BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Name
Andy Ireland
What course did you study?
Graphic Design BA (hons)
Year of graduation
2011
Where are you from originally?
Skipton, North Yorkshire
Why University of Cumbria, what attracted you?
Carlisle seemed like a small city where you could get to know people and have a mix of city life and chilled out lifestyle. Meeting the tutors for interview and seeing the scenic areas around attracted me to the University, it was like a home from home.
Job title
Service Designer
Current employer
BT / EE / Plusnet
What sector/industry do you work in?
Telecoms
Briefly describe your role and responsibilities
Service design is a process where designers create sustainable solutions and optimal experiences for both customers in unique contexts and any service providers involved. Designers break services into sections and adapt fine-tuned solutions to suit all users’ needs in context—based on actors, location and other factors.
“When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, and each sells the exact same coffee at the exact same price, service design is what makes you walk into one and not the other.”
— 31Volts Service Design Studio
Briefly describe your career progression from graduation to where you are now
I started out working for a dental company producing brochures and labels for products, moved into a finance company producing debit card designs as well as working on online account portals (my first taste of web design).
From there I began working in a marketing team branching into social media and campaigns as well as handling all the design work.
Due to our first child arriving I needed a role closer to home so moved to a publishing company where I worked as a User Experience Designer where we came up and tested ideas for taking our published materials and turn them into new products that would benefit the academic community.
After a couple of years I moved to Jet2 / Jet2Holidays as a UX designer and redesigned both of their main sales websites as well as the 'manage my booking' sections.
I then found myself at EE working across every digital customer facing site looking at how we improve the experience for our customers. I have been fortunate to move from Designer to Lead, Principle and then Specialist before moving into my current role of Service Designer and working across EE, BT and PlusNet.
What is the most satisfying aspect of your job?
The most satisfying part or my job is seeing real world impact. Recently I was part of a team that offered the NHS employees free unlimited data that was taken up by 250,000+ peoples. What an impact at such a critical time!
I have to say though, my work life balance is great. The company really value their employees.
What are your ambitions, now and in the future?
I want to keep learning in the Service Design world as I am only just touching the surface of this area. I also want to one day set up my own start up / business and apply all the knowledge I am picking up to make it a success.
Looking back, what advice would you give yourself when you just graduated?
Don't worry about the final grade, just make sure you keep learning and if you stop learning, make sure you change something so you get back on the learning trail. Whether this be work or personal life. If you stop learning, you get left behind.
Take some time to figure out what part of design you like and have a plan. It took me 10 years to find the area I am best suited to and enjoy.
Make sure what you do makes you happy and do things for you. Something I have only just taken on board myself the past few months is to make sure I am happy so that I can be the best person for my co workers but mostly my family.
Remember a career in design is a career.... you have a personal life too!
What top tips would you give to new alumni who are wishing to pursue a similar career to you?
Take a step back. Think to yourself, what my 'User / customer / client' want this? Do i know that they want this? What are their needs? What are their problems?
Then think, am i solving these problems?
Keep watching out for design trends.
Don't worry if you are not the best designer in your class, I certainly wasn't! There is more to a 'Designer' than just the core skills, soft skills are HUGE. When we hire, we base our decisions mainly on personality and willingness to learn rather than design background or knowledge / skills.
Do you have any support messages for the class of 2020, just embarking on their careers during the Covid-19 pandemic?
You might be thinking 'Companies are not hiring due to COVID'... this is true in some cases.... however when i graduated it was right at the end of a recession. Within months the market was flooded with Junior roles as companies began to build back up. We are already seeing that.
Get your CV up to scratch and get ready to change the world for the better.
It’s going to be a new world. but with change comes opportunity and design, interaction, digital is now integral to how we live our lives....