An Interview With Our Senior Graphic Designer, Camila Quezada
Written by Courtney Raguso, Social Media Content Creator
Graphic Design is an essential component of your digital marketing and is how you communicate your brand’s ideas, products and services in a visually captivating and unique way. Elements that make up graphic design such as typography, photography, color pallet can all be used to communicate with your audience and trigger certain emotions. They also give your brand a face and personality based on the tone your content gives off. Nailing your graphic design is important for your brand because it is your chance to not only make a strong impression, but to get people to take action and convert into customers. As they say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and the same goes for your design; and yes, your design can be of poor quality and cost you business. That’s why having a good graphic designer on board your company is absolutely necessary. In fact, according to recent statistics, websites with visuals get 94% more commitment than ones that just displayed text. It’s what makes your brand unique and is what can really get you to stand out from your competitors. We interviewed our talented designer, Camila, to see what she had to say about her role at MSM as our Senior Graphic Designer. Here were her thoughts.
What qualities and skills should a good graphic designer have?
“A good Graphic Designer must be creative and have the ability to communicate and efficiently transmit ideas and messages visually in fields, such as advertising design, editorial design, web design, and multimedia design, among others.
You must have the ability to solve problems, accept criticism and have self-criticism in order to learn so that you can grow in the area. You must know how to work as a team and carry out the process together with the members involved to reach the objective of the project. Furthermore, you must be consistent, have the ability to innovate, and be able to bring new graphic solutions that are easily assimilated by the public.”
Tell me about your experience working remotely. What do you feel is important to make sure the work gets done efficiently?
“I can say that I love working remotely as my productivity is higher. It enhances my ability to concentrate, and by this I mean that I put all my senses into a project, which allows me to develop it more efficiently, without distractions or wasted time due to traffic.
For a job to be done efficiently, I think time is essential. For this, it is necessary to organize a work process that allows each of the projects to be fulfilled. To work efficiently, tasks must be planned and prioritized, so I make a list of all my assignments per day and then determine their level of importance and urgency. By ordering the tasks according to their priority, we can identify the amount of time we will spend on each of them.”
How do you keep your design skills updated?
“Constant learning is the key to staying up-to-date. In addition to the fact that it is possible to learn self-taught, I look for tutorials, practice techniques, take advantage of online courses on pages aimed at educational growth, and above all, I look for references for inspiration. This is extremely important since it serves as a starting point or guideline to achieve a specific graphic style that suits the client with whom we work. With this, I develop the ability to get to know the personality of a brand and with each shape, each letter, each tonality, that we choose to give life to a graphic, it ends up influencing when the public interacts with it.
The main thing is to innovate in the techniques we use, and thus create new pieces and offer new graphic solutions.”
What do you enjoy most about being a graphic designer?
“What I enjoy the most about being a graphic designer is that this profession opens the doors to creative expression to capture ideas, messages and emotions through an image. I like that the work is varied since the graphic designer is needed by various companies, which will always present new challenges with projects such as print, social media, web design, among others, and allows one to improve in different areas.
It is a career that can also allow you to work freelance, giving you the freedom to manage your time and expand your number of clients. It is not a routine job, and you can innovate and optimize your techniques by training yourself with online courses.”
Why did you choose graphic design as a profession?
“Graphic design had always caught my attention, I just didn’t know it was called that! I remember enjoying cutting out advertisements from magazines where I spent hours and hours looking at the photographs, the graphic elements and especially the fonts that made everything harmonize together. I wondered how the fonts that, for me, were simple letters, generated a type of feeling that went perfectly with the rest of the elements. The order, the spaces, and the colors, were a visual delight when viewing a printed material.
I must emphasize that my brother influenced me a lot in the decision-making to enter this career since he is a publicist and designer, too, which served as an orientation for me, making me know more about it and this I consider a real PLUS!”
What was your first design job?
“My first design job was in a small agency that was just starting out, managing social media and print. Personally, I think it was the best thing I could do while getting my degree since it helped me to learn about design programs and to practice and practice with ‘real’ projects with ‘real’ clients.
