Zoe Adams
Published 4th July 2021
INTRODUCTION
Zoë Adams is a multidisciplinary designer and recent graduate of Loughborough University. Her work focuses on creating compelling visual identities, innovating brand strategy and writing for design.
Since completing her year in industry, Zoë has used her final year at Loughborough to focus on creating a portfolio that resonates with industry and is now pursuing a career in the branding industry.
Give us your best dad joke!
Two fish in a chip shop had a fight, they got battered!
© Zoe Adams - The Good Gin
When did you know you wanted to be a designer?
I’ve had an affinity for design as long as I can remember. A pivotal moment looking back could be when I got my Blue Peter badge aged 8 presented to me on live TV. After visiting the Mary Rose exhibition down in Portsmouth, I was fascinated by the naval communication systems that boats used to communicate with each other. The boldly shaped and coloured nautical flags were used as symbols of the alphabet to send messages to passing boats, and so I created some work based on this principle which the producers seemed to love considering their show logo, is literally a big boat!
I was lucky enough to be offered GCSE graphics in secondary school which instantly became my favourite subject. I know a lot of students only discovered graphics at A Level or even Art Foundation so it was great I could get stuck into the design world so quickly. It combined logical thinking and creativity – a cross-section I still continue to explore. My teacher at the time really opened up my eyes to perusing graphics as a full-time career and I’ve never looked back.
Would you describe yourself as a perfectionist?
I used to not care about being a perfectionist, and if you ever look at the state of my desktop or my computer you will quickly realise I am still far from that. However, in the last year or two, I have really understood the value of taking the extra time to get the little details right. I used to think it was all about having this great ‘big idea’ and that was perhaps more important than the outcome itself. But in order for your work to really look elevated and crafted it is often worth putting in the extra time, it might just be what gets you an opportunity over someone else.
“I used to think it was all about having this great ‘big idea’ and that was perhaps more important than the outcome itself. ”
I found that placement year particularly pushed me to take care of the details. Where design work produced in a professional environment is being seen by the general public or people other than your university tutors there is suddenly more of an urgency to get it completely right. During one of my placements, I was creating social content for a client with 1M+ followers on Instagram and there’s definitely no room for error there! I think this put me into good habits coming into fourth year, ensuring I take extra care about my final visuals.
© Zoe Adams - 36 Days of Type
How do you think your placement year benefited you, coming into your final year at uni?
Placement year definitely benefitted me in multiple ways.
Confidence. By creating work that was going out into the ‘real world’ and realising it wasn’t awful definitely helped my confidence massively. I used to have the worst imposter syndrome when designing which I think placement year definitely helped to tackle.
Practice. Whether you like it or not, when you are working you are constantly designing and getting feedback from other designers which means you’ll always be improving.
Focus. I went back to university so focused! I had only experienced two design placements over the year but it really helped me understand which areas of design I really loved doing every day, and which bits I really didn’t care for. Even things like size of agency/organisation, style of manager and the social culture of the team can really affect how much you enjoy your design work. I came back to university knowing that I really loved the commercial/branding side of design, but I only confirmed this by trying other areas of design on placement. It’s better to find out what you don’t like on placement than in a permanent graduate contract!
Networking. Coming out of placement my network was only small, but it was definitely a start. The people I met in my year in industry continue to help me find opportunities in the creative industry because of the relationships we built back then.
A year off uni! I personally loved having a mini year out, I got to explore London carefree and I finally had some money to go travelling whilst also getting a flavour of working life.
I first saw placement year as something to tick off, so I could finally feel accomplished by having that ‘1 year’s experience’ but it turned out to be so much more than that, and I believe it should be offered more widely from university courses. They can be hard to find but can be equally as rewarding.
© Zoe Adams - Amazon Prime Air
What are you grateful for that Loughborough uni has taught you?
Loughborough taught me a lot of things I didn’t expect to learn. Loughborough really drilled in the ‘why’ behind everything you do. They teach you to think bigger, better and to take risks. The tutors really helped us to stretch and reform our projects in new and interesting ways and push the boundaries of design as you know it.
I think a standout feature of the course for me was also the focus on strategy and copywriting. As writing for design becomes more and more prevalent within the industry it was really insightful to know as a ‘designer’ you can contribute more than just visually. You aren’t limited to visual tools, you can help craft the story through compelling copy and innovative strategy. Having skills beyond design will only help you stand out as a candidate, especially as design processes are becoming more fluid and hybrid creativity is beginning to be more encouraged.
