How my Role improves Designer <> Developer Handoff

1. Maryam kindly tell us about your academic background.‍

As a child, I was always interested in designing and various creative activities, this highly influenced my academic choices. So I decided to go for Bachelors in Computers Arts from Fatima Jinnah Women's University, Rawalpindi. My sister was already doing Bachelors in Computer Arts (BCA) and I was thinking about doing Computer Science (BCS) but when I saw that BCA had the things that I enjoyed doing, so I chose BCA instead.

2. Why did you choose graphic designing as your career? ‍

I have always enjoyed sketching, painting, photography, and videography. As a teenager, I used to do light painting, nature photography, and speed photography, and experimented with different designing software as well.  So graphic design was a natural choice for me as my career after graduating. 

3. Share your experience of joining Turing Technologies.

Before joining Turing Technologies, I had the work experience of working with multiple companies, like I did work on a few freelance projects at Information Transformation Services. There I used to create 3D models of different products for my clients using Autodesk Maya and 3Ds Max. Then in 2019, I learned about a graphic designer’s job opening in DHA. It was close to my home so I applied there and landed the job. That’s how I came to know about Sir Asad, Hafsa, and Turing Technologies. 

4. In these 2 years at Turing Tech, how do you see your journey as a designer and the growth opportunities that were provided?

I have seen my skills growing since the day I joined. I initially applied for the role of Graphic Designer. Then due to the honest guidance of Hafsa, I moved towards UI/UX design. I owe my growth to Hafsa since she initially trained me. Then later on I started doing product designing with Asad. That’s when Asad handed me over my first product designing project: WalletFlo. Where the entire product was designed by me. This product also provided me with a chance for extensive communication with the stakeholders. And for now, I am working on one of my products: Fetefully. The entire product design process is under my management. 

5. Share about the designing tools that you have learned here at  Turing Tech.

As a Design Team Lead, I make sure that our team uses the latest techniques and design tools. For product designing, Adobe XD and Figma is used. For videography, we use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Adobe InDesign is used for editorial and publications. 

6. Other than designing what other duties do you usually perform? 

Other than my designing tasks, I also perform Social Media handling, supervise weekly postings, and create editorials, marketing videos, and product reports like I recently designed for Unmudl. 

7. Asad loves to share books with his team, what books did you get. Kindly share about them?
   

Steal like an artist and Keep going by Austin Kleon were given to me by him. Both books changed my perspective as a designer.

• I would call Steal like an Artist a very relatable and inspirational read. It tells us to be more focused on smart working rather than hard working. Taking inspiration from multiple sources and then coming up with a design is still a new design.
• Keep Going was also a great read. It guides on how to take the first step towards your goal and then keep on moving forward throughout the process while experiencing highs and lows. 

8. What milestones have you planned with Turing Technologies in the near and far future? 

I have set the following milestones for my team and Turing Tech:

Team growth in the following domains:

• Marketing
• Design
• Webflow
• Improving UX skills
• Broadening the design sense of our team 
• Incorporating the skills of Webflow, video making, and editing within the rest of the team members.