New Starter Interview – Welcoming Tam!

Tam is our new Admin Assistant, all the way from Zimbabwe. She brings some cheer to everyone’s day, probably because she gets to go home at 2pm while everyone else has to stay behind till the end of the day! But we won’t hold that against her. We wanted to find out more about her and what has brought her to Bristol and to Soap Creative.

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Hi Tam! Welcome to the team!

Thank you, it’s great to be here.

You’re our new Admin Assistant – What does that role entail day to day?

The company has such a wide variety of projects at any one time, I help keep some of the more ‘admin’ steps organised – like inputting job details, uploading templates for clients to access, sending off artwork and tracking deliveries etc. I work closely with Rachael and try to help her as much as possible so that she can focus on the more specialised Ops side of the job. Ideally, we try to lessen the admin load for the designers so that they can spend their time doing what they do best!

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

It’s been an interesting journey to get here. I grew up in Zimbabwe and went to University in South Africa to get a Fine Art Degree specialising in Photography and Digital Art, and then went on to do my teaching post-grad. This led me to be the head of a high-school Art Department at a private country boarding school in Zimbabwe. I really enjoyed the diversity and challenge that an educational environment brings, and particularly enjoyed designing curricula and projects for all the year groups.

After 6 years there I decided I wanted to grow/change careers for a bit and so in May 2023 we moved to London for a few months before settling in Portishead for my husband’s work. I wanted a break from teaching and enjoyed the organisation of running a department, so have decided to stick to admin for the moment as it comes easily to me. Since being in the UK I have done an array of admin jobs, but was particularly excited about joining Soap and being in a creative environment again, which I am really enjoying.

Being a part-time role, we’re curious, what do you get up to outside of work?

Outside of working at Soap, no day is the same, which I love.
I do some content creation and social media management, and have an array of projects throughout the year that require me to have a bit of flexibility.

I’m doing various courses/studying to diversify and learn new skills, and am getting more involved in helping out in the community and Church here.
Teaching Art, I found I had no creativity leftover at the end of a day, so I am grateful to have the flexibility to create and learn what it means to be an artist in this new space.

We are a design company so I have to ask you at least one design question! What is your favourite niche design ‘thing’?

I have always been really interested in the psychology of colour theory, and how something as ‘simple’ as colour can make such an impact on feeling and perception. In my personal art practice my preference is installation and designing a space where the viewer is encouraged to engage and interact with the art as more than just a spectator.

I think this premise overlaps into graphic design and how we can curate an impression with how we use colour and texture, and make people believe a certain thing. Your audience may choose to trust something because of the general ‘feeling’ it gives them, but this thing was intentionally created or designed to elicity that exact feeling. It is fascinating that we can create a ‘gut’ feel, and engage with people on a deeper level through design.

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

I know everyone seems to say this, but genuinely, the team are so lovely and I am very grateful to be in such a welcoming and easy working environment with likeminded people. I like the calm space and how each person is part of a cohesive team who are willing to work together toward the same goal.

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