New Junior Designer, Ella, Joins Team Soap!

Hi Ella! Welcome to the team!

Hi there! Thanks for having me!

You are our new Junior Designer – What does that role entail day to day?

It’s my responsibility to assist on the studio’s everyday activities – which means working across a lot of projects at once and helping out wherever I can. In the last month or so since I’ve joined, I’ve been playing around with typography, sourcing images and making any necessary tweaks in Photoshop and working on layouts. I have been learning A LOT! Everyone has their own ways of working and I’m picking up new techniques and tips every day. My top trick so far is a shortcut that converts multiple RGB images into CMYK (or visa versa) in one go in Photoshop (thanks Tom!)

Can you tell us a little bit about your background – what brought you here to Soap?

Well, this is my first full time graphic design role. After graduation I did an internship for a local design agency whose clients are mostly in education and the music industry and it was great to work on a lot of digital content and hone my animation skills. After that, through a bit of a chance meeting with the founder of City Girl, I got hired to help them to rebrand. I still design their social media post templates and I’m currently working on their latest line of merch as a little side hustle.

I am originally from Brighton, which is where I did my Graphic Design degree, and when I graduated I knew I wanted to move away from the seaside and to another city. I have always liked the vibe in Bristol so I was really pleased when the job at Soap, just nearby in Portishead, came up.

Are there any skills or areas of expertise that you’re particularly interested in improving or learning more about?

Following on from my internship in Brighton, I would love to work on my animation skills – there is so much to learn and I feel like I’m really just starting out with that. I am also really looking forward to learning more about typography here at Soap. It’s such an art. I want to get really good at selecting the right size and font for particular layouts, and learn how to perfect kerning and leading. With all the print collateral that Soap creates, I’m sure I’m in the right place!

Here on the blog we always ask new starters the same question, because everyone has a little design quirk they’re into, what is your favourite niche design ‘thing’?

I love letterpress. It’s a very old fashioned way of printing and (at least I think) quite therapeutic to do! I used to run workshops on it at uni and it’s the texture and the freeness of the end result that I really like. Alan Kitching is probably my favourite typography artist. He’s based in Sussex and his work is so pop-y, colourful and expressive. I love the way he plays around with type.

What is your favourite thing about working at Soap (so far)?

Definitely the team – they’re so friendly and welcoming and they’ve been very patient when it comes to answering all my questions (there’s lots!). They’ve made it clear it’s fine that I don’t know everything yet and they want me to learn and grow, so I feel really supported – which is great.

I also managed to join the team on the week of the Flight Club social, so after just four days in the office it was great to see the banter between everyone. Christy wasn’t even too upset when I accidentally knocked him out of a game with a total fluke shot, (we let him win the next round…)

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to follow my journey or get in touch!