I remember that they were very feminine brands which allowed me to identify with each one of them. I sat down and thought: what would I look for if I needed X product or service? How should I speak to the public? What colors are pleasant to the eye of a woman with the profile to which that brand was directed?
You need a lot of psychology to understand and personify a brand, as if it were about giving life to a person who seeks to provide a solution, sell and make herself known.”
Do you set strict timelines for yourself or do you work more spontaneously?
“I think that establishing deadlines to develop a project is necessary to be able to fulfill the deliveries. In this way, you adjust to a time when you are going to put all your attention and your senses to develop and be able to carry out the details that give the result to the project. It is necessary to concentrate but at the same time it is to have a space of time between projects that allows ideas and new solutions to come to your head.”
In your opinion, would you say your career has a high or low stress level?
“In my opinion, it all depends on time, on how tangible it is to solve a problem, and the client. If we have time, we can analyze, create, make different versions to communicate an idea, see from different points of view, and which is the best solution for that task. It is very important that the client is open and clearly communicates what they want. This way, they will be gladly guided to the most convenient solution for their project.”
What is the best thing about the design work you do?
“The best thing about my design work is that it fuels the ability to appreciate the details in the pieces I come across. It makes me be more critical and gives importance to order, balance and visual harmony, which are aspects of the utmost importance in art and design. Since everything is based on visual weight, that is what makes the design draw attention to our eyes. This visual weight is based on human psychology and our way of balancing, composing and understanding what we see.”
What are some advantages and disadvantages of your job?
“Among the advantages of graphic design, one of them is that it is necessary in all companies or institutions that require professional designs, so there will always be work needed in all productive areas. In this profession, you can be dedicated to making different designs for different disciplines, since they will always need someone to convey a message through an image. Imagination is your raw material and you can develop it, capture it or express it through the image, you also get paid for it. Although the designs are at the request of the client, the personal style will always be printed on the projects. You can be freelance, which is very flexible. You will have the freedom to manage your time, diversify your clients and decide what designs to do.
The disadvantage of working in design is facing clients’ points of view about what one does. On occasion, we must explain our reasoning to them, since each element that we put in a graphic has a reason for being. It is not about a simple stroke, any type or using your favorite colors just because you like them. Everything has a specific reason and objective. In fact, these objects that we use in a graphic with which we are going to interact will evoke sensations and perceptions that are pursued to enter the consumer’s mind.”
With the onset of technology, graphic design has evolved into new territory, such as 3D depth, going monochrome, using shiny metals and a typography craze. That’s why it’s so important to always stay up-to-date on the latest trends and news to keep you relevant and top of mind. A good graphic designer will rise above the occasion and truly elevate your concepts and ideas into something that’s visually expressive. It’s not as simple as putting a few colors and pictures together. It’s about channeling your brand and expressing it properly through design, and that’s not easy. High quality design will add value and credibility to your brand, making it more trustworthy and increasing its brand awareness. That’s also why consistency is so important because you want your brand to be easily identified and recognized by its unique look. In turn, this will gain your brand popularity and an increase in sales. So don’t underestimate the power of design. We as humans process imagery better than words at a faster rate, and a design can really make the difference between a conversion and loss. That’s why there’s experts out there like our designer, Camila, who can really make that difference for your brand.
At MSM DesignZ, we put in the time and energy needed for success, so you can ensure you are using every dollar for maximum return. With over 20 years in the business, we have watched marketing evolve from traditional to digital. Whether you need a website refresh, more attractive email, or a quality online presence, we can do it all. When we take on a client, we put in 110% and treat every brand as if it’s our own. We will always continue to place our clients’ needs at the heart of our operations. From web development to social media management, we’ll work directly with you to build a personalized strategy to not only retain but also gain business. We are assisting in all areas for our clients. Visit our contact page at https://www.msmdesignz.com/contact/, and we’ll work with you to devise a custom plan that will keep your brand alive and well. We look forward to working with you!
Sources:
https://www.digitalmarketnews.com/why-graphic-design-is-important-in-digital-marketing/