A Day in the Life of Jonathan Massey

Name: Jonathan Massey

Company: Pensions Management

Job title: Head of Graphic Design

What keeps you busy all day?

My team look after design jobs from concept to production, including a wide range of products such as magazines, leaflets, booklets and websites. This means that my workload can be very varied and every day is different.

What keeps you awake at night?

I am quite lucky that I can walk away from work and relax quite easily. However sometimes when we are working on a creatively demanding project I do wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a design theme or worrying whether a Pantone colour will come out correctly! But it’s worth it in the end when you end up with a result you’re really proud of.

Describe your working day:

We start the day with a production meeting in the morning to determine our priorities for that day, and confirm who will be working on which projects. This can vary from concept and design work, typesetting booklets, setting up artwork for release to the printers and checking proofs or designing a website. I work closely with all my colleagues in the Communications team and we will often get together to discuss the brief and ideas for a particular job.

What’s your busiest time of day?

All of it!

What brands/accounts have you worked on?

Many of the projects I work on are associated with the rail industry including the larger players such as Virgin, Balfour Beatty, AMEC and Eurostar. With over 350,000 pension scheme members, effective communication and careful brand management is an important part of the service we offer for the Railways Pension Scheme. As dedicated pensions communication specialists we also provide consultancy services to non-railway clients.  I have worked with other large organisations like PD Ports based in Tees Port and Forbo (flooring) based in Scotland to deliver bespoke design and communication solutions.

Best day at work:

When I have been under pressure to meet a deadline and delivered a job that has exceeded the client’s expectations – it is a great feeling.  We recently won a new contract to redesign a full suite of pensions literature, and although the timescales were very demanding we brought the job in on time. The client was so happy with results that they entered them for industry awards.

Worst day at work:

Never really had a ‘worst day’. It’s always busy and some deadlines are tight which can be stressful, but it’s all part of the job.

Name one thing you’ve achieved that has made your bosses sit up and take notice:

The design work that I produced for our new service called rpmi (www.rpmi.co.uk) has really impressed colleagues and the directors of the company.  It was an interesting yet challenging project to produce the design work that reflected a new brand and translated across all different types of media, and the boss told me he was very impressed with the result.

Ambitions:

I would like to continue to expand the service that we provide as a team for design for web and multimedia services. This area presents different challenges and as our growing portfolio becomes more diverse I hope that this will increase.

Advice to other rising stars:

As the design industry has moved almost totally towards Apple MAC systems, it is essential to keep up to date with technology and to make sure that your company gives you the tools to produce the best designs.

Quote from the boss (Louise Harris Communications Manager):

“Jonathan manages to combine those rare qualities of creativity and productivity. He is able to take a brief and come up with design ideas that lead the creative team. We are very busy and Jonathan’s ability to make sure that projects meet the client’s requirement first time and on time makes him a priceless member of the team.”