Graphic creation plays a big part in my role at Venture Motion. ranging from visual content for websites to social media and blog posts allowing me to showcase my broad skillset in design.
Blog: What is a decision engine and
how can one boost your business?
The brief: Create a series of graphics to support the blog titled, What is a decision engine and how can one boost your business? Each graphic must effectively summarise and support the body of text and follow a similar visual style to each other.
Graphics Creation
Final Decision Engine Design
1 | In line with the blog and the company's refined vision of the LendTech Decision Engine, I felt that it was fitting to revisit the design. The old design I had created early on in the apprenticeship was adequate at the time, however I felt that the design was too simple and static. My goal for the re-design was to create something that felt more dynamic and minimalist whilst staying true to the modular nature of the product.
2) I started my research into the inspiration graphics around factory conveyer belt production machines going down the route of an industrial theme. I picked out some industrial features from some examples including pipes, machine lights, levers and infused it with a modern twist with the monitor. I repurposed the old decision engine design using it as a base, I then began creating the graphic. Repurposing and re-using graphics can play an essential part of working within a short time frame.
Time Management: Time management is an essential skill that is needed as a content producer. I have had a few experiences with tasks that required a fast turn around (within 1 hour in some cases) for clients as well as in-house projects. Reflecting upon when I first joined the company, this was one of my weakest areas and over the past year I have been able to improve and meet extremely tight deadlines.
Outcome 1: After presenting the graphic to my superior, we both agreed that the, now un-used decision engine design pictured above, didn't effectively convey the modern advancement in technology that our product is. I received the constructive feedback from my superior and went back to the drawing board, this time looking for inspiration that matched the style of being minimalist, whilst also re-using the modular assets I had created for the initial design.
Repurposing Content: This is a time efficient method of working within a short time frame. As mentioned I had already created the asset so this was a case of repurposing that redesigning the decision engine.
Outcome 2: I went back to my superior with the final design, pictured above, and we both agreed that this version met the brief effectively whilst also being aesthetically pleasing. The lesson I was able to take away from this was that sometimes as a content producer, I won't always effectively meet the brief. It's important not to take anything personally in this line of work but rather work towards the end goal by taking constructive criticism to improve and this is exactly what I did. I was able to produce an outcome that not only met the brief, but also improved and tested my skills.
Credit Checking Solution Graphics
The brief: Create a series of graphics to support the individual core solutions for the Mortgage Underwriting Automation page. Each graphic must effectively summarise the content of each paragraph visually.
1 | I started off the process by collating some research into visual styles for inspiration. My aim was to create a style that was quite minimalist both in terms of design and in colour palette, so I turned to designs that used geometry and shapes within their styles, since our website also follows a similar theme. My main source of inspiration came from a website called Revolut, a financial technology company. I drew inspiration from their effective use of geometry in their graphics, and from there I began creating concepts for how I could use quadrilaterals in the form of rectangles and squares within my designs.
1 | After creating a few mock ups, experimenting with other shapes including circles and triangles, I then presented the initial designs to the team, receiving feedback and agreeing on how to proceed with the designs. The team and I agreed that the use of the rectangle offered more flexibility in terms of composition, before proceeding on with the creating the final designs for each of the core solutions.
Working as part of a team| Working effectively as part of a team is very important to ensure a smooth workflow and open communication plays an integral part of this. Whenever I start working on a brief, I always ensure to provide updates during the process to ensure two things. One, to ensure the brief is being met and meeting the standards of my superior. Two, to receive any constructive criticism and to accommodate any potential major changes. This will ultimately avoid any major last minute changes, saving time and resources by addressing any problems as early as possible in the pipeline.
LendTech Page Redesign (WIP)
The brief: Create a new layout and design for the LendTech Automations landing page for the Venture Motion website. The new layout needs to be interactive and engaging for the user whilst also remaining aesthetically pleasing.
2 | I then began the process of using the Adobe XD. Having never used the software before I decided to teach myself during the process using online resources. Adobe XD is a user experience/user interface development software used for the visual prototyping of mobile apps and websites. I found the learning curve to be quite easy since the software shares overlapping similarities to other Adobe software.
3 | This is the current progress of the redesigned page. All the features and the layout of the of the page are in place and is now ready for myself to brief our in-house developers to code up the page and create custom CMS block builders for us to use on future pages on the website.
1 | Upon receiving the brief and meeting with the team about the visual objectives, I set about looking at various websites for inspiration. I focused on websites within the finance sectors prioritising B2B websites over B2C, to understand the various styles out there whilst also noting similar overlapping styles that may appeal to our shared audience demographic. After collating a batch of websites I went back to the team highlighting various features on different websites including the navigation of the site, user experience and visual elements.