What a busy time it was being a Snookster! I am writing this on reflection, after my snookstership has ended, and I am working as a Junior Designer at Snook. I pursued Snook like an ardent suitor, and they managed to forgive me for spilling tea down myself and my portfolio at my sninterview. On my first day I was a bit overwhelmed by tech: Basecamp, Evernote, Google Drive, 10,000ft were things that were new to when I started at Snook.

Every Monday we have a big Monday Morning Meeting, everyone makes an effort to do a Snookspiration (you can click here to see mine). We also write on post it notes ‘Last Week I Learnt’

A bit like saying grace before a meal, except it’s before the working week.

Last Monday my ‘Last Week I Learnt’ was that being a designer involves more than design. This seems obvious, like being teacher involves more than teaching children and being a farmer is not all picking vegetables and feeding sheep – they probably also have to do paperwork, planning, tidying, and cleaning… But I still think it is worth noting that being a designer involves doing more than sketching things and sitting on Adobe. I concede that I didn’t do an internship at Snook, I did a ‘snookstership’ which is way funner and more enriching. My snookstership was awesome because I wasn’t just sitting on my mac, I wasn’t just making tea, I wasn’t just making videos, I wasn’t just making spreadsheets – I was encouraged to do all of those things, occasionally simultaneously.

Whose Round is the project I was thrown into; an alcohol awareness campaign for young people in Glasgow, with Robin the project lead as my inspiring mentor. My brief allowed me a lot of creative freedom, which I wasn’t expecting as a wide-eyed graduate fresh out of Uni. I talked to lots of strangers, via email in real life and on the phone, and got better at it in the process. Robin and I went out on many nights armed only with Golden Cones and persuaded drunken people to have their photos taken. We spoke to people who said ‘You’re promoting alcohol awareness, but we’re already drunk’. Of course there is no point promoting alcohol awareness to people who are always sober. I made a fake sick concoction and spat it all down myself on camera, for an alcohol awareness film. I went to Dundee with the Know Sugar team and spoke to people about diabetes, and made a little film about the weekend.

So being a designer turns out to involve writing pub quizzes, and being a quiz master. Growing sunflowers and emailing people. Going to meetings with interesting people who care about design. All of the exciting extra tasks that come with being a designer are the things that make it interesting. Being a snookster and a designer at Snook requires more than design skills, which is why I love doing it.

Punny title by Sam Johnson.