A day in the life of…Millie – Senior Graphic Designer at Torpedo.

With more ideas and imaginative solutions than you can shake a stick at, our inspiring creative team is packed with talented designers. Here’s what Millie, one of our Senior Graphic Designers, has to say about working at Torpedo….

What’s your role at Torpedo and how long have you been here?

I’ve been at Torpedo for just over five years and I’m a Senior Graphic Designer. 

What exactly does your role entail? Can you run us through what you might get up to today, for example?

I work closely with Client Services, so today, for example, I’m working with one of my colleagues on a presentation for a client, presenting a whole load of assets we’ve created for them.

Day-to-day, my role is varied, and I work with lots of different clients. I could be working on a job at the ideas stage, presenting concepts, or on digital or print campaigns. Recently I worked on a fantastic OOH campaign, and I travelled to London to see some of the OOH work we’ve done, which included station takeovers and ads on the underground. 

What tools/resources/people do you depend on to get your job done?

Adobe Creative Cloud is our absolute go-to, but I rely on all sorts of apps really. I work a lot on Photography Plan, Lightroom and Photoshop and then for any print campaigns I’ll be using InDesign and Illustrator; those are my main tools.

Obviously, the team use many different tools to communicate, especially Teams. We really like Miroboard too! It’s like a huge mood board that everyone can add to – very handy when starting a new job as everyone can pitch in with ideas, pictures, and drawings at the same time. I also use my iPad quite a lot; I find ProCreate is great for quickly scamping ideas that you can bring straight into Illustrator. It’s great for technical drawings too. I rely on mine a lot. 

What do you love most about your job at Torpedo? What’s the highlight of your day?

My team. There are so many talented people surrounding me, and everybody has got something you can learn from. Whether it’s their own hobbies or their own speciality, everybody is very passionate about what they do. There’s just so much knowledge in one space. It’s just amazing.

Everyone here is just so keen to help you and explain things to you and share their passion – that’s definitely the highlight of my job. People are so kind and friendly and interested in what they do. It makes for a really positive working environment, and it’s definitely the highlight of my day. Coming in and just talking to my colleagues – it’s great.

Even when working from home, you know you can call them up, and people are happy to talk to you. You always know you’ll be greeted with a smile!

And what do you find the most challenging?

I would say that as a creative, anything you do is subjective, so that’s quite challenging. You might think, “this idea is the one”, but it might not be exactly what the client wants, so we’re always working with client expectations and feedback to ensure that we’re delivering what our clients want. Navigating that is one of the challenges, but it makes it interesting. We approach these things as a team, so there’s lots of discussion, lots of input and feedback, and sharing our work and concepts to make sure that we are covering our bases and really delivering for the client. 

Is there a particular piece of work/project that you’re really proud of?

It would probably be the most recent one, a large OOH campaign for a new client. The project covered several European countries and included taxi wraps, double-decker buses, and various ads in all kinds of places. That was really challenging because we were getting specs through in different languages, so there was a lot to figure out. It was so rewarding to see this campaign come to life. We’ve been receiving pictures from the client of our ads all around Europe, which has been exciting. The client’s team even sent us a selfie at a bus stop that displayed the ad!  

What did you see yourself doing when you were a kid?

I was always the kid that had felt tip pens and glue sticks. Our kitchen table was always completely covered, and my dad would say, “Millie’s at the clippy/sticky again” – I was always doing something creative.

I was at GCSE level before I even realised that graphic design was a thing, and my art teacher was very helpful at guiding me and helping me realise what was out there in terms of jobs. I did an art foundation, and I tried out every possible type of degree that you could do relating to art and design, but my taster for graphic design showed me that this was the one for me. I enjoyed the communications side of things; for me, graphic design was the full package. 

If you weren’t a graphic designer, what do you think you’d be?

Probably an art teacher. I’ve always thought that maybe it’s something I’ll do later in life. I think I’d love it because my art teacher had such a huge impact on me and was so pivotal to where I ended up. I think one day I’d like to be that person for somebody else. 

When your OOO is on, what are you likely to be doing?

I’ll probably be somewhere walking my dog, or I’ll be on holiday. I love travelling to unusual places and exploring somewhere new. We went to the Philippines just before the pandemic and that was absolutely beautiful. 

What’s your favourite memory of working at Torpedo to date?

One of the many parties – we’ve had some pretty good ones! My favourite one has to be the evening we had at the top of The Gherkin. It was brilliant seeing everyone dressed up and celebrating Torpedo’s 15th birthday. Also, it was amazing to reflect on how far Torpedo has come and how much we’ve grown.

There are so many memories of funny moments in the office, including some of the eating challenges – but there are too many to mention! 

Can you give us an example of something you find inspirational?

This famous quotation by Maya Angelou really resonates with me. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of the power that communicative and emotive design has and helps me see the bigger picture and not sweat the small stuff so much! 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”