At Intelligent Leads, a vital part of our identity is created through graphic design and one man oversees it all. Putting his passion first, Paul Irving knows a thing or two about making things look pretty, whether it be making charts, social media posts, or even Lego at home, there’s no shut-off switch to his creative mind.
A graphic designer, in most companies, aids in the promotion of the services they provide or the products they sell. To achieve this objective, the creation of visual materials is deployed in the forms of website design, brochure design, and social media posts.
Marketing graphic design has a strong focus on building brands from the ground up and establishing a visual identity for the customers. A visually attractive design for the brand and conveying the company message is an absolute must.
Graphics and Lead Generation
Paul knows the name of the game, and that game is to “bring in as many leads as possible.” He believes that his success is measured by this fact, and that’s something he works by when creating his graphics. It is the perfect creative tool for this; by making designs that can be used for print, billboards, social media, email marketing, websites, and paid media campaigns (something Paul is very familiar with), geographical barriers can be broken down and outreach to customers can grow to wherever they are.
Paul’s Passion
It’s truly interesting to see the inner machinations of graphic design and just how it elevates a brand to astronomical levels. I wanted to know more and naturally, the only person to sit down with and have a little chat with was Paul himself to discover what insight he had on the industry and what role his plays in Intelligent Leads.
You’ll find him sitting in his quiet sanctuary at the back of the office, staring angrily at his screen, which he assures is just his perfectionist nature taking over and not an inner urge to fling his Rubiks cube across the room.
We sat down in the quiet training room of our new office building at a desk similar to one he probably sat at back in his days of high school when his love for being creative blossomed.
Interview with our Graphic Designer Paul Irving
Billy: Tell me about your role at Intelligent Leads.
Paul: “I’m basically in charge of everything graphics-wise. So, if anyone needs a chart making or any type of thing for social media or any type of picture, I’ll end up either making it all from scratch or using a bit of stock stuff from Adobe. I’m also learning how to do motion graphics.“
Billy: So people reach out to you for the things they want?
Paul: “Yeah. Sometimes I will have inspiration from doing market research to see what works and what doesn’t and I’ll try to put my own little spin on it. If someone is writing an article, they need an image, or to replace a wall of text and statistics with a graph, they come to me.“
Paul’s marketing team is a close-knit factory of many talents. Comprised of content creators, social media executives, email campaign executives, SEO specialists, and videographers – each role more often than not requires Pauls’ services to brighten up their work. To which, he is always ready to help.
His passion for his work is amplified by his readiness to help his team and this creative passion started at an early age.
Billy: What drew you to this role at Intelligent Leads or to be a graphic designer in general?
Paul: “I’ve always been a creative person. In school, I did film studies and media production and I really got into it. But, I decided not to go to University and it’s a very difficult field to get into if you don’t.
Because I didn’t have a qualification, they signed me up for an apprenticeship and through that, I have learnt a lot in many aspects of marketing. When I passed, I went into the graphic design role as that’s what was available at the end. So now I was just focused on creating graphics. Being able to put these different elements together really helps my brain. I like making something new, it’s like a jigsaw when you’ve finally put all the pieces together.“
Paul’s love for puzzles is evident in the Rubiks Cube he carries everywhere and has dedicated a lot of time to figuring out. The answer to the puzzle though is a sacred equation, one that cannot be shared here.
What can be shared is the intricacies of graphics and how important they actually are.
Billy: How does graphic design add value to your company?
Paul: “If you just have walls of text on content, it can look quite plain. A lot of people take in information in different ways; people like to read it, interact with it, or even just to watch it. I think having graphics in content can really help boost whatever the end goal is.“
Billy: Are there any brands you look at for inspiration?
Paul: “It depends on what the thing is. If we’re going for a comedic tone that’s up-to-date with trends and stuff then I like to look at a brand called G Fuel. They like to use light-heartedness and they don’t take themselves too seriously. If we’re going for that type of tone, I’ll try and emulate that.
When we want to be more like LinkedIn, business-to-business type stuff, that’s when you have to use market research. I look up keywords and I will attempt to borrow aspects from multiple brands and then piece them together.“
Paul knows where to look when planning designs that are appealing but also remains rooted in how his creations are functioning. Albeit, he finds himself being sucked into the world of his computer when hard at work.
