Interactive Designer/Digital Publisher, Ross Mackay, works for online fashion retailer boohoo.com
Here he talks about his career and what he loves about his job:
What’s a typical day for you?
I start my day by checking my emails and design blogs for a bit of daily inspiration. I think it’s important to visually wake up the brain in the morning and see what new stuff is out there.
After that I look through my plan of what articles need to be designed up for the next issue release. I try to put pen to paper before pixel to picture as much as possible as this helps get my ideas out at a much faster pace and helps sculpt the overall vision of that days design.
Once the overall concept is complete then I will jump on the computer and start to make that image come to life.
What do you love most about your job?
Every day is different. With the digital magazine I usually have to design up 30 or more verticals for the digital mag for each issue, each taking on their own design and thought process.
I enjoy being able to take a concept from the pagination and work closely with the photographers and videographers to make these ideas become real. Seeing the end result which has derived from brainstorming, research and sketches is very rewarding.
What has been the best moment of your career so far?
Redesigning boohoo’s printed Stylefix for the iOS platform and seeing it released in the App Store was a great moment for me. Knowing that the mag I designed is being downloaded and used by hundreds of thousands of people in the UK will be hard to beat. Up next, the rest of the Northern Hemisphere…
Have you got any advice for people wanting to get into either fashion or design?
Get together a good portfolio of your strongest work and tailor it to particular companies you want to work for. Make sure you have an online presence like a website or a blog or better still – both. Continuously update it with your latest work and keep up to date with what other designers/studios are doing around you.
Follow them on twitter and other social media as this seems to be the area where most jobs are starting to be advertised. Continue to grow and learn as a designer. The more rounded you are the better. Always stay creative and design everything you do.
What distinct features does the app hold?
When reading a printed magazine what you see is what you get. With the boohoo digital Stylefix we’ve made the whole reading experience more interactive and engaging by using all the technical advances available to us.
The digital magazine is filled with exclusive video content that loads directly from the app. Users can also view product in full 360 degree rotations, leaving no thread unseen. Links to all our social media channels are placed throughout the magazine to give users a direct path to join in the conversation at the touch of a button. This also rings true for our guest bloggers where their personal websites providing more invaluable fashion tips and tricks are available to access without actually leaving the app. As well as exclusive cover star interviews. It is all these functions that make the boohoo Stylefix stand out from a lot of our competitors.
