Andrew Fox

The time has flown by and I can’t actually believe I’ve been with my new company dotAgency for a month now. I’ve done a lot, learnt a lot, gained inspiration and listened to a lot of Tokio Hotel along the way.

There’s so much to say and this could end up being a very long blog post so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Here’s a summary of my experiences in no particular order:

It’s all about team work
I’ve never worked in a team of designers before and I can honestly say it beats working solo! I was excited but also apprehensive about this and still am slightly but it can only be a healthy thing. Working in a team is competitive whereas when you work on your own you have to keep yourself motivated and compete with yourself to ensure progress. What I found interesting at dotAgency was when a job is briefed, at least two designers are involved who produce a concept design each. This keeps things fresh, competitive and gives the client two completely different different approaches. Working in a team also means you learn from each other. I felt a bit weird at first as in the past I have had to learn everything myself from learning code to design techniques to methodology and project management. I can still do that but have support from my team mates now too which means much quicker learning and a better end result.

Bigger agency = bigger variety
dotDigital is much bigger than I was used to as in the past I was either freelancing or working for the same big clients in a small agency which is good fun but pretty intense. dotDigital Group is made up of a number of companies including dotMailer, dotCommerce, dotEditor and dotAgency so there’s a lot going on and working for the agency, there’s a huge variety of work. In my first month I’ve designed three web site concepts, front end xhtml/css (standards and x-browser compliant) development for a dotEditor web site, designed and coded two email templates for dotMailer, produced interactive wireframe models in Axure for dotCommerce and a handful of other little bits and pieces. All the work is different which is great for inspiration and keeping the creative juices flowing.

Focus on design
Working in a bigger agency means that generally everyone has their place and sticks to what they’re best at. Okay so I’ve only been there a short time and am still settling in but so far all I’ve done is design which is a strange but good feeling! In the past I was not only designing but also project managing, pitching, managing other people, managing clients, working on new business, working on accounts,  and even keeping the company gold fish alive – all of which interrupt the design process. Sometimes you just need to sit down and focus and if you’re trying to tackle everything, ultimately its the design and therefore the project that will suffer. Its about healthy balance though and working directly with clients has huge benefits like the ability to get to know the client and hear information first hand, both of which  ultimately contribute to a better end result. This is all managed really efficiently at dotAgency and the whole operation runs very smoothly and everyone has fun along the way.

Like-minded criticism
Working with other designers is also good for bouncing ideas off each other and giving opinions on each others design work. Having some form of democracy like this is healthy but ultimately, you need people above you from which to learn from and take direction. At dotAgency, half way through each design concept the creative director and the other designer on the project give their feedback and again at the end before the design is sent to the client. This allows the design to be refined, ensuring it answers the brief and also speeds the design process. I always welcome feedback from others and its good to hear what people have to say about my work.

dotAwesomeness
So in summary, so far so good! I’m looking forward to getting stuck in further with projects, learning more about the company, clients and the way things work.

Watch this space for more dotBlogging!