We all know Mondays suck.
Each week, I will feature a Monday in the life of someone who can provide some comfort/humor/inspiration to the start of your week.
Meet Ashley Wells!
Ashley is a Senior
Graphic Designer at a large design & print company in Central Florida.
For the longest time I always
assumed people know what graphic designers do, but over the years I’ve found
that’s not always true! I went to school for design, so I learned how, why, and
when to do particular things that pertain to design. I know why you should use
this color instead of that one, which font will suit your job, and how to prep
it for print, among a million other skills design school teaches you. My areas
of expertise are color theory, typography, editorial and environmental design,
and photo editing/manipulation.
5:45 am
My first alarm goes
off, but I hit snooze twice before I finally get up at 6. I shuffle to the
bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.
6:15 am
I feed my pets and give
my cat his morning medicine before taking my dog outside. (My cat has asthma
and hyperesthesia, so he gets a puff of his inhaler and some liquid
anti-seizure medication mixed into his food.)
6:30 am
I was lazy last night
and didn’t wash my hair, so I spritz in some dry shampoo and put it up into a
ponytail for the day. I also put on my makeup, a task I really enjoy doing
since I love makeup and have drawers full of it. My boyfriend and I text back
and forth while I’m doing this, too. He’s gone on an away rotation for med
school and we try to say hello before our days begin.
7:00 am
I pack up my lunch (a
salad, greek yogurt, and a mozzarella cheese stick), get dressed, and head out
the door.
7:20 am
I have a 30 minute
commute to work, most of which consists of me sitting in heavy traffic on the
interstate. My exit is backed up for two miles today, so there’s lots of
sitting and waiting.
7:55 am
Most mornings I stop at
a 7-Eleven by my work for coffee, since I rarely have time to wait in the long
lines at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. This morning I get a cafe con leche and a
banana.
8:05 am
I pull into my parking
space at work and get myself clocked in for the day. I spend an hour or so
reading emails and checking on the status of my job tickets.
9:00 am
We bill most design
clients by the hour, so we clock in and out of each job through an online time
clock. I clock into my first job of the day: revisions on a 32-page conference
agenda for an insurance association. I make some minor text edits before
sending the final proof back for one last review. The job is finally going to
print today, too.
10:00 am
I send final artwork
and dieline files to an outside printer that is taking care of a job I did for
a bank.
10:30 am
Time to start on a new
job. One of my recurring clients is a local Catholic church that has me update
and theme their monthly petition slips.
12:00 pm
Lunch time! I’m not
very hungry and I’ve got plans to meet friends for dinner, so I only eat half
of the lunch I brought.
12:30 pm
Back to work. I have
to visit another computer in the building because a client sent us a Quark file
to pull information from. We haven’t used Quark (a desktop publishing and
design software) in a long time and only one computer in the building has it -
I guess for instances like this.
1:00 pm
I revisit the Catholic
church petition and finish it up. As I’m exporting a proof, the insurance
association gets back to me and gives their latest proof the thumbs up. Off to
print it goes! I print a hard proof and fill out some paperwork before handing
it over.
2:00 pm
I read through some
emails and notice a client has emailed me to say they loved the work I did on
my company’s recent Halloween self promotion. It’s always nice to get
compliments from clients, especially when it’s not even on their own projects!
2:30 pm
My desk is piled in
proofs and random pages of notes, so I clean it up and do some filing. I like
to keep samples of all my print projects so I can put them in my portfolio.
I’ve got that on the forefront of my mind because I’ll be looking for a new job
in the spring. In March my boyfriend will get matched into a residency program
and I’ll be moving with him. We’ll have no idea where we’re going until match
day! Residency begins in July, so we’re moving in June, which means I’ll have 4
months to find a new job in our new city. I’ve put off updating my portfolio
before and won’t be making that mistake again!
3:00 pm
I revisit a community
map job for a home builder and add in schools, restaurants, stores, parks, etc.
to help entice buyers. I use Google Maps to find their locations and place them
on the map I made.
4:50 pm
Time to go home! It
takes a bit longer than usual because of more heavy traffic. It’s not been a
good day for commuting.
5:40 pm
I feed my pets and take
my dog out for a walk.
6:30 pm
I meet my friends at a
Chuy’s, a tex-mex restaurant for dinner and drinks. We sit there for hours,
chatting and catching up. They’re my best friends and we normally have dinner
together once a week.
9:00 pm
I’m back home and force
myself into the shower before giving my pets their nightly medicines and
walking my dog one last time.
10:15 pm
I collapse into bed
while texting my boyfriend. It was one of those days where we didn’t get to
talk much. We usually FaceTime every night, but we’re both exhausted so we skip
it tonight. I turn on my white noise machine (I like rain sounds) and fall
asleep within minutes.
Want to learn more about what Ashley has going on?
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