Welcome to a special feature on our blog, where we’re pulling back the curtain to reveal the creative minds behind Useberry’s digital design magic. Meet the team responsible for the stunning visuals, compelling banners, and engaging designs that define our brand’s digital presence. In this article, you will learn more about George, Mihalis, and Mary – The people who turn our ideas into reality.
Of course, it is not just about the work they do! It is about getting to know them as the creative and passionate individuals they are. You will see what sparks their creativity, what they love about design, and even where they get their best ideas. This is your chance to see the friendly faces and great minds behind our designs and take a peek at the creative work environment we have at Useberry.
George Kordatos, Head of Design
George leads Useberry design with a knack for making things user-friendly. He’s been with Useberry for over 5 years, bringing his experience and a love for teaching to the design team. George hails from Athens, Greece. Growing up in a busy capital city without losing touch with that Greek intuition to take a step back and relax on a nice day was a winning formula to succeed in a start-up environment. When he’s not designing, you might find him lifting weights at the gym or going on a bike ride. Now, let’s get to know George a little better through the short interview that we have done with him:
George, can you share a bit about your professional journey and what led you to focus on design and joining Useberry?
I guess I can say I was always interested in this subject since I chose to study product and systems design engineering in Uni. Back in 2019 when I saw the job listing for Useberry, I was very excited to see a company based in Athens developing a user testing platform. I already had experience in the subject and studied for it so it was perfect! It was a very exciting few years, I started as the only designer when the business was a fresh startup and had to be involved in every aspect of design like digital, product, and UX.
I’m proud to have been there building this distinguished testing platform from the ground up. It was an invaluable experience for me and now as the head of design, I apply my vision to improve our user friendly platform. I can focus my efforts on the UX design, or product and oversee the rest of the design areas that are in the capable hands of my colleagues.
As the head of design, we know that your responsibilities go beyond digital design. How do you balance your role between UX design and supporting digital design?
It is challenging because we have to have consistency across product, digital, and UX design. Expanding our platform and communications in all directions while keeping the branding consistent is not always easy. On top of supervising all design efforts, I have to review our KPIs and make sure that nothing is underperforming or lagging. When it comes to digital design specifically, of course, I am responsible for ensuring that our assets are consistent with our brand identity but I feel more like an advisor at this point. Luckily, the digital design team consists of very capable and creative individuals so I just oversee their efforts and help with my input when needed. Mike is doing a great job leading the digital design and Mary is our latest berry who is already making some great contributions, especially with her animations.
As someone who has transitioned to a more hands-off role in digital design, how do you guide and inspire your team to carry forward the creative vision you have for Useberry?
Although Useberry is growing strong, we still have that start-up mentality at heart. I like to keep things dynamic, fast, and fun when it comes to our assets. As long as our brand identity is maintained, there are no limits to what we can create. We don’t want to put too many limits on creativity. We have our brand guidelines of course and expanding our assets while staying within those limits is what keeps us on track.
What’s a hobby or activity you enjoy that helps you recharge your creative batteries?
Design work is very demanding and takes a lot of mental effort to get the work done. In contrast, I like to relax with more physically demanding activities like doing CrossFit or going on a long bike ride. Sometimes you just feel exhausted so lounging with friends and family or sitting around playing a board game is a nice change of pace but usually, you will see me being more active.
Do you have a “guilty pleasure” design trend that is no longer “trendy” or has become outdated that you can’t give up?
Great question! Had to think about it a bit but I am going to have to answer no. It is not bad to have a few “favorite” design elements, or styles that you can’t give up let’s say, but I have a very dynamic approach, like to challenge myself with trying new things and even be ahead of the trends if possible.
Mihalis “Mike” Arkopoulos, Digital Design Lead
Mike is an Athenian and an experienced member of the Useberry team, with a career as old as this century! Since 2000, he has been working both as a freelancer and as a part of various agencies. During this time, he has developed a straightforward but challenging philosophy of “balance.” According to Mike, even projects with great ideas need to have a good balance of function and aesthetics. Over the last two decades, Mike has worked with many people and seen firsthand how projects thrive with input from multiple talented individuals. This experience made him value teamwork and seek out other talented individuals when it comes to accepting new projects or positions.
Mike enjoys spending his free time with his family to relax and unwind, but he also likes to browse through fashion & communication design magazines while listening to electronic music or visit one of the many art exhibitions you can find in Athens.
Mihalis, what drew you to digital design, and how did your path lead you to be the digital design lead at Useberry?
For me, digital design is using technical skills to create aesthetically pleasing content, while always keeping the experience of the “user” in mind. This user-centric thinking was what first attracted me to UX and how I found my way to Useberry. I have a creative need to collaborate with other talented individuals and this is what attracted me to Useberry. I found a place where I could work with passionate UX designers, UX researchers, and marketers toward the common goal of creating great designs with inherent value.
Can you walk us through your creative process for developing new material for Useberry?
You will hear this word from me a lot, but my best practice when it comes to the creative process is “collaboration”. So, when we receive a new design task, what we do is work to understand the need or the problem that needs to be solved with this design. We work on a problem together as a design team and come up with a draft that represents the Useberry look and feel. To have a consistent solution, we need to make sure all our designs fall within the same common visual language so a visitor or user who is familiar with one of our visuals can easily understand the message when he looks at another. Afterward, we present our draft design in our common slack channel and finalize the design based on the feedback.
Which project at Useberry challenged you the most creatively, and how did you overcome it?
