As we continue to explore the diverse career opportunities in the world of iGaming, we take some time out of Paula’s busy schedule to talk about her role as a Graphic Designer. Paula started her journey at Hero Gaming as an Office Manager and HR Assistant and her strong passion for anything that involves creativity enabled her to continue developing in her career and move into a more creatively fulfilling role; Graphic Design. She shares some great insights and advice directed at anyone who would love to kick-start their career in this field.
What does it mean to be a Graphic Designer? What should one expect as a typical day?
Being a Graphic Designer means working hand in hand with any department that requires a message to be sent through the form of a visual. People tend to understand images easily, so our role involves trying to communicate a message through more engaging formats. In igaming, we bring a fun element to our brands and connect to our clients through fun and exciting artwork. This can be through banners, email campaigns, or our casino platform directly.
Is this sounding like it could be something you’d enjoy doing? Let me help you picture better what you would be doing! A typical day usually starts with assessing all the tasks that have been created through our ticketing platform – a very important step that will dictate the workflow and deadlines you need to reach in the coming days/weeks. Planning is crucial as you will have to work with tight deadlines while keeping time for any urgent tasks that will need to fit in those hours.
We also have daily team meetings to confirm that urgent tasks have been seen and picked up. In this space, we also give feedback, discuss our upcoming projects, and brainstorm together so we can then all start working on our tasks.
How would you know if you’d succeed in this role?
One of the most important traits to have is creativity – whether you paint, love to cook, or like to design, these are all things that show a flair of creativity and your passion for exploring new things. Being creative will help you think outside the box, give your work an edge over that of others, and it will also help you keep those innovative ideas going.
Moreover, if you love the excitement of playing online games, then you can relate well to the work that is being done at Hero. You can take on those feelings and find ways to get your clients feel the same rush you do when you buy a new game, begin a tournament, or reach high scores etc. With graphic design, the more passionate you are about the industry and the products you’re working on, the better the outcome of your work will be.
What are the main challenges you will be faced with in this position?
Like any other career, graphic design also has its challenges. Given that your role involves serving other teams, you need to be excellent at time management as you won’t always be able to plan ahead for all the tasks or projects you are assigned to do to deliver on time. You need to be ready to evaluate the task, understand the end goal, and be prepared to ask questions from your colleagues to give the best results possible.
Being organised will enable you to thrive in this position as most of the artworks requested will include assets that have been used in the past or that need to be sourced, so it is of utmost importance to save your work in an organised manner as knowing your folders will enable you to be quick and find things in the future.
What are the benefits that revolve around this opportunity?
The beauty of this role is that you generally are quite free to try out different ideas and express your own style. Brand guidelines are of course, something you will need to follow but your creativity is not limited to so many varied tasks being requested.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start in this career?
Despite having completed a degree in graphic design, I still firmly believe that if someone really wants to succeed in this career, being self-taught is one of the most important things to prepare for. Most of the skills I have carried on have been learnt through the obstacles I faced when working or studying, all of which were solved by being curious and researching those issues or challenges. Furthermore, as designers, our greatest tools are our softwares, and knowing these will give you the biggest possible advantage. So brush up on the latest applications, find the latest trending tools, and follow some sources to keep yourself up to date.
Lastly, you should be ready to work under pressure. Even though this might sound scary, it is by far the most exciting part about the role – it adds to the adrenaline of the job. The challenges you face and the hard work you put in whilst working closely with different colleagues, will always make the end result very rewarding.
Paula AnastasiGraphic Designer