Billy: You probably operate in the mindset of functionality and marketing impact when approaching your work. How easy is it to be swept up in the aesthetics of graphic design?
Paul: “You would be surprised how much time flies. You can really lean in and lose track of time. You will start something in the morning, and you will look up and say ‘Oh my god it’s 1 o’clock!‘
For instance, I had to make a bunch of road signs that had the names of cities on them. In total, there was 203. It took me an entire day and you don’t feel like it’s gone. You just get into and rhythm and that’s the good thing about it, you don’t get tired of it.“
Getting lost in the work is just part of the day-to-day for graphic design but it’s important to understand your audience rather than just make something that the designer ‘thinks’ will look good. It might, but this won’t be the case for every single audience member exposed to your work – Paul talks about how personal experience helps overcome this barrier:
Billy: Understanding your audience is a huge part of the graphic designer creative process, how do you approach figuring out who your audience is?
Paul: “I tend to draw on personal experience. When we target Wales, I look to my partner who is from there as she will know certain things that people from England wouldn’t know. There’s British Houses of Parliament in London but you’ve got ones in Wales and Scotland. For us, we might not know that as people from England but someone in Wales would recognise it. You need as many opinions as possible to know if you’re doing a good job or not.
So, knowing your audience and understanding that we don’t want to offend, and we don’t want to assume. That’s the worst thing you could do is say ‘They should know what that means.’ What if they don’t? We must remember that they might not know this.“
While these goals are always at the forefront of the graphic designer mind, it’s ultimately the leads they generate that matter. This is the metric used by Paul to understand if he has delivered a piece of work that has done its job and one that is used company-wide.
Billy: How do you measure your successes?
Paul: “On the leads that are generated. The main part of our job is to bring in leads for the sales team. My graphics are going to be measured on the: ‘Does this bring in leads?‘
It was a hard learning curve for me to begin with. I’d spend days on a graphic to make it perfect. I quickly learned that perfection doesn’t always deliver the results I want, especially when I work on ad campaigns for Facebook and Instagram. Straightforward, direct and to the point often works better – it’s about understanding your audience.“
One example was a simple piece he made; a stock image, and fun facts, with a total production time of 20 minutes saw the company achieve the lowest cost per lead it has ever attained.
Paul: “Sometimes simplicity is the best thing, and you don’t want to overcomplicate it. As a perfectionist, I always want to make the best thing possible, but I need to remember that it doesn’t always need to be the best thing possible. For me, it just needs to be good enough for them [the customer].“
This belief also translates to Paul’s integration with new starters and his special insight as a graphic designer has given him an edge that allows him to provide aid to those who are going through a similar learning curve at the start, just like he did.
Paul: “When new people come into the business, they will be a similar way – it’s funny to watch them saying things like “No, it’s got to be perfect, it’s got to be perfect!” It’s weird being the one on this side of the desk telling them I’ve been there.
12 months ago… that was me.
It’s hard to tell someone. Because you’re not telling them to ‘do it crap’ or ‘do a bad job and it will work’ – it’s not guaranteed to work. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
It’s just about accepting that part of it.“
Paul’s graphic designer journey has been long and not without its hurdles but turning a 10-year-old hobby and passion into a job you get to do every day shouldn’t be that easy and he respects that. He also has some wise words for those looking to take the same road as him:
Paul: “Just keep going. There were many times in the apprenticeship that I wanted to drop out of it because I knew joining up that I wanted to do graphic design or videography. That’s all I wanted to do.
They were getting me to do a bit of everything, and some things were just not my strong point. But at the end of the day, I’ve absorbed all that information and can still help out in some ways with the rest of the team.
I did this as a hobby for 10 years then I was fed up of the job I used to be in and then I went to do the apprenticeship.
If it’s your hobby and passion, you should never let anything get in your way. What will be, will be. You will get there in the end, just keep going.“
It’s hard to listen to Paul’s journey and not be inspired. His determination and passion to be a graphic designer, as well as his attitude towards helping his team, has been a consistent way of life for him the past year and now he can proudly say he’s reached his goal through Intelligent Leads. Where even to this day he continues to grow.
Paul: “Intelligent Leads took me on through an apprenticeship and… it’s unbelievable how far I have come.“
Billy: Sounds like you’ve put a lot of hard work into getting where you are-
Paul: *Laughs* “Just a bit.“