“As writing for design becomes more and more prevalent within the industry it was really insightful to know as a ‘designer’ you can contribute more than just visually.”
One module at Loughborough that really stood out to me also was the 3D visualisation module in which we were taught parts of Maya, which I’ve continued to use throughout my degree to create realistic packaging that looks commercially professional. I’ve found sometimes that mock-ups can be very limiting, especially as a student where great mock-ups are usually out of budget. By rendering your own it gives you much more flexibility over your final visuals.
Finally, I am grateful that Loughborough taught me the importance of networking. During my final year we had a module all about understanding the industry you wanted to head into. As part of the module, we had to reach out to industry to get feedback on our portfolios or to research into job roles we might want to pursue. I hated it at the time as I thought all my work was rubbish, but simply practising engaging with people on LinkedIn and email helped me find more opportunities since graduating that aren’t specifically advertised.
© Zoe Adams - Amazon Prime Air
Having secured a few great internships already, what in your opinion is the secret to creating a body of work that is attractive to design agencies?
I think a great portfolio needs to have a few solid, well thought through projects that showcase a variety of skills and thoughts. They don’t want to see your whole university degree portfolio! What are the real highlights that show off how you can add to the team as a creative?
Creative directors will be looking through so many portfolios, how will yours be any different? What will make them remember YOU? Where possible, try and tailor the work you put in. What work will fit best when compared to the work of the agency? Looking forward, can you create work that follows the same design principles/values of the agency you most want to work at?
Being brave and only putting in a few projects will probably benefit you more than thinking it’s not enough and cramming too much in.
© Zoe Adams - Herby
What advice would you give anyone struggling to find an internship right now?
The industry as we all know is tough right now, but internships are starting to open up again as agencies are welcoming a return to the office. Half the time finding a job is a numbers game - you won’t get a yes unless you put yourself out there! The best advice I ever received is just to get your work in front of people. Whether it’s through emails or LinkedIn messages with your website attached you never know who’s eyes your portfolio might end up in front of so long as you get it out there! A lot of internships aren’t advertised, you have to be proactive about it, if they like you, they’ll take you on.
Networking on LinkedIn can seem really scary, but as soon as I got over being ‘ghosted’ or simply rejected, I got more confident just putting myself out there because occasionally you get a yes!
“Networking on LinkedIn can seem really scary, but as soon as I got over being ‘ghosted’, I got more confident putting myself out there, because occasionally you get a yes! ”
Another great piece of advice from my university tutors was to ask for feedback when rejected or turned away from an opportunity. From learning what industry wanted to see more of can help direct your next work. You can even go further and ask whether any of their network might be interested in your work. We all know that design work is subjective and someone else might think your work is a great fit for their company.
© Zoe Adams - Herby
Looking into the future a little bit, could you tell us why you want to start a YouTube channel?
I have a keen passion for learning and teaching design. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I could speak about design for days on end! I also think there is a lot of space within the YouTube design community for more female creators. The content would be branding/commercially focused, think less ‘day in the life’ and more ‘behind the process’ as well as casual chat around the design industry as a whole.
I think my younger self would have really benefitted from seeing this sort of content. I think the channel would also push me out of my comfort zone - I want to challenge myself to design for different sectors/audiences/industries and I think this would be a great motivator for that.
“I think a lot of imposter syndrome within the design community stems from our inability to show our mistakes.”
At the heart of the channel is content that shows the authentic design process. The good, the bad and the ugly if you will! I think a lot of imposter syndrome within the design community stems from our inability to show our mistakes. Everywhere we look everything is beautiful. Agency websites and design blogs are full of finished pieces (that we all know went through rounds and rounds of amends before it looked like that) which can create pressure for everything we create to look amazing. I think it takes a very confident designer to be totally transparent about what didn’t work so well, or what was just ‘good’ not ‘great’. I want to be someone that normalises this.
© Zoe Adams - Herby
What would be a dream project for you to work on?
I absolutely love challenger brands. Anything that ‘zags’ where everyone ‘zigs’ is where my thinking thrives. Any project that allows me to challenge the status quo is where I want to be.
Recommended reading
Brand Thinking by Debbie Millman
Recommended listening
A Change Of Brand podcast, hosted by Blake Howard
Recommended follow
Follow Zoe
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If you’d like to reach out to Zoe, drop her an email on: zoeadams1234@gmail.com
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