6 Months in the Life of a Junior Designer

News Article

My first 6 months

When I first started at 43 Clicks, 6 months seemed like a really long time but it’s gone by in a blur. Being fresh out of university with a graphic design degree, I knew that I was fortunate to have quickly found a job in industry but now I just feel lucky to have joined a team who genuinely wants everyone to succeed.

With my 6 month “workiversary” having just passed I was feeling reflective and took a look back at what I have achieved since starting here.

October

I was thrown in at the deep end, with my first day being spent on the set of a brand video for Discount Supplements. The rest of the month was spent adapting to agency life, focusing on internal design projects and furthering the skills I gained whilst at uni. I also got a taste of wireframe design, which is an area I hope to develop more in the future. Though without a doubt, the highlight was when I was asked to design the packaging for a limited edition Cheviot x 43 Clicks North 4th birthday beer.

Not only was I excited to be given this responsibility, but packaging design is an area I love and want to explore one day, so having the opportunity to test the waters this early in my career made me very optimistic for my future at 43.

November

After not screwing up my first month, I was introduced to client work. Not having total creative freedom for the first time after my uni projects was an adjustment but I enjoyed the chance to properly design for someone other than myself. Ads for The Vegan Kind and Stone Refurb were my main responsibilities and my first experience of paid social.

December

This month provided an exciting challenge, as I was required to develop the branding and packaging for a new supplement brand, E5. Having the opportunity to see a brand be built from the ground up was very interesting, as at uni you get experience doing this in theory, but it is completely different in the real world.

January

Starting the year as I meant to go on, this was the month I experienced my first big client - Hull KR. It was also my first chance to properly collaborate with other members of my team, as everyone was involved in some capacity. I spent much of my time developing branding and social content and also got to flex some of my editorial muscles, which I hadn’t really had the chance to use since graduating.

February

Similar to the work I did on E5, I had the opportunity to take Dawgz Life from nothing and build their branding and organic social content. This is a client who has fit well into my training plan, as I am able to develop my animation skills, but most importantly, who doesn’t enjoy looking at dog photos all day?

March

Last month was filled with paid social ads for a variety of clients, my favouite being Flexa, who I created some carousel ads for. I mean - look at how colourful their branding is! It was also the month the studio got started on brand videos for both E5 and Dawgz Life so they’ve been fun opportunities for me to further my animation skills.

I rarely say this, but I’m proud of the work I’ve done so far here. Everyday there’s a new challenge and if I had to give one piece of advice to anyone starting their design career it would be to join an agency. I genuinely don’t believe I would have been exposed to this variety of work so early on if I’d remained freelance or gone in-house as I had originally intended. No matter where my career takes me in the future, I’ll always be so grateful that my journey started at 43.