Tell us a bit about your business
My business is called Design72 and it covers visual branding, design and content. In a nutshell, I can make your brand look better and consistent. I can also create short videos which tell your story to your customer. This can be anything from a TV advert, digital billboard to a facebook ad. Every product or project has a purpose and story behind it, and I love bringing those stories to life through film, video, text or animation.
What made you go into this creative industry?
Although I was naturally good at drawing, I didn’t really understand or get fine art, so graphic design was the right choice for me – it’s all about communicating, problem solving and selling ideas so I did a BA in Graphic Design and Communication.
However, corporate advertising didn’t appeal to me, I found I had a natural flair with video, audio and editing. So I applied for a 2 year TV production trainee graduate scheme – the first of its kind at ITN. That’s how I learned motion graphics and animation. I’ve worked mainly in the television industry, although recently I moved into the NGO sector leading an in-house team for a charity. One campaign film I worked on has been shortlisted for Charity Film Awards 2020, so fingers crossed!
What’s unique about your business that you would love to share with us?
The name actually refers to digital design. 72 is the dpi or ‘dots per inch’ (sometimes known as pixels per inch) which is the on-screen resolution for digital and broadcast standard.
Another interesting fact: I produced a 3 minute infogfx animation called #GirlsEmpowered about the global impact of educating girls. I wasn’t too enamoured by it as it was rushed and a bit sloppy. However, when it was played at the ‘Unfiltered’ event where Al Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan was the keynote speaker, it had an amazing response and applause! It was called ‘inspirational’ by many high profile guests. No one was more surprised than me… that’s the power of story telling!
What did you want to get from Forge?
When you’ve been doing the same job for years, there’s a danger of losing sight of what is happening in the rest of the creative industry. I wanted to connect with local creatives as I am a great believer of community; and as I move towards consultancy, I wanted to make sure my knowledge is bang up-to-date to enable me to manage my company as best as I can.
What aspects of Forge have you started to implement already? I found the financial advice really useful. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Excel so the book keeping part is something I have started purely from the workshop, much to my accountant’s delight. I think we have finally found our happy place!