Kickstarters 2022: Acacia's Journey at Cab Engine
Throughout 2022, Cab Engine has supported the UK government's Kickstart Scheme, which seeks to provide young people with new skills to pursue a career. This year, Cab Engine has welcomed two Kickstarters, Acacia and Casey. Both displayed a keen interest in taking their first steps in the digital world and excelled during their time at Cab Engine.
In a six-month period, Cab Engine has worked to provide a holistic experience for the Kickstarters, ensuring that their education encompasses several areas of marketing but also how culture plays such an integral role in any office environment.
Their time with Cab Engine will soon be coming to an end. The work completed in such a short time has left a lasting impression; not just internally but for clients, too. Here, Acacia describes her experience whilst with Cab Engine.
We wish both our talented Kickstarters all the best in their future endeavours.
From the moment I started at Cab Engine as a Graphic Design Intern, I was made to feel welcome and part of the team. I was introduced to the world of design straight away by learning all about Figma and Adobe software, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
Introducing Bartram's Botanical
I was given exciting briefs such as creating a brand concept for a company called Bartram’s Botanical, where I started to create a mood board and gather the content that I thought would work well with the brand's values.
They were established in 1996 and are based in Richmond, London. They have one high street store that is close to Kew Gardens. Their store has a very high-end feel with touches of vintage botanical artwork. Bartram’s Botanical is very proud of its heritage and I wanted to keep that shining through within its logo. I designed its logo by creating a couple of graphics, a tulip representing their love for flowers, and a graphic of Kew Gardens.
For their packaging, I took the newly created logo and made it so big that what we were left with were some really interesting lines and shapes. I was very impressed with doing mockups, seeing something you created on the packaging was extremely exciting.
After that, I started learning how to create wireframes in Figma for Bartram’s website. In the brief Bartram’s had one high street store that had touches of vintage botanical artwork, so I decided to design their icons in that style. Bartram’s wanted to branch out and offer a subscription-based service, so I decided to design a checkout system where users could choose between flowers or a plant with the bonus of adding any extra items to their subscription.
Another love of mine is designing characters, especially in a 1930’s rubber hose animation style so for the checkout system I created a cute plant character that would be displayed on the screen after you purchase your order saying “Your order is on its way!”.
Expanding my skill set
After the Bartram’s Botanical project, I collaborated with Casey, the cab engine UX Intern, on a joint project called Noter. Noter is a note-taking app that has many different features; from Auto-Transcribing, Audio-Tagging and even a note-taking personality quiz to find out your note-taking style!
I was responsible for creating the Noter brand and designing the website. I wanted it to still have that handwritten feel like you would have when using a pen and paper. Still in keeping with that playful hand-drawn feeling, I designed icons in that style for the website. Once the website was designed, Casey took my prototype through to User Testing, which resulted in a user-tested and updated design which we presented back to the wider team. I was terrified for the presentation, I’d never had to do anything like that before but once I got talking I felt relaxed.
Stepping out of my comfort zone
Recently, we went to Ross-on-Wye for an overnight stay to go canoeing for our team building and social event. I was feeling very nervous at the time but I had my team reassuring me and helping me to push through the fear.
When first getting in the canoe, I felt so wobbly but as time went on, I got more confident and actually found it really fun. It was such a laugh. We stopped for lunch along the way, had some pizza and drinks, and then went back in the canoe for the last hour. Very tiring but I enjoyed every moment of it.
After the canoeing, we all headed back to the campsite, where we played some games, listened to music and had some lovely food. It was also my birthday the following day so the moment the clock struck twelve o’clock everyone sang me happy birthday! I had such a wonderful time with everyone.
I’ve learnt many different tools and techniques but I’ve learnt a lot more than just that. My journey here at Cab has enabled me to gain more confidence and push me out of my comfort zone to try new things. I’ve done things here that I never thought I would ever have been able to achieve but with the team's support and encouragement, I achieved just that. I can’t thank Cab enough for the time they have devoted to helping me with the beginning of my career. Being taught by such a talented team who have a passion for what they do inspire me to never give up on what I love. This has been an experience I will never forget. 🚕