Day in the Life: Zehnder Designer, Georgia Gilmore
New working mom Georgia Gilmore is a long time Z rockstar who plays a critical role on our Creative team. As a designer, Georgia works with a large variety of our clients, from healthcare to tourism and beyond. On any given day, you can find her juggling pre-production for photoshoots, creating animations for new video projects, polishing up print ads and doing so many other amazing things.
The following is a daylong look into Georgia’s work life.
7:45 a.m.: Arrive to the office feeling ahead of the curve. I routed a 72 frame storyboard to our Creative Director and Senior Copywriter yesterday afternoon as well as an updated banner storyboard to our Project Manager for internal review. I find myself with a rare moment of downtime (HA!) so I take advantage and check out a few After Effects tutorials and experiment with animations. That long storyboard we’re working on is due before the end of the month and overlaps with two out of town shoots. The video will consist of many animated infographics which can be time consuming to create. I’m doing what I can to prepare since I’ll have a short window to produce once we receive client approval of the storyboard.
9:00 a.m.: A media vendor is having trouble with some of our HTML5 banner ads. I take a look and troubleshoot. This is not uncommon - I joke that we were living in the Wild Wild West after the switch from Flash to HTML5. Often media vendors leave it to us to figure out how to package banner ads and make it work for their system. I make a test package to confirm with the media vendor that it works before I repackage for 8x other markets.
9:30 a.m.: Shout out to all the working mamas! I’m a new mom to a 5 month old. Since our office is an open working space, I set up in a private area 3x a day to pump. I always have my phone with me so I’m available via Slack and email. One time I forgot my cell at my desk. It felt like 30 min solitary confinement lol never again.
10:15 a.m.: Quick connect meeting with Account Supervisor and Creative Director to discuss details for an upcoming print shoot. There are many things to consider for a shoot like this. The exact angle to capture a scenic beach plus architecture while accommodating print ad headline and body copy. The shoot schedule for that perfect dusk lighting composited with a group of talent shot earlier in the day so not to disrupt the location’s business. Fingers are crossed for good weather! Together we pull reference images and discuss logistics. We reach out to the photographer to schedule a pre-production call later today.
10:45 a.m.: The Creative Director and I switch modes between the print shoot and video storyboard review. We discuss a few potential script tweaks and new storyboard frames. I mark up the script for our Senior Copywriter’s review and make a mental to-do list for the storyboard frame adjustments. In the meantime, we hear back from our shoot photographer so I schedule the call for our calendars.
11 a.m.: Back at my desk with plenty to do. I’ve received approval to purchase the props I researched for the print shoot, so I put in a request to our Creative Operations Manager to order. I’m collecting the print shoot reference images and preparing a pre-production deck for the call with the photographer later today. Once I submit the pre-production deck to the CD for review, I begin tackling the storyboard edits.
12:00 p.m.: Lunch + Mama duties
1:30 p.m.: Touch base meeting with Creative Director and Creative Technologist to prepare for a class visit later today. It’s a casual meeting to walk through the tour and what we want to present to Tulane Digital Design students.
2:00 p.m.: Media vendor confirmed the test banner package worked, so I package remaining market banner ads with unique UTM codes for performance tracking. Done!
2:30 p.m.: Call with photographer and our team to chat print shoot logistics. We walk through the pre-production deck with reference shots. Since the photographer lives in the client’s market, he’s planning to scout the location and grab some test shots. Great partner!
3:00 p.m.: Last of Mama duties at the office
3:30 p.m.: Tulane Digital Design students arrive for an agency tour. We play our Listen Hub and Visit South Walton Case Study videos, describe the different departments, and overview of the life of a job. A common question was how best to prepare their portfolios. In addition to showcasing a variety of their strongest work, we suggested showing some of their behind-the-scenes process. That could give a potential hire an idea of their personality and how they think creatively.
5:00 p.m.: Packing up after a productive day. There is still plenty to accomplish this month but I leave the office feeling on top of it all. Happy Friday!
A day in the life of Designer Georgia Gilmore is busy, but oh so productive. Our creative team plays a largely important role in making our clients’ dreams come true. Thanks, Georgia!
For more information on our creative services and capabilities, contact Jen Boneno at jboneno@z-comm.com.
