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A week in the life of… an in-house graphic designer
Liz Machin, graphic designer at Plus Dane, talks to Inside Housing about her week, which includes keeping the housing association on brand, selecting furniture for an office redesign and creating an avatar for a member of staff
Liz Machin, graphic designer @PlusDane, talks to Inside Housing about her week in #UKhousingMonday
It’s a busy start to the week – being the only in-house graphic designer in the organisation, my work life is always full speed ahead, but I’m lucky that I get to do a job I love.
I’m part of the communications team, and we have a daily 9am video call to check in and go over the current workload. Today we discuss social media campaigns for the week and the necessary design support, and run through the branding refresh which we are currently rolling out across the organisation – this includes our new trades team uniform and vehicle livery design. A big part of my role is to protect the Plus Dane brand and keep the guidelines up to date.
Other projects we talk about that I’m involved in include some digital signage for the office screens, requests for infographics, and new starter merchandise.
Tuesday
I work four days a week and Tuesdays are my day off. Both my children were born on a Tuesday and I like to joke I earned this day off for the rest of my life.
I’ll usually start the day with a class at my local gym, then visit my mum and dad, take their pug Walter out, and work on my DIY and creative projects.
Wednesday
We have our comms team meeting in the office on a Wednesday – it’s really good to all have that time together after so much time spent working from home. It’s been so useful to be back meeting face-to-face with colleagues and customers.
I work on selecting the furniture colour scheme and signage for our office refits in Runcorn and Congleton, and pick up any design work needed for the leadership team and board before their monthly meeting.
Thursday
I run seven miles to the Albert Dock office from my home in Crosby – I’ve had my Weetabix! We’re lucky to have showers in our new office. I plan to do some lunchtime runs, too.
Today I’m working on some HomesHub by Plus Dane sales booklets and floorplans, and have a meeting with our engagement team who have requested design support for a project they are working on.
Friday
We start with the 9am video call with comms. We’re starting to come up with ideas for this year’s annual report, and we want to reflect Plus Dane’s new branding with a simple, friendly, inclusive and welcoming style. We start the process early so we can involve the customer and get their feedback before we publish it in September.
A fun thing to end the week on is the staff cartoon.
We have core values at Plus Dane, and our colleagues can send each other nomination cards to recognise a job well done. Every month, I produce a cartoon to celebrate someone who has put our values into action. This is one of the favourite parts of my job – who doesn’t love creating an avatar of the people they work with?! They have been known to include a pet, or a prop or two. It’s actually a great way to get to know people.
Another week over and I get ready to start it all again on Monday!
A week in the life series
Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.
Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week.
We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.
Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion
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