Quinn: What did you want to be when you grew up?
Molly: I always wanted to be an interior designer.
Quinn: An interior designer, what when you were like 5?!
Molly: Yes! At ridiculous times of night, after my mum had put me to bed, I always used to rearrange my furniture in my room and make it look all pretty. To this day I love my interiors, so I had a desire from quite a young age to be a designer.
Quinn: So when did it transition to web design?
Garry (from the other side of the office): (when did you transition?!)
Quinn: When did you become aware that you could do what you do now for a living?
Molly: Web design specifically, in University. I took graphic design at GCSE and had a really cool teacher who told me about the different things you could do with it. It was the only subject I really properly enjoyed, did it at A Level at College, got my only A* in it, was two marks off full marks in one exam, and so that’s what I decided to do at Uni.
Quinn: Where did you go to Uni?
Molly: University of Leeds. The actual degree I did was Graphic & Communications Design, so it was more about the theory behind design and thinking about it, rather than just making something look pretty.
As part of that, I did a year in industry. It was optional, between my 2nd and 3rd year, I went out to Malta and worked for Ogilvy, an ad agency with offices all over the world on a placement.
It gave me loads of valuable experience working in a professional environment. That puts you head and shoulders above other graphic design candidates when you’re going for interviews after graduation.
After I finished Uni I got a job at size? (a branch of JD Sports PLC). I worked for them for a couple of years. I had a great boss who saw through my portfolio that web design, UX & UI was an area that I should focus on. I worked on a couple of huge projects, doing a broad range of things like web design, branding and art direction for photoshoots.
Then I moved from Bolton to Sheffield and the commute to Manchester became too much. So I quit, doing a few freelance projects to tide me over in the meantime, but when I started looking for jobs, I found Arkom!