A day in the life of our Studio Department…
7:30 am each day without fail, the Studio is a hive of activity with each respective person doing their designated job. While the rest of us are preparing for the start of what without a doubt will be a long day.
The job as a designer is to not just translate graphic design files to the respective templates (which for some reason folks think that’s all the job entails). It also includes actual design work, check and pre-checks of artwork for things such as low resolution, jagged vectors & print quality among many others. It is a job that requires a sharp eye and attention to detail, something that all our designers excel at.
On an average busy day, our designers average 26 artwork layouts, with each designer given roughly 20 minutes for each layout on a 9-hour workday. With that kind of pressure, it is a marvel that none of the designers have suffered any nervous breakdowns or nosebleeds.
While you digest this tidbit, here is a second FUN FACT ALERT! This month’s error rate for the studio is 0.1%, impressive when compared with the number of work and time allocation.
To calm everyone and to cope with the work, music is played and incentives are offered. This raises morale and encourages everyone to do their work to the best of their ability.
Before the designers can work their magic, the artwork first goes through our Administrator, who receives the initial job that comes with accompanying files and detailed brief. She downloads the necessary artwork, creates the job folders (which are archived at a later stage), arranges for job bags and hands out the job to the designers.
Once the job has been designed, it is sent to the proof-reader, who checks and makes sure that everything is as it should be. This includes but is not limited to making sure that the order and the artwork match and that the brief has been followed as close as possible. Once satisfied, the proof-reader sends the job out to the rep, who sends it through to the client and awaits feedback & approval. 10 minutes are designated for each job to be proofed and sent out, with exceptions being taken for jobs with numerous layouts. So, if a designer is given 20 minutes per layout and the proof-reader 10 minutes to check and give his stamp of approval, in theory it takes roughly 30 minutes for a single layout job to be done and sent to the client. In theory yes, but for most single layout jobs, they are done, proofed and sent out in under 20 minutes give or take and nope, we are not even bragging (yes, we are).
Should a job be approved or be an approval (as we call it in the Studio), the job is done, proofed and handed over to Paul, our go to guy who in addition to being the copy machine master. He does the approval, gives the job a once over to make sure that nothing has been missed, does the various paperwork and hands it over to the print department.
Working in the Studio is at the best of times stressful and the cause of sleepless nights (literally one of our designers once had a restless night because of a job), it’s that bad, but it’s also very rewarding, thanks to the motivating, proficient and admirable management, the amiable staff and warm and inviting environment.