10 things I miss about going into the graphic design studio
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all been forced to work from home. And with no clear indication on when we will be allowed back to the office in the UK, we have to get used to it.
Being human, we always want what we can’t have, and there are things I’ve already started to miss about going into the office, here is a list of ten.
1: THE MORNING COMMUTE
Even though it was necessary travel, cycling into the office along Regents Canal gave me a nice boost to begin the day. Now we are only given one hour to get out and get some exercise in, so usually I choose to do this after 6pm.
Walking from the bedroom to the living room just doesn’t quite cut it.
2: IT’S A LOT EASIER TO SHARE IDEAS
Email, texts and phone calls are all great solutions for times like these. But sharing ideas and a vision in person takes seconds or minutes. Your colleagues are able to feel the excitement and drive to answer the design brief.
When we have to do this through email or phone it can take a lot longer to get the same message across, and when you do, sometimes points can get lost in translation.
3: THE OFFICE ‘BANTER’
Whilst sitting at the kitchen table and listening to the radio might make you chuckle a couple of times a day, it doesn’t quite compare to an ‘in joke’ within the design studio. Or taking a call from one of our clients, we can always share a joke or two.
4: LESS DISTRAcTIONS
We can probably all agree that there are certain things at home that can cause distractions. Be it pets or significant others demanding attention, family members nagging or seeing general house work that suddenly needs doing, distractions are everywhere.
Working in the studio removes all of those distractions allowing you to dedicate your full attention to graphic design work.
5: ALL OF YOUR FILES ARE ON HAND
At Navig8 we keep all of the projects we’ve ever worked on, backed up onto archives. Through our network in-house all of these files are easily found, in seconds. Now that we are all working remotely and only one of us has access to the archives, meaning any new requests from our clients to update previous work slightly needs files to be found and transferred online before we can start work on the project. Files can be quite large with all of the images / graphics included and this can mean waiting a few hours before receiving anything.
6: LUNCH
We’re lucky enough to have our studio in Fitzrovia. Meaning when lunch came around, the choice of food available to us was huge. Now I need to get up and see what I can knock together from what food remains in the cupboards from the fortnightly trip to the shop.
I really fancy a falafel wrap right about now.
7: MY DESK
I never thought I would miss my office chair. But sitting here on a wooden stool definitely makes you realise what you take for granted. Bent over a small laptop screen with a trackpad in comparison to a screen more than double the size and a mouse. Being able to ask advise and give it to colleagues is great.
8: THE TEAM
Morning catch-ups would quickly set you on track for the day. Completing large projects with the whole team would give everyone a shared satisfaction and sense of pride. A celebratory drink at the end of a good (or bad) day. Sharing music together. Sharing design that inspires you with everybody. Just sharing anything together is greatly missed.
9: CLIENTS
We’re lucky to have some great clients, and even luckier to have good relationships with those clients. Meeting up face-to-face is always fun, and very much missed. Once all of this blows over we should all have a little catch up if we can.
10: 6PM
Beer o’clock (or just end of play). Sharing great stories and having a laugh with your colleagues outside of the studio, where we don’t need to be 2 meters apart and can order a drink from a pub that’s open. Or even just the cycle home again, passing hundreds of new faces. People, I do miss them.
The way we work as graphic designers has changed for a lot of people all over the world. But at least we love what we do, so doing it alone, for a while, for others, isn’t so bad.