Learning about the Business side

Being a graphic designer in a business setting isn’t always easy. Especially when you are within a larger company with levels upon levels of people above you who all need to approve a simple or small change.

For me, I constantly try to cultivate my skills in any way possible, whether that is creating projects on the side, to trying to go above and beyond not just my role, but also our guidelines to see if something sticks.

I’ll give you some tips on how to make your designs stand out in an environment where you can’t stand out.

1. Little Tweaks

Often in large companies, they want their outward communication to stay fairly consistent. This means that often social media channels, emails, and the website will always have the same look and feel as one another.

Most of this is due to the brand guidelines that companies put into place. Usually, the larger the brand, the more guidelines are in place.

As a designer, this sucks. Often you want to try and feel like your designs are breaking out of the box a bit, but with consistency and guides in place, it is hard to feel like you are able to break the mold.

That’s why one of the biggest ways I have found to make a difference or even garner more respect for your design skills is just by doing little tweaks whenever possible.

Fix a few things, change the way an object appears within the space, or switch around the orientation to maintain the hierarchy. Often, little changes can go a long way and can move you up to making more independent work in the future.

2. Experiment

Being experimental is always a great way to show off your design skills. It often can show more than what you can do on paper and goes beyond testing your design thinking as well.

Currently, as a Digital Experience Intern at iRobot, I often have a lot of time spent working on our site. My method of experimenting came through creating a separate page that I try to manipulate images on, switch text orientation, and also try to break the components that Salesforce gives us.

No matter what position you are in, a graphic designer, web designer, social media manager, etc., try something new and see how it goes. Especially in big companies, you need to get it approved anyway so see what your boss thinks, your peers, or anyone else that will look at it.

For me, my experimentation ended with us switching how we display our testimonials from a straight image to a carousel, something that adds a bit more interactivity to the site.

3. Talk with your supervisor

Lastly, it is important to just talk with your supervisor whenever you can. Developing an open relationship where you feel comfortable sharing your ideas can be great as often, they might come to you for advice or ideas on the next big project.

Often it starts with just getting your foot in the door, something that most people have to do when they are just getting the job. If you are new, they don’t know what you like, what you do in your free time, or much about your skills besides the bare minimum that was required for the job.

So, show off a little.

Get out of that box in any way you can, and see what happens. Even if it seems like nothing will ever change, just spreading the word about what you can do can make a difference. You might just be surprised in the end.