Danielle Clarke’s journey as a graphic designer is an inspirational story. After graduating she almost reconsidered a career as a designer when she realised that all the design agencies that she applied to had white males as senior designers and creative directors. Although both confident and articulate, as a young black female designer she admits this was initially intimidating: “when you’re considering a career that you’re planning on doing for the rest of your life and can’t see anyone who you identify with, it makes you question – is this really right for me.” This is one of the main reasons why in more recent times she has given talks to university students in the hope that young black women will see what she’s achieved and realise that it is possible to have a fulfilling career in the design industry.
After taking a familiar route into design, Danielle completed various internships before carving a professional career working in both in-house and agency roles. Throughout her career she has sometimes experienced lack of support to progress and felt she was being treated differently from her male counterparts. She also witnessed a culture of bullying, particularly in marketing and design agencies. In-house roles have been primarily where Danielle has found a positive, more diverse work culture and a nurturing environment to grow and develop.
Currently contracting at Next and busy establishing herself as a freelance designer, Danielle is also involved with One Minute Briefs founded by Nick Entwistle. In addition, she has given event talks and has recently become part of a group of inclusivity, equality and diversity advocates set up to find ways to help the design industry become more inclusive and to encourage the next generation of designers, including agency placements for black or ethnic minority students.
Legendary designer Aaron Draplin is one of Danielle’s inspirations and after a chat with him at Birmingham Design Festival in 2018 they kept in touch. Following the recent tragic death of George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Aaron got in touch saying he wanted to use his platforms to elevate the voices of black designers. Danielle contributed a piece of artwork inspired by the 1971 Marvin Gaye song, ‘What’s Going On,’ which is a comment on how the issues of violence and police brutality in America that Marvin sang about are still with us today. In her words: “fifty years on, it’s still feels as poignant today as it was back then.”
We caught up with Danielle to find out more about her career path and her thoughts on promoting diversity and inclusion in the design industry.
Describe your career path of how you got to where you are now.
After graduating from university I sent around 100 emails and applications until someone gave me an opportunity. I started as an intern at a place in Nottingham called Chemistry Digital, thanks to a recommendation from a friend and started to learn about all things digital, working on accounts like Tesco and Experian. There wasn’t a permanent job role available, so I kept on hunting and then did another internship at BHS. After that I landed a contract role as a designer at Gtech in Worcester and worked on branding for the Gtech Airam vacuum.
I got my first permanent role as an artworker at an agency called ITG which gave me a taste of a fast-paced agency environment. It was amazing artworking for the likes of KFC, Skoda, M&S, National Trust, the list goes on! I got promoted to lead creative artworker for the Skoda account and could have progressed but knew in my heart that I wanted to be a designer not an artworker, which is a more technical role. So, I moved to a designer position at B&C and spent 4 years working with a lot of corporate clients. I learned a great deal and developed as a designer but it was a really small design studio and there just wasn’t the room for progression – so I took the leap and left.
My next role was working at a company called soak.com which is probably the best job I’ve had to date. I got to work for an amazing fun brand working alongside digital marketers, e-commerce, buying, merchandise and across every platform you can think of and worked on a wide variety of project briefs. It was an incredible journey but unfortunately that came to an end just before the company went bust. I went on to work for a luxury retailer for a short time before balancing a freelance career with my current design role at Next.
How has being a woman impacted your career? (positively and/or negatively).
It’s been hard working in environments dominated by men. When you look and think differently it’s hard to fit in and you have to work harder to prove yourself. Having walked into the design world and not seen any people that looked like me took its toll. However, I do now feel more comfortable in my capabilities, skill set and ability to ask as many questions as it takes, and most of all I follow my gut now no matter what.
Recently, there has been lots of discussion in the industry around the gender pay gap and how few women progress into senior positions. Have you experienced this yourself and do you have any thoughts on how we can counteract this imbalance?
I’ve seen my male counterparts flourish where I have struggled to navigate the creative industry and progress to more senior, higher paid roles. I’ve still yet to meet another black female designer let alone a senior or dare I say it creative director. Where are they?
I’ve been underpaid (I had a confidential chat about that with a colleague) and overlooked for promotions, but because of those situations I’ve moved on, which has led me to work with organisations that empower women and see how significant they are to the success of a company.
My current role with Next is a fantastic example of that. We recently did a workshop called #IamRemarkable which strives to empower women and underrepresented groups. It gave us the chance to speak openly about our accomplishments in the workplace and beyond, thereby breaking modesty norms and glass ceilings. I discovered that the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability. So, anyone not supporting, and championing women and other underrepresented groups is only going to lose out!
In your experience, do you think there is equality and diversity for both men and women across the design industry today?
Absolutely not. I’ve been working in the industry for 10 years now and every senior designer, creative director I have worked with has been a white male. Some of them have been very supportive, encouraged me to develop and helped me to progress in my career however, the lack of diversity and representation across the creative industries is very apparent (google the stats if you want the numbers).
Diversity is a matter of social justice. Therefore, the creative industry has a social responsibility to do a better job at diversifying its workforces. The industry does not currently represent enough of its consumers and the communities it serves. Equality and diversity are integral to all of our work and will only enrich everything we do. Things need to change but we all need to be prepared to put in the work and make the change happen.
Tell us about your project with Aaron Draplin…
I met Aaron at the Birmingham Design Festival. He’s a great guy and a big influence on my design style. After the recent tragic death of George Floyd he reached out to me and asked me how I was doing and said he wanted to elevate my voice as a black woman and asked me to create a piece of artwork that helps people to understand more about racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. I’d been listening to the Marvin Gaye album ‘What’s going on’, which is one of my favourite albums, and realised that everything that Marvin was singing about fifty years ago is still going on today. My piece, which is titled, ‘What’s going on, is still going on…’ got an amazing response so much so that a skate shop in America has used the artwork on their storefront!
If you could go back to the beginning and start your career again, what would you tell your younger self?
Don’t chase a salary or job titles. An interview is a two-way process so ask your prospective employer to tell you about themselves, find out how much they enjoy their role – it’s an eye opener!
If you are unhappy at work because of the culture, your pay, your responsibilities or anything that’s work related, talk to your manager and if they don’t try to make your work life better, then leave. If you are struggling with personal or family issues and your employer doesn’t care, then leave, it’s just not worth it. Never ever work for someone that doesn’t care about you, you deserve better and better is out there, you will always be able to get another job so back yourself.
Do you have any words of advice for women considering a career in design today?
Join. We need more of you. We need your compassion, your thoughts, your drive, your fearlessness, your strength, your ideas, your fight.
Which female designer/artist/thinker has most inspired you?
Beyonce all day long – she’s an artist and performer like no other. She has inspired me for many years. Everything from her voice, the messages she puts into her song writing, her live performances to the way she empowers women is just incredible.
Can you recommend 3 other female creatives currently working in the industry who you find inspiring!
- Parveer Braich @parveerb @eksait.studio
- Emily Redfern @emredfern
- Jane Anderson @currentstate
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