Overview of role
The assistant graphic designer works to the graphic designer and graphics art director. The assistant graphic designer works with the graphic assistant/runner to maintain the workflow within the graphics department and between other departments as instructed by the lead graphic designer/graphics art director.
Download a PDF version of this skills checklist.
Core responsibilities
These core responsibilities are provided as a guide and are not exhaustive. The exact responsibilities in a particular job will vary depending on the scale/budget band/genre of the production.
- Check with the lead graphic designer (GD) or graphics art director (GAD) the research to be carried out and timelines for this
- Agree and confirm research requirements and how to present your visual findings
- Use a variety of resources to find the information required including major image libraries for example, find correct references for particular period, style and genre
- Organise and present research material and findings for current or future use in design practice
- Check that clearances for images are sought when required
- Ensure that your kit is compatible with the work required
- Confirm with your lead GD their vision, aims and objectives and target audience for the production
- Build rapport by creating a relationship with the designer on trust and shared values
- Identify potential challenges to completing the work and provide creative solutions to solve these
- Select and use design tools to support and achieve design aims
- Liaise with your supervisors to understand and establish key themes and guide your direction in designing
- Collate mood boards and references, and present graphic prototypes for “show and tell”
- Produce simple artwork and graphics under supervision as required
- Read the script breakdown to understand the design brief and its parameters
- Proactively identify tasks that you can manage independently to support your team's workflow, providing assistance to other team members in a helpful and willing manner when appropriate using your own initiative
- Keep communal graphics areas tidy and ready for use, for example, clearing away cut-away paper, washing brushes, tidying paper, etc
- Carry out weekly or end of week communal workspace reset
- Check supply levels of graphic consumables and order as required
- Ensure the GD and team members have the necessary equipment, refreshments, they require
- Source and order samples from various suppliers as per requests of your superiors
- Wrap and package graphics to go to set
- Undertake graphics drop-offs and pickups to and from set as required
- Liaise with standbys to retrieve graphics needed elsewhere or ensure they have graphics from previous scenes to be re-used later on
- Oversee runners, work experience or dailies
- Support the graphic designer with implementing the design brief and provide solutions to problems as required
- Keep records of information that is shared with you for example deadlines, suppliers details
- Read scripts and identify sets with dressing graphics to label finished graphics
- Create generic paperwork for general dressing as instructed, ensuring correct paper size is used, for example imperial or metric, European or American
- Find graphics in any given scene in order to write out labels on ‘TO SET’ stickers
- Assist with creating a presentation pack for the dressing props team, outlining where and how graphics should be affixed using graphics house style
- Monitor and maintain the ‘TO SET’ box system, ensuring all graphic items are adequately labelled and packaged as per the supervisor's preferences
- Act as standby to graphics chargehand, supporting the dressing teams on graphic heavy sets as instructed
- Ensure the most up-to-date scripts, schedules, and unit lists are on a shared drive accessible to all team members
- Identify which systems are in place, and where and how you will store the assets information for which you are responsible to ensure their safety and security
- Follow file naming conventions set out by your head of department (HOD)
- Preserve the original file formats whenever practical in order to retain the editability and quality of the content
- Maintain workflow hygiene with clearances - keep up-to-date with the clearance log, ensuring you have entered all the clearance requests
- Organise and maintain records to show what assets and information have been stored and where
- Treat confidential information and data in line with organisational and data protection requirements for example use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
- Test the usability and different materials of a graphic prop, for example, screen graphics or any hero graphic that has actor participation/interaction in the shooting sequence
- Explore the ease of use for graphic props, for example by recording the video sequence with graphics in use
- Carry out sampling materials as instructed by your supervisor, for example, source different carpet pile materials
- Carry out screen graphics test as instructed by your supervisor, for example, testing out desktop wallpapers to determine if the image ratio is correct
Skills
Check out role specific skills, transferable skills and attributes for the role of assistant graphic designer.
- Research the given design genre and collate information and visual references to present to the team
- Support the lead GD and oversee runners and dailies with basic tasks allocated
- Liaise with the set decoration and production runners to organise graphic delivery and pickups to and from set
- Communication: interpreting other’s requirements and communicating requirements to colleagues
- Team-working: collaboration within own and with other departments
- Departmental awareness: the roles and responsibilities within the graphics and art department teams and the etiquette to follow
- Resilience and enthusiasm: adapt positively to changing work priorities and patterns, ensuring deadlines continue to be met
- Proactive: explores new ideas and non-standard ways of working which will enhance and deliver the best results for the production
- Productivity: organises work effectively and achieves required results within deadlines
- Demonstrates the drive and energy to get things done in pressurised situations and escalates appropriately when necessary
- Flexibility: willing to both listen and learn and to accept changing priorities and working requirements and has the flexibility to maintain high standards in a changing production environment
- Professional development: develop an ethos to learn and seek out learning and networking opportunities, identifying those that will be most beneficial