This year has been a good year for Q Print and one of the things we are most excited about is welcoming Amerjeet Sira to the team. Amerjeet is a graphic designer and works very closely with the founder, Raina, to create amazing print designs for our client projects. We wanted to introduce you to Amerjeet so thought we would sit down with a cuppa, and find out more about her – here is what she had to say:
1. How long have you worked as a designer?
I have always been interested in design and worked as a graphic designer for 15 years.
2. What career path did you take to get here?
I have always been creative at heart from a young age and followed my passion. At school I took graphic design as one of my GCSE options and I absolutely loved it! After school I then went onto college to study a GNVQ in Information and Communication Technology. One of the modules was multimedia and I absolutely LOVED the creative thinking side of it. When I finished my 2 year course, I discovered that there was a graphic design course at one of the other college campus’ I was studying at, I was SO excited. I went on to study for a further 2 years to do a BA National Diploma and an A -Level in Graphic Design. Finally, I went onto studying graphic design at De Montfort University and graduated with a BA HONS Degree in 2008.
After graduating I went on to get my first job, as an In-house Graphic Designer, where I worked on some amazing client projects supporting both B2B and B2C clients on a variety of well known FMCG household brands. After 11 years working on various brands such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Costa Coffee, M&S, John Lewis, I decided to go self-employed full time in 2019. I decided to make the transition to self-employment as the agency I was working for was relocating the design team to Leeds – this meant I would have had to re-locate, which was not an option for me.
3. Explain more about how you work with Q Print
I work with Raina and the Q Print team to support their small business clients with their print projects including: creating marketing literature, brochure design, branding and anything design related. I found Raina when I needed to print something for a personal project. I did my research and loved how caring and helpful she was when discussing my project requirements. She was so focused on helping me, her approach really resonated with me, and her values felt like they were very much in alignment with mine. I love Raina’s energy, her thought, care and passion for what she does. We started chatting, over the years we connected and haven’t looked back since 🙂
4. What do you most enjoy about your role?
Being self-employed I love working with different people on a diverse range of projects. I love combining my creative and digital knowlege, being able to support clients by creating the design solutions they are looking for, ultimately helping them to achieve their business objectives.
5. What do you least enjoy about your role?
That’s a tricky one. Probably the fast paced and constant technology changes with design software and keeping up with it all. At the same time, I enjoy it as I love to learn new things.
6. Describe yourself in five words
This question really made me think, the words I would use are: positive, caring, friendly, reliable and organised. All really useful in my role.
7. Tell me one thing about you that we might not know
I have been on TV twice. For the first time in the early 90’s with my school on a game show “80 Seconds Around the World” with Timmy Mallet and Wolf from Gladiators. The second time was as a background person walking out of the Argos Store in 2008 for their TV ad. Both great experiences.
8. What is the one learning you would tell your younger self?
You don’t have to have it all figured out; don’t be hard on yourself, or afraid to learn. Enjoy the journey.
9. What tip would you give to someone wanting to do what you do?
Keep going! Silence the outside noise, there will be challenges along the way but they will make you stronger and you’ll learn from them. Don’t put pressure on yourself and always feel free to reach out to a professional graphic designer or design agency if you have any questions. I would say keep at it and you’ve got this!
10. What three challenges do you see over the next year?
I sense that 2024 is going to be a good year, here are some of the things that I think we can expect to see on the horizon that will impact the print and marketing industries:
- Artificial Intelligence: a great tool but scary, we need to work out how to use it positively.
- Canva: From a design perspective, it is a great tool but at the same time we need to ensure when people use it, it is used correctly.
- Losing the human to human connection: everything is moving toward automation and technology that we are losing the personal touch. The brands that continue to focus on the customer and keeping a personal touch will be stronger in the long run. A clear advantage for smaller businesses.
Thank you Amerjeet for your time, it has been brilliant to learn a bit more about you. If you would like some help with your creative project, get in touch with Raina and the Q Print team.
