Junior Designer at Sovereign Design Play Systems Ltd

September 2016 - November 2017

My role was at a company called Sovereign Design Play Systems Ltd, who specialise in designing play areas for schools and councils.

My role at the company was a Junior Designer, I was part of a team of over 20 designers with varying levels of experience and skills that worked alongside a sales team to produce designs for our clients. My role was part of the larger team who designed for the school’s projects mainly.

The process started with area managers in our sales team visiting the school to find out what they desire, what their budget is, and to draw up and assess the area. This information is then passed onto me as a file containing the information as well as a rough scale drawing of the area we would be designing for. Then using Turbo CAD, I would draw up an accurate to scale version of the plans, placing all desired items into the area while checking they were compliant with all regulations and laws with it also safely fitting into the area. If an issue were to arise, I would then contact the member of the sales team involved to discuss the issues and find alternatives till a solution that suits the client’s needs was found. This 2D plan of the area was used as a vital part of the sales pitch to the client.

I would then use the list of equipment chosen along with our quote system price up how much this design would cost, then from this, we would produce a clear and detailed quote breaking down of all the prices with a final total to present to the client. Depending on if the client had specified a budget or not, sometimes we would need to contact the sales team if it went over budget to discuss how we should proceed.

Sometimes the sales team requested a 3D model of the area, this helps the client to visualise what their area will roughly look like when the work is done. All the 3D area models were created in 3ds Max 2012. The goal was to try to create an accurate representation of the area in the time we had, the more time we could spend on the file the more detailed the model was.

Finally, all the information was collected together in a presentation pack, this has all the information on the project, the company, and their sales team member inside for the client’s convenience. This would then be emailed to the client and posted if requested along with high-quality images and prints of the designs. After this, it is all up to the client on whether they wish to order the equipment or not.

Each file we worked on was given a rating, depending on the amount of areas and options, if they require a 3D or not, and if they want a bespoke or custom product or not. Each member of the design team had a weekly goal to hit based on the rating of the files, giving the company a clear idea of our performance. All files go through two stage checking before being sent out, any errors in the files are recorded and are averaged out to error per file point, this helps gauge who may need help and can clearly see if one type of error is occurring more than other so training can be given to help improve the person in that area.