Design is often an afterthought. But without a best-in-class creative team your message will get lost, Ella Follis tells Matt Baldwin.
Ella Follis is a Senior Designer at Simmons & Simmons. She joined the firm two years
ago with some degree of trepidation.
After all, the jump from the glamorous world of advertising and design, working alongside some of the world’s most recognisable brands, including Disney and Marvel, to the more conservative legal industry is not one to take lightly.
But it was after the birth of her first child and returning to work that she discovered the creative agency world is not always as family-friendly as it promises.
“I hadn’t considered an in-house design role and just stumbled across Simmons & Simmons,” says Ella. “It was in the interview and the way they spoke about themselves, the working environment, the team and the different types of content the firm’s brand has to work across that won me over. It is far more challenging and creative than I had imagined and that won me over.”
The four-strong design team at Simmons & Simmons team covers video, design and animation and works across all aspects of the firm – from thought leadership campaigns, website and social media, events and staff photography through to videography
And just like a creative agency, the team will take a brief, conceptualise assets and work with their internal clients to deliver stand-out pieces of work.
“We manage a busy workload and work with very different personalities across all our offices, often having to channel ideas to uphold and improve the firm’s brand. It’s not just partners that we include in our ‘client list’, we work with all business services teams from HR to legal ops, pro bono and, of course, within the marketing and BD function, covering pitching, events and internal comms. Just like an agency working across multiple brands, each team and project is very different.”
Unlike an agency, where designers focus on one area of expertise, Ella and her team get to work across many different aspects of design, from video editing and podcasting to animation and workflow automation. It is, she says, a terrific way to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
“It has boosted my confidence, and I have found a real love for areas of design that I just would never had the chance to explore in a creative agency.”
Ella and the team have created the processes and workflows to enhance the Simmons & Simmons brand across all of its channels and client touchpoints.
“We have created a suite of templates that colleagues can use for more everyday items, such as presentations, leaflets, emails and social posts to free up our time to focus on the hig-impact ‘wow moments’.
Brand and how that is translated through design is vitally important to the firm, argues Ella. “We are a forward-thinking firm, and our brand must reflect that. Dropping a logo into a PowerPoint slide or a Word document will never reflect that.
“Design too is critical to clear communication,” says Ella. “It doesn’t matter how good the writing or message might be, it will be let down if the design and delivery are poor. We are always looking for that hook or ‘wow’ to pull people in and gain attention and interest.”
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