*This article is part of our year-long partnership with Zendesk.

What does this team do?
A team specialising in brand design will work hard to ensure that the company’s brand story is consistent and authentic in every aspect of the business. No two days are the same for a brand designer, but rest assured that anyone who takes on this role has a genuine passion for design and creativity. Depending on the project at hand, the team can be working on creative advertising and marketing campaigns, designing events, spaces or formulating engaging content. This team also includes presentation designers, who provide designs, templates, tools and overall storytelling for the company to best communicate relevant information, whether in person or via a PDF document.

What does this team do?
Product design is everywhere, from the table you might be sitting at, to the cup you sip from, or the apps you use on your phone. To be a product designer, you’ll be figuring out how things work, how they’re used and what they should look like. For Zendesk’s team of product designers, days are spent understanding the needs of their customers, building products that will help to make their work easier.

What does this team do?
The main responsibility of the UX Research team is to carry out just the right research, in order to come up with solutions that ensure a company’s product provides the best user experience. The team’s insights are often shared with product designers and strategists, in order for them to better understand and empathise with their users.

What does this team do?
The content design team works primarily with words to shape the conversations people have with products. This might mean crafting clear, compelling wording on a button, or a piece of text that helps you figure out what to do. A typical day for a content designer will vary, but you will often find them presenting a product story to designers, sketching a prototype or writing a chatbot script – all to make the customer experience feel enjoyable, easy and human.

What does this team do?
A design system is a shared language between software products. At Zendesk specifically, this system is called Garden. You can think of it as a library of reusable components – an open database for user interfaces (UI). For example, did you know that every designer uses the same basic building blocks for their UI? Garden comprises elements that live inside a design system – such as pre-built tooling and resources that empower teams to create consistent, easy-to-use and accessible products for users.

What does this team do?
Motion design specifically, uses design principles of graphics – composition, balance, harmony, colour theory – to then add motion; while audio design is the art of using sound to tell a story, through recording, performing and manipulating sound effects. At Zendesk, this team will work on enriching projects concerning brand video, voiceover, product features and functionality and event design.

What does this team do?
Zendesk hires a team of video and photography staff, which includes a mix of photographers, video editors, as well as specialists in art direction and creative direction. This team is suited to those interested in multimedia, storytelling or cinematic arts, as the company uses filmmaking and photographic techniques to help explain, represent and sell products.

What does this team do?
The brand experience design team works on all of the visual components of branded events and spaces, from global user conference and trade show booths, to designing office spaces. This often starts with an event’s concept phase, and then extends to creating pre-event invites, a website, digital marketing and potentially an app. When working on location, this team will design everything from directional signage to stage backdrops, operations, posters, banners, wood finishes and furniture selection for the structures. The idea is to give attendees a great physical experience of the brand, maintaining a consistent look and feel across every element.

What does this team do?
This team is responsible for delivering the creative vision for the company’s indoor physical spaces. They work to build aesthetically pleasant and functional environments that enhance the user experience. For Zendesk, which boasts offices worldwide, each of their spaces reflect the messaging and brand aesthetic of the company – achieved through curated layouts, as well as plants, lamps, artworks, wallpaper and wood finishes. The location also plays a vital part in how the office design turns out.

What does this team do?
Copywriting involves crafting words intended to make a sale, and most of the time, that means writing ads. Copywriters need to tap into people’s feelings, humour, style and panache in order to make a sale, as well as tell the story of a business in all but a few words. The ability to keep a message short, sweet and memorable is a key skill for any copywriter.

What does this team do?
The core role of the design and research operations team is to establish efficient processes and logistical solutions that help keep all creative projects on-track. This means that the creative staff can simply focus on the creative task at hand, whether that be designing, writing or researching. At Zendesk, this team exists to provide support and harmony – which is achieved through overseeing the hiring and onboarding process, managing team communications, handling events and budgets, and much more.

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*Zendesk is a Creative Lives in Progress brand partner. Every year, we partner with like-minded brands and agencies to support our initiative and keep Creative Lives a free resource for emerging creatives. To find out more about how you can work with us, email [email protected]