Say hello to our Creative Designer
In the latest of our series of Meet the Team profiles, we catch up with Gary White to find out a bit more about his role as Creative Designer and the work he does for clients.
How long have you been with QBD, and what are your main roles?
I joined QBD in January 2022 as a Creative Designer. My day-to-day tasks involve developing new websites, designing social media and marketing graphics. There are many other marketing services I help with such as brochures and print and of course for both QBD customers and QBD internally. I also update website content, amendments and offer technical support.
What did you do prior to joining?
Before joining QBD I ran my own web design company for over 13 years. I had a wide range of customers across numerous industries, offering services such as web design, print and photography.
One of the key factors with the decision to join and transition into QBD was that I can still work with these clients and together, we can now offer a much stronger range of services and the all-important backing of an experienced team of specialists.
What’s your skillset?
For me it’s all in the detail. The smallest design input can sometimes have the biggest impact.
My ability to precisely understand the clients’ requirements and turn an initial idea into an exciting design is my strongest point.
This has developed over 20 years of simply listening to customers, designing efficiently and wanting to succeed the design brief first time around.
What do you enjoy most about working at QBD?
Being part of a team is most important and it’s a brilliant place to be.
While we are all remote and working from home is second nature, having the day-to-day interactions with the QBD staff makes you feel less isolated and instead feel part of something special.
Everyone has been very welcoming, friendly and it’s a great feeling to be able to collaborate, receive feedback and use everyone’s strengths for each project.
Where do you live? Do you have family or pets?
I live in Darlington, in the North East, with my wife Kirsty and our Cavapoo, Bella.
Most of the team have now seen her or most certainly heard her in our video team meetings. Family means everything to me, so I love to spend as much time as possible with them.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Long walks with Bella, motorbike trips, photography and mountain biking. I love collecting random books and finding bargains in charity shops.
My favourite place to visit is New York and I’m truly fascinated by its history. My wife and I got married there back in 2016, so it’s always a special place to us.
Tea or coffee?
Shocker… but neither. Hot chocolate is the only warm drink for me.
Sweet or savoury?
Sweet – 100%.
Favourite film?
It’s got to be Layer Cake or Snatch. I’ll go with Layer Cake as it’s aged much better. It’s also not a well-known film, despite it having a huge cast and sees a younger Daniel Craig in his pre-Bond role.
Favourite food?
Fish and chips, mushy peas and scraps. (Scraps may be a Northern thing… it’s the left-over bits of batter).
Favourite music?
80s probably overall as an era, but if my Spotify playlist is anything to go by, then completely random.
I could be listening to dance music like Deadmau5 or Kaskade, followed by Pink Floyd and then to Limp Bizkit.
Ideal dinner party guests and why?
Denzel Washington, my favourite actor, Karl Pilkington, my favourite comedian, and Jay-Z, my favourite musician.
If you could have any super-power, what would it be?
Flying would be quite handy.
Quirky fact about yourself
For our wedding we hired the exact same Checker Cab that was used in the film Home Alone 2 and visited various film locations, including crossing over the famous Queensboro bridge.