The “Yearly Review” at Useberry is one of the most challenging but, at the same time, one of the most fun projects that I have ever worked on. What we try to do with this project is present a summary of everything important we have done this year as a brand in a visual way, but each year, we challenge ourselves to come up with different design approaches to present this information and keep things fresh. So we need to find a way to tell a clear story of everything we have done this year, from important milestones to must-have KPIs and even fun stats, in an effective way.
On top of this, the design needs of this project run across different channels, such as social media, newsletters, and even blog post articles, so we need to find a consistent visual approach that will fit all these different media. Again, “collaboration” is the key here. Working with our UX researcher, marketers, design, and development teams to get their feedback and see what they would like to highlight initially helps us find a path to a design that would be both visually appealing and functional and meet the communication needs. Finally, we will receive feedback from each team to “polish” our designs and have a final product that meets the expectations of everyone involved. We have team members who explain their needs and trust us to find a visual solution for them, and we rely on their clear descriptions and feedback to stay on track.
We all have that one project that we are proudest of even if it wasn’t as significant as some of our other accomplishments. What is the one piece of content that you have created in Useberry that you love the most and why?
Although it wasn’t an extensive project, I was really excited about designing the creatives for our new “Expert Talks” interview series. I loved all the aspects that I had to juggle and balance. It involved analytical thinking, passion, and creativity from the whole team and I had to find a way to present the series, the topic, and the speaker and make sure there was enough emphasis on all these elements visually while still keeping the creative attractive and exciting. Creating a design that would have the same look and feel across blog banners, social media post images, and stories, as well as different applications like cover banners, quote frames, and mid-article images was a fun task!
As someone who has worked in a creative field for so long, I am sure you have experienced the dreaded “mental block”. What is your favorite way to relax and get creatively “unstuck”?
In general, I find exercise to be really helpful to clear my mind and get in the zone to think. When I’m feeling energetic, you can likely find me swimming laps in a pool as I think about creative solutions to the problem I’m currently stuck on. On the other hand, sometimes I realize that inspiration doesn’t always come from the inside, and I sit down at my desk to go through some of my favorite creative blogs or books related to digital and communication design. Scrolling through art and design pages on social media could spark inspiration as well. Observing these appealing designs and the creative solutions for visualizing their messages sometimes provides the spark of inspiration I need.
Mary Matsaka, Digital Designer
Mary is the newest member of the Useberry Design team. Although she joined the team only 4 months ago, she brought a decade of design experience with her! Also hailing from Athens, Mary loves to observe diverse styles and perspectives, drawing early inspiration from the city’s unique neighborhoods for her designs. You might think that between being a full-time designer and a professional dancer, she doesn’t have a lot of free time, but there is always time for fun. She does like to binge Netflix now and then, but you might find her scuba diving or preparing for a trip to a new city where she gets to wander new streets as well!
Mary, being the newest member of the Useberry design team, what has been your experience so far, and what excites you most about your role?
What attracted me to Useberry at first was seeing that their visual identity was very much in tune with my personal design style, so I was already excited to apply my skills there. It was also very nice that the team was very welcoming, supportive, and willing to spend their time sharing knowledge and expertise. I very much enjoy collaborative work, and the team culture here was a great match! I love working alongside talented people and connecting to different fields like UX and marketing, so I am looking forward to that.
How do you see your role evolving within the digital design team, and what are your aspirations at Useberry?
I aim to continuously improve my skills and expand my knowledge so that I always have fresh and innovative ideas to bring to the table. Working in this dynamic environment, there is always a new design task to solve, and I would like to get better with each task to improve Useberry’s visual identity as well as my own designs. Collaborating with individuals from such diverse backgrounds is a great opportunity for me, and I am looking forward to all the insights. I will be able to apply this new knowledge to my design approach and make a bigger impact.
How do you contribute to creating compelling digital creative materials, and what’s your favorite part of the process?
So, of course, we have a set process that starts with a task brief. So let’s say we got a task from the marketing team; after receiving the brief, we analyze the challenge, clarify if there is anything not clear to make sure we understood the need, and then proceed to think about ideas that would fit this task well before crafting a design. During the design process, it is a bit of a balancing act to come up with something creative and fresh while staying within the brand guidelines and also making sure the resulting creative covers the needs of the specific task.
Finally, we share this draft with the team, get their feedback to finalize the design, and share the refined results. My favorite part of this process is definitely the creative ideation phase. I enjoy the opportunity to explore new ideas and experiment with different designs and concepts to see where they lead. In the end, a creative might come to life, which is something we hadn’t even considered when we first picked up the task.
What’s one aspect of your design style that sets you apart and how do you balance that with staying within the lines of the Useberry “brand guidelines”?
I enjoy incorporating fun “details” into my work, such as hand-drawn illustrations or small animated touches that set a friendly tone. I try to find opportunities where adding these elements would improve the final design while staying within Useberry’s identity and tone. Usually, I am mindful of maintaining consistency with the design principles and brand guidelines, but sometimes I do like to push the boundaries. The good thing about collaborating closely on every task is that I get to ask for their feedback and make adjustments accordingly to make sure all designs are aligned.
Conclusion
As we come to the end of our peek into the lives of the people making our designs at Useberry, it’s clear that George, Mike, and Mary bring their special touch to everything they do. They remind us that behind every design is a person, a story, and a team working together to make something great. With people like them, Useberry is all set for an exciting future!
As Useberry continues to grow, it’s the dedication, and creativity of our people that drive us forward. Here’s to the endless possibilities that lie ahead and to the incredible team that makes it all happen. Thank you for joining us on this behind-the-scenes look at the human side of Useberry’s digital excellence.
Would You Like to Join Useberry?
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