As a person without a background of any sort in graphic design (or any artistic field, for that matter), I must confess, there was once a time when I had no clue as to what goes on at a graphic design agency. Unbeknownst to me, I would soon find myself working at a graphic design agency in the heart of Central London where it would become apparent that this busy city has more than just than suits and coffee breaks to offer.
And with that, the craft that is graphic design had also somewhat priorly eluded me (and still does to many others). Well, I say eluded but little did clueless old me know that the work of graphic designers had been under my nose (and before my eyes) all along.
So, what goes on at a London graphic design agency?
Surprisingly (to many designers, it seems), many people outside of the fields of marketing and design don’t have much idea of what actually goes on at a design agency. Of course, it is no mystery that design work will be delivered for clients, but what ACTUALLY goes on behind the scenes?
As I myself, up until recently, would consider myself part of that camp of people and think I still (just about) qualify, as an outside perspective, I will be exploring some common questions and misconceptions about design agencies and take a look at the substance that makes a graphic design agency tick.
What does a graphic designer do?
To begin with the obvious, before joining the agency, a graphic designer to me, was an artist that took the wants and needs of a client and made a visual masterpiece. What I soon learned is that a graphic designer is actually the person tasked with the job of communicating the client’s vision successfully to the target audience. Where on the surface, this may appear to be a straightforward task of just making an idea seem visually appealing, what I found is that the designer will take a complex issue and determine the most suitable way to effectively communicate the message. This is made possible by their expertise in understanding the brand, target audience, and message at its core.
And so, I think that the biggest misconception to the layman is unfortunately, underestimating the scope of technical know-how required for a designer to properly execute their project.
But how do designers balance their design and development work with endless communication with clients?
Well they don’t necessarily need to. An account manager is the point of contact in a design agency that will liaise the needs of the client to the design team. Highly organised and with an amazing ability to communicate, these are the people that provide coordination to an agency, ensuring channels are kept open between client and design team so updates and correspondence can be kept regular and projects are delivered on time.
So account managers liaise between the clients and designers, but where does the quality control come into play?
Well, this is where the art director (or creative director) steps into the process. This is the person that is ultimately responsible for the quality of the final delivery of a project. Where they are typically inspiring leaders, it is their role to guide the design team ensuring the vision of the project is maintained and revisions are completed to the highest standard for client ‘approval’.
There are many other roles that you’re likely to come across in a London graphic design agency such as marketing directors, brand strategists, copywriters, and various other specialties but what stood out to me most as a newbie, was how well integrated and synergistic these roles are with each other. How collaborative the work is.
Many would imagine that designers would work most productively when left to their own devices, almost in ‘silos’. But I am here now to dispel the myth that most designers create their best work when working solo.
Where a common misconception heard is that ‘‘design work is left to designers’’, I have since learned that this could not be further from the truth. In fact, I would even go as far as to say design work is a team activity. From my own personal experience, everybody is involved at the creative stages of a project and no idea is a bad idea (well… most of the time). So, during the creative rounds, the numerous and varying roles found in a graphic design agency will all contribute to the ideas and input. This can make for a closely bonded team.
Probably the biggest obstacle perceived from an outsider’s perspective looking in on the world of graphic design is that those that work in a graphic design agency possess creative abilities that mere mortals just don’t have; that creativity cannot be taught. This is technically not true. Of course, many designers may be artistically fantastic (and with an excellent command of Adobe Creative Cloud software), but the idea-generating and conceptual side of design really can be learned!
After spending only months working at a London graphic design agency, I soon realised that what set the people working at design agencies apart from ‘normal’ people is their way to approach a creative brief. By following certain processes and thinking methods (I may have to write an article on these next, but trust me, they exist!) there are simple approaches that can be used by anyone to really get their ‘creative juices’ flowing.
Perhaps working at a London graphic design agency has made me adopt a more scrutinous viewpoint of advertising and products in the world around me; spotting typos in the overhead tube adverts during the evening commute or actively counting the excessive number of fonts used in an email campaign. But with this, has come a newfound appreciation for the hard work and expertise behind the design work that we ‘normal’ people can so easily take for granted.
Terms that I’d have never before even considered have since become part of my everyday vocabulary; some very useful and other terms that could be considered by some to be more... trivial.
So with that all said and done, outside of the agency, maybe it’s best I keep conversations about ‘kerning’ and ‘branding guidelines’ to a minimum.