Employee Spotlight: Matt

We’ve expanded… AGAIN. Our design team recently welcomed Matt to the family! We had a chat with him to find out more about him, his history, and his love for green tea 🍵

The Work Stuff 📈

Tell us a little bit about your role of Junior Designer here at dmt.

As a junior designer, I work with many different brands to try and create the best designs for them that meet their briefs and help their brand. I also keep learning and improving my skills as a graphic designer by working with all these brands and receiving help from other colleagues when needed which has helped me become the best at my role that I can be!

Tell us about your background. What led you to this career/industry?

I feel that I’ve always been a creative person and interested in branding and design but I first properly got into graphic design about six years ago in sixth form. I did product design and was tasked to design a chocolate box.

When creating the design for the packaging we used some of the Adobe programs which really interested me. From there I did Graphic Design & Animation at The University of Huddersfield which for my third year I did a placement year at an agency in Wakefield. I have just finished my final year of university this year and I’m so happy that dmt. is my first role straight out of uni. I’m absolutely loving it! I think everyone is so lovely, welcoming and helpful so I feel that I’ve settled in very well.

What is something unique that you think you bring to the role?

I feel that I have a lot of different experiences from all the different types of briefs I’ve taken part in, especially some of the weird briefs at uni and doing designs for friends which help me apply unique ideas to my role. Uni also taught me animation which has been a huge help to this role as I have already used the programs and know the basics which I can’t wait to improve on!

What’s something you want your colleagues to know about you?

I was born in South Africa and moved to Wakefield in the UK in 2009. My surname is Afrikaans and it’s harder to say than it looks!

The Personal Stuff 👩‍💻

What three words would your friends use to describe you?

Relaxed, Funny and Friendly

What’s your favourite cultural moment of this past year and why?

I would say lockdown being eased and the Euros! I had such a good time seeing friends again and celebrating my birthday with them watching the Euros. It’s such a good feeling being able to see friends and family again without restrictions. There’s so many people that I haven’t seen since lockdown so I can’t wait to catch up with everyone!

What’s your hobby or passion project outside of work?

Skateboarding – I absolutely love it and everything to do with it. I have been skateboarding for quite a few years now and have made so many friends through this hobby. It started back in South Africa and I properly got into it in Wakefield at Thornes Skatepark where I met many good friends from and they helped me improve. I think a great thing about skateboarding is the good community that it has with everyone helping each other to do the best they can and the connection you have with people from enjoying the same hobby.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

I love green tea, definitely one of my favourite drinks. I drink it almost every night and can’t seem to stop buying it. There’s too many good flavours!

What causes are you supportive of, and why?

Everything to do with sustainability. I feel it’s a great cause because it’s a small change everyone can make to reuse things and recycle things they don’t want and it helps the planet so much. I think it’s great how many companies are changing their packaging and their ethos towards sustainability to try and stop the harm that their products have on the planet.  

The Fun Stuff 🥂

Give us your best Northern Quarter bar recommendation.

I don’t know Manchester too well actually so I’m not too sure about the bars in Northern Quarter. Hopefully, someone can give me some good recommendations!

If you were a social media platform, which one would you be and why?

It would have to be Instagram as it’s my favourite platform and I can spend hours just scrolling through it. I think that it’s the closest platform that matches my personality and the things I enjoy. It has everything that I want on it and everything I like from funny videos to clothing brands to design inspiration.

Who would be your five dream dinner party guests, dead or alive?

Frank Ocean, Jason Dill, Steve-O, Tyler, The Creator and Rodney Mullen.

Quickfire Qs 🎯

What are you watching?

I’ve just recently finished Narcos, such a good show!

What are you reading?

I’ve not been reading too much lately. The last book I read was Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change by Victor Papanek. It’s such a great book and helped me loads through this year of uni!

What are you listening to?

So many artists but I’ve been loving: Cosmo Pyke, Vince Staples, MIKE, Tyler, The Creator and Turnover lately.

Who are you ignoring?

No one at all!

Who are you following?

There’s so many great people and accounts I follow. One of my favourites is Logo Archive which is an archive of loads of old logos and is great for inspiration. Another of my favourites is Carpet Company they’re such a sick skate brand that have a great account. Most of their stuff is hand screen printed by the owners so it’s always cool to see hand made stuff by brands.

And there we have it! We’re so happy to be welcoming you on board, Matt.

DMT is a digital marketing team based in the heart of Manchester. If you’re interested in seeing how we can help your business succeed online, get in touch, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.