PPP3: Paul Quinn Email

As part of PPP we've been asked to reach out to the outside world away from the 'degree bubble'. So far I haven't really done that apart from the networking that came out of Thought Bubble. With this in mind I contacted an old school friend, Paul Quinn, who now works as a Web Developer in Nottingham. Here is his site. I haven't spoken to Paul for a few years now but know that he deals with illustrators in his line of work so I asked him these questions;

- How many illustrators usually work within a web development company?

- How do your roles interact/cross over? 

- Finally, do you have any contacts that you would advise I get in touch with to further my investigation into this avenue of work?

He replied quite quickly to my surprise with quite a long response;

"Hello Tom

Thanks for your e-mail and I am happy to answer, I will jump straight into your questions and give you some insight.

How many illustrators usually work within a web development company?

This will vary from company to company as some agency's/development companies will have different focuses. A development agency would normally have more of a focus to building and so you tend to find they they have not as many designers/illustrators. Often more than not you might find some development agencies will often get designs given to them to build or create.

Design led agencies would have illustrators within their company. I have worked at a few agencies that have been design led, by this I mean that they tend to do a lot of their work in creating e.g. film, tv, advertising, marketing, digital marketing. Therefore the requirement for design is more integral to a design-led agency. 

I do note that illustrators roles within agencies tend to follow similar to my own in that you tend to have a more broader set of skill set and one favoured skill is part of a collection. In other words an illustrator would also be able to do web design and print design.

How do your roles interact/cross over?

Our roles crossover mainly on projects where development is integral to the end product, so for example a website. On a website we would all sit down at the start of the project (project brief) and go through what it is the client wants and work from there. This is to ensure that both roles are not limited by field of view e.g. a designer might not be aware of the limitations of web design and a developer might not be aware of certain design principles and best practices (vertical rhythm/typography). 

As the project progresses both roles crossover to ensure nothing gets missed or any misinterpretation.

Finally, do you have any contacts that you would advise I get in touch with to further my investigation into this avenue of work?

Yes of course, nottingham and birmingham have a few great agencies:

http://383project.com/

https://www.weareframework.co.uk/

https://www.impression.co.uk/"

It's great to be back in touch with Paul and we're now discussing my course and his job at length, we're even planning on going out for a drink the next time I go passed Nottingham.