Karly Barker, graphic designer at Memorial University and photographer

Published by Leonardo Calcagno

Who are you :

Karly Barker

Your current job :

I’m a Graphic Designer at Memorial University, and a freelance designer and photographer outside of my day job.

In which city are you located?

I live in Holyrood, NL but work in St. John’s, NL (originally from Halifax, NS)

A word to define what kind of worker you are :

Dedicated.

What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..)

Creative Cloud, Asana, my macbook/iMac, camera, and Wacom tablet. My iPhone is very important, the screen is cracked but I can’t even let it go long enough to get it fixed. It’s jerryrigged together with screen protector over top.

What does your office space look like?

For the freelance, its a bit of car, an available surface, or a coffee shop, while the new office space is being updated.

What kind of music do you listen when you are working ?

For music, I have been really enjoying the new Bon Iver album, otherwise I really spend a lot of time listening to Spotify and seeing where the Discover Weekly takes me

Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work ?

At my day job, I go according to priority. For freelance, I like to organize the projects, and have them complete before deadline, so there is lots of room for last minute tweaks. For maximizing my work, I keep everything organized!

What tips would you give to improve productivity ?

Have a game plan, and stick to it. Use a task management system, set alerts, and keep all your files organized and together.

You’re better than your colleagues to :

Be high energy and cheery on a Monday morning haha.

What is the best advice anyone has given you ?

Take it day by day, don’t focus on everything at once, but one thing at a time.

What is your best tip for saving time ?

Organization.

What is your routine start and end of the day ?

My routine is a little off kilter while my spouse is deployed, so it’s more chaotic.

Get up and get my daughter up and ready for school, drop her off at the babysitter’s, and then get a coffee and hit the road (30-40 min drive)

I check my emails, check my to do’s and prioritize for my day ahead, and get working. I then head home at the end of the day, pick up my daughter, get her supper, help her with homework, and when she’s off to bed, I speak to my spouse on the phone, then work on my freelance work, which is nice, (and edit photos if I have time.) I then like to research online like Behance, look up design blogs etc.