John Symonds Email & Phone Number

Bristol, England, Gb

Bristol, United Kingdom

Split into two main roles: 1. Through extensive knowledge and experience of the application DirectSmile that is responsible for the personalisation of products on the website in creative ways - one of the key selling points of the business. DirectSmile is a variable data processing application which also has two key purposes within FP; the first as the platform for the creation of the products themselves (imagine Adobe Photoshop and In-Design combined) and the second is the workflow/production side which is what allows the thousands of orders received each day to be previewed live on the website and generated as print-ready files at either of our two production facilities in the UK. I am responsible for ensuring this workflow is running and offering online or offline solutions for new ideas/products the business may have that might require DirectSmile or other third party applications.2. IT solutions and service management which covers the more formal IT requirements involved in ensuring processes and procedures are planned and documented, offering technical support for R&D or NPD projects as well as BAU website monitoring, alerting, escalation, incident management and resolution throughout the workflows. I work closely with our technical support third parties to help form trustworthy relations which I believe makes delivering solutions for all of the above areas fast and efficient.I am involved in many aspects of the business decisions and am consulted any time a new direction is considered.My own IT team has grown into into own department which provides new management challenges.

Bristol, United Kingdom

As the Funkypigeon business began to grow successfully in sales and in staff numbers, my role evolved further from traditional design processes into more technical solutions.The product volumes required from the business via DirectSmile demanded a higher throughout rate which meant employing additional art-workers/designers with not only a creative eye but also a technical enthusiasm as well (something easier said than found). I developed my own staff/application training program because all of the processes we developed were completely bespoke to the business model. DirectSmile was initially meant for the B2B market are we were using for the B2C market in a totally unique but design-intensive way.Today the art-working/design team has grown into into its own managed department which I am proud to have built from scratch.My role also shifted into assisting with setting up entire print-production workflows that required specking equipment, setting up monitoring an alerting policies, documenting the technical-design solutions, and writing functional test approaches and performance test approaches to prove the solutions delivered.My learning and understanding of cloud computing principles and solutions also grew quite rapidly in this role as the business migrated into AWS as it's web hosting platform.

Bristol, United Kingdom

My role at Funkypigeon at this time was principally as graphic designer assisting with both online/website design graphics and offline/print design graphics.The role involved bridging the gap between the two platforms to ensure the identity and branding delivered a consistent message and tone of voice.I major application a started working with was DirectSmile which is a variable data processing piece of software that lets a design be populated and styled graphically with different text and image content depending on association or links to databases and folder image repositories. The cards and gifts available are all built in DirectSmile.I worked closely with the developers at DirectSmile in Berlin to push the application in new creative directions in terms of what the software could achieve technically.

London, United Kingdom

I was working here as a freelance designer and worked on pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging design for a number of global brands under GlaxoSmithKline.

London, United Kingdom

Employment involved working with a very experienced and varied team of creatives on an equally varied number of design projects. My work here was primarily assisting with the development of well known national brands and applying those elements to the clients new products or services such as foods and drinks. Food and drink packaging design was the main bulk of my work from the initial conceptualisation stage, the various design development stages and final artwork stage for press production. Work often involved commissioning and liaising with freelance creatives involved in design projects externally such as illustrators.Briefs also included a number of editorial design projects for major global brands which was invaluable experience as a junior designer at the time.Other experience here involved submitting proposed solutions to different market research groups which was a new perspective to the design process that often returned surprising results.Pitch work was also a big part of the tasks I was involved in and pushing the design solutions to win new contracts was one of the key areas of my experience here.I regard my role here as essential to my development and understanding of the professional design industry and from an educational perspective I couldn't have asked for a better group to learn from.

London, United Kingdom

I started work here initially just on a work experience basis as a graduate. However I was eventually taken on as a freelancer and worked on pharmaceutical and drinks packaging design for global brands under GlaxoSmithKline and Diageo.It was a huge privilege to work on such great projects and learn very quickly how intense the design industry can be.

London, United Kingdom

I started work here initially just on a work experience basis as a graduate which eventually turned into freelance work. I worked on some prestigious branding and packaging design projects covering an airline project, a new fuel product for a major energy company as well as some conceptual work a national postal service - so all varied work which was a memorable experience. This was a great working environment and I learnt here that the team you work with and unique design processes that are adopted are what makes for successful design solutions and strategies - very much a share and share alike approach.