What's it really like to be a part of the Design By Humans workforce? Are we all just a bunch of robots or is there really a person answering all your forum questions? Does our office have any fun at all? Find out in this week's "Day In The Life Series" (DITLO): DBH Staff. This week we follow your fellow DBH Blogger (me!) Megan.
Day in the life: Megan, DBH Content Commander
I transferred to Chico State University in early 2013 to pursue a degree in Graphic Design and was desperately in need of a job. Luckily, I heard Design By Humans had a couple of open positions in Social Media and Copywriting from a Chico Alumni. I researched DBH and was psyched to find a local company that was dedicated to great art and outstanding artists all over the world. I eventually got hired on as the DBH Social Media Manager, which I took care of for a short period of time. Katya (read her DITLO here!) eventually took on our Social Media accounts and I took over Copywriting and Blogging here at DBH. I've really enjoyed blogging for Design By Humans and I love your feedback on the blogs (especially you, Biotwist).
What are some of your favorite Design By Humans designs?
Sploosh by MeganLara Let's just say I watched the new season of Archer in one sitting. I LOVE that show. And Pam? She might just be my favorite. I love this rendition by MeganLara.
Glitch Don't Kill My Type by Roberlan As a designer, I'm a big fan of typography. This shirt made me laugh and I had to have it. I always get compliments on it from other designers in class.
So, What's It Like To Be Megan?
8:00 am - Sweet jesus I (was) asleep. My cat Maverick pounces on my stomach and decides it's time to get up, even though I don't have class for another hour. This semester my school schedule has been hectic (I graduate in December!) and I am extremely lucky to have such a great team and bosses at DBH that work with my schedule. *cough Kevin and Jeff* :D
9:30 am - Still struggling to wake up in the middle of my advanced design class. We're coding mobile apps and it's like hell on Earth - especially this early. As you can tell, my classmates love my design-related DBH tees (this ones a DBH oldie by MasterControl). They're always interested to see what new designs I wear to class - we're all art nerds!
Noon - Just getting into DBH headquarters and someone's brought cookies (again?!) I sneak past the golden baked goodies and make my way to my desk. I'm greeted with a wave of marketing emails from my boss Kevin about new sales, contests and more that we need content for. I sift through our newsletters for content ideas and read all your amazing blog comments.
1:30 pm - My workload continues to increase with the introduction of a flash weekend sale (FREE Worldwide Shipping anyone?!). I'm trying to multitask writing a sale blog with hand-picked awesome t-shirts and a massive Press Release, and I've started making faces at Katya from behind her computer monitor.
1:35 pm - Making faces at Katya has escalated to a full-on nerf gun war. Although our nerf guns are no match to some of our coworkers' - we try our best to defend our territory. We fail miserably. WE'LL WIN SOMEDAY.
2:45 pm - Time for our Marketing Team meeting. Katya, Kevin and I huddle up and start discussing brand new content, contests and sales for DBH. We're currently recovering from Black Friday and Cyber Monday whiplash - but isn't the Tee Grinder 2.0 the COOLEST thing you've seen since (dare I say it?) the Original Tee Grinder! If you haven't checked it out yet, take a look. By the way, we've still got some tricks up our sleeves. Check back soon for some amazing New Years 2015 content :)
3:30 pm - Try to *NOT* sneak up on our designer Josh to ask him about the status of some blog graphics and I still startle him. There's no avoiding it! He reminds me I need to wear sneaky shoes. We talk design until we start getting weird looks - not everyone understands the joy in finding free PSD mockups and typeface pairing websites haha.
3:45 pm - Since it's December, I'm contemplating blog ideas for cool winter themed t-shirts. Snowflakes and hot chocolate, anyone? Also, let's see some more Santa designs, artists! At the same time I'm also finishing up some graphics and content for the DBH Gift Guide (which almost consumed my soul). I know my soul is already questionable because I'm a ginger (so I've been told), but hey, a girl's gotta try.
4:05 pm - I'm looking through brand new and classic designs while writing new blog content, but there's still a LOT of pop culture references I still don't get, which is why I worship Katya. She explains to me why Totoro is not a cat OR dog and why Link is not Zelda... To be fair I've come a LONG way and I can usually figure out your pop culture mashups, but I'm sure Katya would beg to differ haha.
4:50 pm - If I'm extremely lucky, my mother will call me at EXACTLY 4:50pm. I send it to voicemail. She leaves me a 5 minute message asking when I'm coming home to visit (NEVER! MWAHAHA).
5:00 pm - I'm finishing up some last minute coding to get blogs scheduled for next week. Depending on how I want the blog to look, I may need to ask Brent to help me out (he's one of our coders and UI masters). He sighs audibly but always helps me out when I can't figure something out.
5:30 pm - It's time to head out of the office. I make sure my nerf gun is reloaded, glare at Katya's dead plants (she argues they're not dead), and shuffle my half-filled water bottles around.
6:00 pm - I've just arrived home and I can hear my cat Maverick whining from the end of the hallway - as if I'd horribly abandoned her all day and was never coming back. I open my bedroom door and see she's opened all the bathroom cabinets again (it's like reliving that scene from The Sixth Sense every single day.). It doesn't get any less creepy, believe me.
7:00 pm - On good days I can get my friend Liz to avoid the gym and grab some AMAZING pho with me at The Noodle House here in Chico. It's the best place in town!
8:00 pm - By this time I'm usually swamped with design homework, whether it's creating logos for my corporate identity class or trying to fix up my website for my presentation class. This last semester has really been a wild ride.
12:00 am - By now, I'm contemplating going to sleep. I'm a bit of a night owl and once I get designing, its hard to stop. Tomorrow is going to be rough...