Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Johnson.
Brett, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started as a Production Designer for a large printing company that served the apartment, commercial grounds, funeral, and church markets with products designed specifically for those customers. There, I readied electronic files for imprinting presses. From my desk, they went to a plate-making area. I spent many years in that role designing imprints, re-creating logos, etc, to be printed on the products. Then a Graphic Design position on the creative team came available. It was offered to me, and I accepted.
In the Graphic Design role, my primary responsibility was catalog layout and creating production ready artwork for all printed products that the creative team and I developed. The catalog consisted of forms, signs, banners, etc, that apartment and commercial grounds facilities would use to run their business. As a graphic designer on a team of about 10, we designed the catalog and all of the products in it.
After doing mainly print design for a few years, I began to get interested in the digital side of the business. I began designing emails and web banners then eventually taught myself HTML code to work myself into the full-time digital and web work at the company I’ve been at now for almost two years. I was with my previous company for almost a decade before deciding to move on. I’m extremely happy where I am at in my career as my current role is marketing automation and email marketing.
Has it been a smooth road?
The main struggle I had early on as a designer was to not take criticism personally and not get attached to any design. With every round, the design gets better and better.
One thing I didn’t expect to see is how quickly the marketing landscape and the jobs in it change from year-to-year.
Have there been people or institutions that have played a pivotal role in your career?
My Production Design Lead. She taught me the ins and outs of all of the Adobe print software before I began a formal college education. She’s been a great mentor and friend I’ve been happy to keep a healthy connection with.
Do you have a favorite type of client or project?
I really like working with all types of clients and projects. My strong suit is page layout and organizing lots of information to communicate aesthetically. If not page layout, then I love researching and putting together infographics. For full-time work, however, I enjoy mainstream tasks such as designing and managing email campaigns, social media graphics and campaigns, and so forth.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Probably gotten a four-year degree out of high school instead of entering the workforce so soon. If I ever have kids, I will encourage them to continue their education directly out of high school in whatever form or fashion it is at that time. Who knows what the future education system will look like!
Contact Info:
- Other: Twitter.com/brettsdomain
