design so we created a carousel that had cat and dog images that flowed from one frame to the next, carrying the user’s attention through the product story. The client was super happy with it and it has been a design direction that we have carried through to subsequent campaigns so I was really happy to be a part of that!
What do you see as the next big trend?
Recently I have been seeing the design trends moving slowly away from the hugely popular ‘flat design’ from a few years ago. With the latest Mac OS update including more 3D accents on it’s program icons which I must admit does very much remind me of the original skeuomorphic iOS app icons! I think we will start to see a blend of both of these elements as we gradually move away from the very minimalist flat design trend and back into design elements that give us that early 2010s nostalgic feel. Much like fashion, I feel like web design can also be very cyclical!
What I wish clients understood better:
A very well rounded brief is everything to a designer! Having a well thought out brief that outlines likes, dislikes and expectations is extremely helpful, designing with clear constraints is the best way. It makes the feedback process more streamlined as both the client and I have the same vision before any delivery has been made. It means the client really gets what they want.
With that in mind, when clients send you a brief, what should be included so you can deliver the best results?
The best design brief includes clear objectives for the piece of work, and having all assets included such as logos, images to be used, fonts, and any supporting material if it is being used in a wider campaign. If there are any initial ideas that the client has that is also helpful to know so that any designs that are presented are aligned with the clients initial visions.
For more information on the Coast Design & Build capabilities click here. Or call our team on 0845 485 1907
