Railyard Lab acts as a student run studio working within the design and branding agency, Dossier Creative. We worked with various real world clients in the social impact and loungewear design space, being mentored by the Dossier team.

Below is my general reflection of my time at Railyard.

REFLECTION

Learning unfamiliar territory

As someone having little experience in any of the projects we had worked on, I had a lot to learn when delving into said projects. This forced me to become familiar with the material in a timely manner, studying the research carefully, and being cognizant of my own initial assumptions. Having our clients involved the whole way through ensured the project stayed accurate to their vision.

Wearing many hats

Daily, my roles shifted from research, to UX strategy, visual design, development, and back. Dipping my toes in each role helped ensure the project remained cohesive across all touchpoints, and taught me the value of each role.

Importance of Brand DNA

Sitting in on varying brand development sessions and understanding why the brand was that archetype, or why those keywords were chosen helped me realize how crucial the band DNA is when working on any element of a project, from copywriting, to visual design, to the UX strategy.

Realistic time blocking

Being a student lead studio, planning out all of the phases of a project helped organize ourselves, highlighting the importance about being honest with ourselves on how long some aspects of the process might take.

Leaving space for discussion

When conversing with a client, I learned about how useful it is to leave a small pause after they have finished talking. This leaves room for the client to potentially expand, allowing myself to find more pieces of information that wouldn’t have been there if I went on to ask the next question too quickly, and helping them feel heard, and not talked over.