This article first appeared in Campaign written by, Diandra Elmira, 2D experiential designer from our London studio.
Monday
9.30am We start with our bi-weekly creative townhouse, where we share what projects we’ve been working on and any updates from the team. We win a pitch – woohoo.
10am After a mandatory weekend download with the team, I get an email asking if I’d like to write this article. I poke my head out to ask my desk team: “How can I make my week sound as interesting as possible for Campaign readers?”
10.45am Running around all over the buildings with back to back meetings. Have a client call to get feedback on the latest designs. Went well! Hurrah! My brain switches on and off different project modes as we go. We move.
12pm Why is the floor suddenly so quiet? I decide to put tunes on the speaker. Spotify radio with a bit of queueing is doing wonders for my DJ career.
2pm Post-afternoon treat, sugar levels over the roof – sofa creative brainstorm time. The team consisting of me, a UX designer, a 3D spatial designer and a creative director get our heads together to figure out what we’re designing for a food and beverage retail project.
3.45pm Spend the rest of the day refining the ideas we had during the brainstorm, doing some more research and mood board creation.
4.30pm It’s one of those Mondays that flies by magically quickly. I’m scouring the internet for the perfect piece of red corrugated metal for cabinets for the mood board. I swear I’m not shopping for my flat. Decide at the end I have to Frankenstein one from three different images of Ikea cabinets.
5.30pm I pack my bags and head off to chill and get humbled by pieces of colourful plastic rocks. Happy that my bouldering gym is just five minutes away from the office – see everyone back on Wednesday!
Tuesday
9.30am WFH on Tuesday breaks up the week nicely. The task at hand today is ideation and putting together a pitch document for a fashion launch project. I am no sketcher, so integrating AI image generation tools into my process has been really beneficial to quickly bounce off ideas and brainstorm visually. Snaps fingers to Midjourney to give me what I want:
10am A red room with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, neon lights and flat-screen TVs…
11.30am …100 iterations later – an immersive, red, exhibition room with square laboratory scaffolding and flat-screen TVs, scaffolding around the room, the ceiling and floor are made of mirrors, white smoke on the floor, red lighting, immersive lighting, dramatic – no people, house furniture.
12.50pm A full body shot of a model holding a retro phone booth handle (of course, the model is missing one finger).
12.51pm A full body shot of a model holding a retro phone booth handle (praying this one has all 10 fingers).
1pm A luxurious, all-gold arcade game console.
2pm Pink cranes on a black background.
2.30pm (No, I don’t want the animal) a fluffy pink crane game on a black background.
2.15pm A girl video game character in a full leopard dress holding a pink mini bag, a luxury dress.
Wednesday
Enough about me! The next two office days are a mash-up of the experiences of the creatives who are sitting with me (DE). We have Copywriter Ellie Lavender (EL), Designer Hannibal Knowles (HK) and UX Designer Harri Narri (HN). We all started on the same day and haven’t looked back…
HN 8.45am No need for me to show up to work this early, why do I keep doing this? At least I can eat my porridge in silence before I have to endure another day of my colleagues’ relentless optimism (Hannibal + Diandra) and savage banter (Ellie).
HN 9.30am Others start trickling into the office and we catch up about what we’ve been up to since we last saw each other 36 hours ago (nothing).
HK 9.47am Coffee foghorn. Hordes of parched, shrivelled creatives crowd around to check out the graphic design of this week’s coffee bag. The only metric that means anything with regards to how much the coffee will be enjoyed.
EL 10am I read The Know’s newsletter, which tells me what I need to know. Today it’s the birth of a giant otter in Yorkshire.
DE 12pm Getting really hungry… contemplating putting “early lunch?” on the chat but decide I’ve got Figma components to clean up, so leftover lunch made from from last night’s dinner is the reward.
HN 12.30pm Spend the morning giving myself a headache trying to design the UX of a digital 3D model we’re building for a client. Start fantasising about lunch – though it still feels like a lifetime away. Do I brave the rain outside and get my third meal deal of the week? Or do I stare down the barrel of financial ruin and treat myself to lasagne and wedges from the office cafe? A lengthy debate with the desk gang presents compelling arguments for both sides. Stay tuned.
