Birthday messages from the team

James

I have so much to say about the last 5 years but that would make a lonnnnng birthday message so I’ll save that for another post ????

For now, all I want to say is 5 years ago, I was determined to start my own design business and do things differently. Better. I truly think we’ve achieved that! I’m grateful to the team and the clients that have gotten us to this point.

I’ve never been as excited about Layers as I am right now and 5 years in, that’s a great place to be.

Chris

I’ve been with Layers almost since the beginning – worked on some cool projects, worked with some great businesses and had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented people. We’ve also made mistakes along the way but we’ve learnt from them and grown to be the team we are today as a result of them so I’m excited to see what we can do over the next 5 years.

Niall

Happy 5th Birthday to Layers! Can’t quite believe I’ve been part of this team for almost 2 ½ years, I’ve loved every second! When I think back to what I was doing 5 years ago, I was halfway through my Uni Degree, a lot of long nights procrastinating on assignments and playing video games, not too much has changed ???? All joking aside, I can’t wait to help Layers grow and I’m excited for what’s to come in the future!

Paula

Happy frickin’ birthday to us ???? There are certain birthdays that feel bigger than others and 5 is definitely one of them. It’s a huge achievement and although I haven’t been with Layers since day 1, I’ve known you from the start and have considered you friends for a long time. I couldn’t be more proud to be part of such an incredibly talented team and to get to work with the amazing people and businesses that are our clients.

Jonny

Layers is 5 years old and 5 years ago I hadn’t even finished my A levels! Layers is my first and only experience of working in the design world and being here full time for the past 4 and a half months has been great. Definitely missing the days in the office while I was on placement, especially the daily lunchtime crosswords (I can count my contributions on one hand ????️). In my short time here I have worked on a lot of projects and it’s always been a goal of mine to see my work and contributions used in a physical setting and it’s great to be able to see that happening.

Daniel

I’ve joined the team just as they’ve hit their 5-year milestone and wow what a start it’s been! The team here really know their stuff and they’ve welcomed me like I’ve been working with them for years! Their bespoke yet laser-focused approach to every project and the value they place on everyone’s views in order to achieve the best results for our clients has me really excited for the years to come, I can’t wait to see the amazing things we can achieve together!

Aesthetics or Function – what is more important?

You’ve heard the question ‘Is looks or personality more important?’. The truth is, most of us like to think we’re not as shallow as we actually are and that personality trumps looks every time, but that’s often not the case. 

For us to give someone a chance in the first place, there has to be an initial attraction, hence the inclusion of a picture on dating sites. Personality is essentially a secondary filter. Personality is what makes us want to see them again. Personality keeps us engaged…or, what makes us disengage! At this point, it doesn’t matter how much of a fittie they are, if you don’t ‘click’ then it’s probably not going to go any further which is why a lot of first dates never make it to a second.

Yeah, but why is this relevant to my business I hear you ask? Well, because there are a lot of similarities between your website and dating. 

It’s irrelevant how well your website functions and how seamless the experience is for your users if it doesn’t look great because if it doesn’t look great, your target audience won’t want to engage in the first instance.

Likewise, it’s pointless having a great looking website that doesn’t work when potential customers land on it. Clicking on buttons that don’t take you anywhere, filling in a contact form and realising when you get to the end that it won’t send, waiting for what seems like an eternity for a page to load and the list of poor experiences goes on.

When designing something, making it look good should be a given. It should be expected. It should never be a question. Something that is beautifully designed will invite initial engagement and great functionality, UX, UI, personality or whatever you want to call it will keep users engaged!

But, if the functionality is poor, it doesn’t matter how good something looks, engagement will drop off a cliff edge and no amount of aesthetics will be able to claw it back!

There has been a lot of noise recently around the NHS Track & Trace system and none of the outrage seems to stem from the aesthetics of the app but rather its functionality and the government’s slightly adapted Ronseal slogan ‘doesn’t do what it says on the tin’.

So, is aesthetics or functionality more important? To be perfectly honest they’re both as important as the other. A website that is aesthetically pleasing will invite engagement and good functionality will keep your users engaged. You don’t need to sacrifice one for the other. That’s why our ethos is to design and build purpose-driven solutions, not just pretty pictures!

Collaboration is the joining of forces (individual or organisational) for the purpose of achieving a shared objective.  It can and should happen within teams, departments, cross-departmentally, within organisations and between organisations.

Collaboration is so ingrained in the way we work nowadays that we rarely notice that we’re collaborating. Tools like Slack and Trello make it easier than ever to work together on projects. They allow teams to seamlessly share knowledge, even when working remotely and when we’re not on top of our game (which we can’t be 100% of the time) we could all use a helping hand.

The Premier League’s top goal scorers thrive when they have a good assist, Dolce would have been nothing without Gabbana, and Ben without Jerry is a thought I never want to have again ????

There are so many benefits to collaborating of which I’ve expanded on just a handful below.

Benefits of collaborating

Strengthens relationships

Collaboration removes the ‘them’ vs ‘us’ mentality that siloed or regional teams often have and it helps create one unified workforce that becomes a driver for your business to achieving a common goal.

Enhances your team

Trusted partners act as an extension to your team and vice versa, you will act as an extension to theirs. For smaller organisations especially, this can prove extremely useful when stacking up against larger organisations on pitches and increases the value you provide to your clients.

Improves learning

By encouraging collaboration you create a workplace centred around learning and development which in turn allows your team to learn from each other’s mistakes as well as their own.

Increases efficiency

I strongly believe in working smarter not harder so if someone has done it before and can teach you in a few minutes what would take hours to learn yourself then that sharing of knowledge isn’t just encouraged but essential to the growth of your organisation.

Expands opportunities

Think about music collaborations. Working with another artist opens doors for both parties. It widens your fan base by tapping into the other artist’s fans. From a business perspective, working with businesses that provide complementary services to yours means you both have a trusted source of pre-qualified leads.

Finally, we want to say a massive THANK YOU to the amazing businesses and freelancers we have the pleasure of collaborating with on a regular basis:

Nebula Labs – Native app development

50:50 Future – Diversity & Inclusion experts

CUBED – Business strategists

Lucy Kyriakidou – Illustrator

Jade Gillham – Digital Marketing Freelancer

Nicole Dixon – Pattern and Textiles illustrator