The next blog in our People of Pace series features our senior designer Lisa.

Lisa, who has been part of Team Pace for two years, shares her top tips for designers and explains how she is influenced by her background in illustration and how this passion is still part of her life.

The importance of the research phase

I love coming up with design concepts and seeing those ideas come to life. I enjoy the design process and I’m quite methodical in my approach. I like designs to mean something, as well as look cool, and believe the key to a good end result is putting time in at the beginning: the research phase where you define the audience, research any relevant trends, identify competitors, where will the logo be seen etc. A good idea will almost present itself if you have nailed these things down.

Take inspiration from unusual places

We recently launched Future Humber’s new branding and I feel we achieved a great result because we did so much initial research. It made sense to use the Humber Bridge for inspiration but I wanted to use it in a unique way, so in studying the bridge I found recognisable but simple shapes that give the logo a more modern look. The four bright colours represent the four pillars of their work – people, place, partnership and planet. The shapes also correspond to four syllables in the organisation’s name.

Last year I created an animation for Bio-D’s new dishwasher tablets which was inspired by the ‘Be Our Guest’ scene in the Beauty and the Beast film!

Enjoy the process!

I love being able to own a project from idea to completion and the Bio-D project was a great chance for me to do that as the initial idea was mine which I then storyboarded and animated and received lovely feedback from the client – it was a great feeling!

Passion projects are important

I’ve always been passionate about illustration and do a lot in my spare time either for fun or small projects. I especially like drawing animal characters and have an interest in wildlife conservation. I have a decade-long relationship with the Galapagos Conservation Trust – the only UK charity working solely for the conservation of the Galapagos Islands – and am currently illustrating my third children’s book for them. The series of books called Galapagos Journeys aim to educate youngsters about wildlife and the threats they face.

This has earnt me a reputation at Pace for being obsessed with turtles which is fine by me!