Young Gun profiles takes a look at the young talent across the Australian advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector. Aiming to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
Rachel Percival: designer at The Accompany Group
Time in current role/time at the company:
I've been a junior designer at Accompany for a year and half.
How long have you been in the industry?
In my final year of university, I was elected to the Vertigo editorial team that produced six issues of the student magazine. In 2021, I worked at DesignStudio as a design intern for three months before landing my current role at Accompany.
How did you get here? Was this always the plan?
My interest in graphic design started in high school. I was given the opportunity to regularly flex my creative muscle by conceptualising and creating posters for events and fundraisers. My style of work has changed since then, but that feeling of enjoyment I get from the creative process is exactly the same.
During university, I wasn't sure where in the industry I wanted to end up. I was mostly interested in publication design but eventually I dipped my toe in the world of motion and branding and realised I didn't want to pigeonhole myself into one specialty. If I worked in branding, I could create identities and work out how they move and how they could be brought to life in print too.
Who is your right-hand person/who guides you day to day?
Linda Jukic, creative director at Accompany. She guides the team to create work which values craft. She is patient with us, nurturing our potential as designers with constructive feedback that always ends up elevating the final piece of work.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
The best part about working in brand is that you're never working on just one thing. You’re constantly exercising different parts of your skillset and creating design systems that you can then test throughout motion, digital and print.
And the biggest challenge?
I have a tendency to want to move at the speed of light when it comes to design, but learning to take the time to go back and refine my work has actually proven to be more enjoyable and beneficial for the end product.
Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?
I think sometimes jobs are more about being in the right place, at the right time... Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to moving up the design ladder, but I'm keen to see what doors open along the way.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Depends on the day and the job — I find it’s always nice to flick through a beautifully curated design book or to just physically get out of my usual environment. I love to travel and see what’s going on outside of Australia, from signage to branding to art.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
There's probably too much my colleagues know about me… and the things they don’t probably aren’t meant to be shared.
In five years' time I'll be:
Still designing, but with more experience and hopefully having contributed to some bigger and meaningful projects. In five years, I’d like to know the craft of design, motion for brand and digital design, inside out.
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