HN 1pm I go for the lasagne, once again proving that money really can buy happiness.
HK 2.01pm A long afternoon stretches out in front of us all. A daunting prospect for the steeliest of souls. This is where the Desk GangTM comes into its own. Emotional support is the name of the game. It’s not about cold, calculated solutions. But love, care and a shoulder to cry on or even a hug.
EL 2.55pm Before that 3pm feeling hits, Diandra makes me a matcha latte. She convinces me that she makes a good one since every single one that I’ve tried tastes like grass. I give her an Easter egg cookie in return.
HK 4pm sharp – tangerine time. Or is it a mandarin? Or a satsuma? Or an easy peeler? Is an easy peeler even a species of small citrus fruit? This happens daily and without fail.
HK 4.02pm With tangerines hastily ingested and a sugar boost surging across the desk, a lift in social mood takes us. “What are you having for dinner?” chimes Harri. An open question to the floor. Cue 21 minutes of heated debate on whether oven pizza is a luxury and what constitutes a balanced diet.
HN 5.30pm It’s home time. I feel grateful for my dear colleagues, who put up with my usual grumpy antics as I reflect on a surprisingly productive day and I can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow.
Thursday
DE 9.37am Goooood morning! I am out of breath from my 15-minute cycle and spend 15 minutes recovering.
EL 9.45am The Know tells me a bog is being restored in the North East, but I don’t have time to investigate further. I have a 60-page deck that needs editing.
DE 10am Reality hits – I have so much to do today. I put focus time on my calendar in an attempt to weed off any meetings coming my way and put my “songs to manipulate focus” playlist on. (Is Taylor Swift’s Out of the Woods playing on a loop for three hours? Maybe.) I would collapse without my noise-cancelling headphones. Sorry gang, I don’t have much chat today.
HK 11.08am We start syncing up. Harri and I simultaneously respond to a question with one word. “Life.” That’s right, we take it on the chin. We move forward. We persevere. One word is all that’s needed. We don’t want to interrupt the feverish concentration that has taken hold of the desk.
EL 11.45am Someone is playing Pitbull on the office speakers and we all try to guess who it is. Mr Worldwide is getting me through these copy crunches.
HK 12.36pm An appropriate time to get swole. Since getting back from a job in Miami, where one’s healthy lifestyle was heavily compromised by American cuisine, there has been nothing standing in the way of me becoming an Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike.
DE 12.50pm Ping! “Synchronised break in 10 minutes.” Counting down the days when this means we get to go outside and photosynthesise together in the small patch of grass in front of the office.
HK 3.34pm Get in! A meeting in which one of the creative directors has brought their dog… heaven. Twenty minutes of trying to subtly gesture her to come over for a pat.
EL 3.48pm Hannibal messages me a live update from a meeting he’s in, a heads up that some new work is coming my way. I need to come up with some “fun” ideas for naming a brand event. Challenge accepted.
HN 4pm Really in the trenches now, only one of Diandra’s satsumas can save me. The muchneeded vitamin boost propels me for one last push.
DE 4.02pm Tangerine time.
DE 5pm Noise-cancelling headphones off, weekend chat on. The speakers on the creative floor are blasting throwback tunes to boost 5pm morale.
Friday
9.30am I go to the kitchen where I work and gather my three weapons: a focus drink (coffee), a fun drink (orange juice) and a hydration drink (water).
10am Stand-up calls for a digital project we’re working on. We go through what we’ve been up to the past day and set our plans for the day.
1pm I set Fridays mostly to be a heads-down working day so today we’re spending the day doing web prototypes. Spend 30 minutes thinking about the amount of curve on a button – and end up deciding it should have sharp edges instead.
2pm Go on a little run down to the canals. Carefully timed so I don’t have to sprint back for my next meeting. If you ever see me sweating in a post-lunch meeting with my face all red… no you didn’t.
4.30pm Move to the sofa. My back thanks me.
5.29pm Send off the final design – it’s approved! Nothing like the headrush you get when you finish all the work right on the dot and close your laptop exactly at 5.30. Happy weekend!
Behind the piece
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