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When April Anderson came to Victory Enterprises, she was looking for a needle in a haystack.
“There aren’t a lot of graphic design jobs available in our area. Victory was the only company looking seriously for creative talent,” said April. “It was a really unique opportunity.”
The graphic design team at Victory was looking for fresh talent that could take on a busy election cycle. April fit right into the team, but she did have a learning curve to overcome. “I wasn’t nearly as fluent in Adobe Illustrator as I was in Photoshop, but now I know Illustrator better than I ever knew Photoshop. I’m really proud of how my skills have improved throughout the challenges of this job.”
April’s main job as a graphic designer is taking concepts needed by clients and turning them into visually interesting pieces of mail, digital graphics, logos, flyers, and campaign collateral. She has now been with the Victory Enterprises team for four years and is responsible for thousands of unique designs for our clients.
Looking back, April says there are things she would have done differently. “I was always interested in design and art. I’ve been drawing my whole life but when I went to college, I avoided studying art because a lot of people tell you it’s a waste of time.” April regrets listening to those voices. “I should have started design school a lot sooner. It was worth it.”
When asked how she handles the sheer volume of design needs, April says the key is intentionality. “It is important to be able to convey certain ideas quickly in design It’s easy to replicate something you liked that you saw online, but if you want to make unique and purposeful designs, then it’s important to have a level of “intentionality” in the choices you make in your designs.”
Working in a creative field isn’t all fun and games though. “It is difficult to give every client their own unique design scheme that expresses their values, purpose, and goals when you have the number of clients that we have,” April admits. “Many of our clients are in the same industry, usually with similar messages and ideals that they want to communicate. It is a challenge to keep these from looking too repetitive.”
Thanks to her many years of experience, April has learned valuable lessons about what it takes to design a sleek looking campaign. If she could give one piece of advice to a client, she would tell them to consider their logo carefully. “It’s really easy for people to assume their logo just needs to go on a sign, but these kinds of logos don’t usually translate very well to other mediums.”
“If you want to put your logo on a shirt, in a digital graphic, or on a piece of mail, it should be designed to cover all these platforms well. Something that fills out a sign isn’t going to look good on a T-shirt.”
One thing April is specifically in charge of is creating campaign collateral and designing all the little things you pass out along parade routes or at events. When you order a sticker, car magnet, beer koozie, or palm card, April helped bring your design and dream to life.
Her favorite work is always the kind where the creative juices get to run free. Unique illustration opportunities that allow a designer to explore new spaces, both within or outside the political realm.
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When working, April likes to engage the listening part of her brain so she can focus on the design. She enjoys podcasts or long-form videos when working on personal projects. At home, she has a one-eyed cat named Laura Palmer who is not that artistic but is very supportive of April’s work.
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