Employee Spotlight: James

Ever wonder who’s behind our emails, social posts or direct mail campaigns? Look no further. Instantprint’s Graphic Designer, James, is about to talk us through his time here and exactly where you can find his work across our channels.

With a creative eye and a stickler for strict brand guidelines, James is the one responsible for keeping our marketing materials on brand and engaging. The next time one of our emails drops by your inbox, why not take a moment to think about all the elements that make our marketing, instantprint.

1.    How long have you worked at instantprint and how has your role progressed/what have you learnt?

 I’ve worked at instantprint for just over 3 months now! New to the role, but hitting the ground running, I’ve spent these first few months really getting to grips with my role and discovering what my day-to-day is. I’ve also been super busy developing the way in which I work to make sure my efficiency is on top form. I understand that our customers need to receive regular marketing to ensure they’re aware of our latest products and services, which means I need to be on top of our emails and social posts!

2.    What does your average day look like?

I would say every day is different but also very similar. I spend most of my time designing or altering artwork ready to share across our social platforms and emails, but the designs I create change all the time. I tend to create mock-ups of print for a variety of industries in different situations to help inspire our customers. I think it’s great practice to be able to visualise what the final product could look like before buying. I also work on some of our PR campaigns, creating assets to go with press releases for our communications executive to share with journalists. I can also be found filming and editing videos for our social media, which is always a nice change of pace.

3.    How does your role fit into the customer’s journey?

Anything our customers see from instantprint will usually have been designed by myself. For me, and the brand, it’s important that everything our customers see follows our brand guidelines. We not only want to look professional and trustworthy but need we want to make sure that all of our marketing collateral is accessible. We want to make sure our communications and information is easy to read and digest, and so it’s my job to make sure our marketing looks on good and does the job, making sure customers want to interact with it and discover more.

4.    What makes you proud about working at instantprint?

I think the best thing about instantprint is the sense of community. When I’m walking through the office everyone is happy to be here, which creates a really fun environment to work in. It also helps on days when you might not be feeling great or in my case finding it hard to gather creative inspiration,  the fun positive energy is so infectious and gets me raring and ready to design in no time.

5.    Tell us your favourite memory of working at instantprint!

As a designer seeing your work showcased to a whole host of businesses and customers is an incredible feeling. Even more so when you know that it’s had positive impact. Simply knowing that people have engaged with the brand thanks to what I’ve created gives me a real sense of pride. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it!

6.    What’s your favourite print product and why?

I would have to say business cards. Since first becoming a graphic designer, I’ve always been fascinated by the new and exciting ways business cards can be designed and used. instantprint's variety and quality is unbelievable and I’m constantly taking a nosey at that area of our factory where we print our business cards. I love seeing the brilliant ways our customers have used them.

7.    What’s your favourite project that you’ve worked on so far?

I had a lot of fun creating a video that went out on our social media platforms recently. The concept was recreating the scene from ‘American Psycho’ where all the guys discuss the design of their new business cards. Trying to lip-sync with the audio of the scene whilst trying to direct my peers on how to deliver the line was certainly a challenge. But we all had a lot of fun playing around with ideas and I was really pleased with my end product. You should definitely give it a watch if you haven’t already!

8.    Tell us about your downtime hobbies or a random fact about yourself

I‘m a huge Sheffield United fan and overall football fan. I try to play as much as I can although I’m not very good. I also collect football shirts. I think half of the shirts I own are probably Sheffield United shirts with the majority of them being from the 90s. The other half are kits from other countries and teams around the world that I either liked the look of or received in mystery boxes. I wouldn’t like to know how much I’ve spent in total on them all though…