Design is everywhere. Everything you look at or interact with has been through a process of design. A world without design would be a very boring one, at least in my opinion, but I know I am biased. Design can be used in so many ways. It’s so much more than just graphics in a document – it’s a form of communication and one we would be lost without. There’s a reason why we say a picture is worth a thousand words!
Graphic design, in many ways, is a company’s first opportunity to have a lasting effect on a potential client. First impressions are important, after all. The first time that someone engages with a brand will set the tone for the rest of that business relationship. Most of the time, the first interaction a client has with a company is through their website or marketing materials, such as a business card, brochure or fact sheet. These are all elements that have been meticulously thought out, designed, reworked, proofed, and proofed again before they even reach your eyes.
This is why it’s so important for a company to have a clearly defined brand. Something that thoroughly captures who they are and is easily recognisable across a range of mediums. It needs to grab people’s attention and encourage them to get involved with the company. Maintaining consistency with branding is also key, as this ensures we have a professional brand image and leads to brand recognition and trust.
A consistent brand image is so important for the Seventy Ninth Group as we operate across a range of sectors around the world. As a growing company, our brand needs to be easily recognisable to people speaking a range of different languages and working throughout several industries. We also need to ensure that we’re instilling trust in our clients, especially in the world of financial services , so nothing goes out without being carefully considered and reviewed.
A day in the life
The scope of graphic design is huge, and there’s never a dull day in the designer’s seat in a marketing room. Graphic designers will create visual concepts to communicate ideas that inspire, inform and captivate their audience. We develop the overall layout and production design for a range of outputs such as social media adverts, brochures, fact sheets and video work, to name just a few.
Within the Seventy Ninth Group environment, we work with text, images and video files to maintain consistency across all our outputs and create a strong brand identity that’s instantly identifiable to our client base. Looking around the office, you’ll notice input from the designers all over the place – from the signage on the front desk and walls to branded pens and notebooks and the frosted glass throughout the building. Elements that we all take for granted, but that contribute to how we are perceived, and how a business relationship might develop.
The graphic design process is featured in so many areas within the Seventy Ninth Group so it’s hard not to be proud of the marketing output the company has. But it’s a process of close collaboration from many people. It’s easy to think that when a brief is given, I sit at my desk, pencil in hand, and 20 minutes later, I’m sending off a final design. Sometimes, I wish it was that easy!
More often than not, once a brief has landed on my desk, it’s already been reviewed and edited by other people. Col, our Chief Marketing Officer, manages everything that comes through the department, so is able to oversee briefs to make sure they are clear and easily understood. Then the fun bit starts.
Occasionally, I’ll view a brief and instantly know where that piece needs to go creatively to reach the final end product. Usually, though, I need to sit with a brief, read and re-read it, and develop a couple of ways it can be done. I’ll often scrap an idea or two along the way before asking the rest of the marketing team to look over the piece and get their opinion. This starts a whole cycle of review and sometimes involves going back to the drawing board.
We will often go through that process four or five times before I’m confident enough to send it over to Lydia and Jon in Compliance for their take on any content the piece contains, which usually turns into another round of revisions.
By the time the whole process is complete, I can be on version 20 or 30 of a document when it gets its final sign-off – sometimes, that can take days or even weeks! I really care about how our brand is represented. It’s important that nothing leaves my desk until it fully follows our brand guidelines, hits the right touchpoints and feels authentic. It’s always worth it in the end, though, to see a piece of work that the whole team is pleased to send out, potentially around the world.
My journey to design
Graphic design has been my bread and butter for my whole career, and I’ve always had a creative eye. At the age of five, my mum used to have to take extra pens and little notebooks with her wherever we went because I’d always find time to sit and doodle in a corner somewhere.
I came to graphic design in a somewhat roundabout route. After watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the cinema at the age of 10, I was dead set on a career in the film industry, so that was the path I followed up until the end of my BA degree in Media Production. I decided to follow a more artistic route with my Masters in Animation, all the while doing freelance graphic design and traditional art commissions.
I found myself at the Seventy Ninth Group in 2022, where I progressed my career to a senior level and have developed a drive to continue to develop my interest in mentorship and leadership. I recently celebrated my first year at the Seventy Ninth Group, and what a whirlwind of a year it’s been – in a good way! The role has continued to present new and interesting opportunities for me to expand my skill set, and it’s great to be a part of a growing company with such a supportive team.
For me, design is an intrinsic part of life. Not just because I’ve built my career around creativity but because I genuinely believe that design has the power to positively impact our lives and the world around us. Design is emotive as much as it is practical. It brings colour, joy and interest to what would otherwise be a very grey and dismal existence. I love that my job can have some small impact on the wider world – I wouldn’t change it for a thing!
